How many spells have you banned from your game?

[Quasqueton]

How many spells have you banned (or drastically changed*) from the core (PHB) list?

* "Drastically changed" = not readily recognizable by anyone not in your game, to the point it is effectively a different spell.

Quasqueton

 

[Darkness]

None so far in 3.5. Maybe I will at some point, but certainly not very many.

Ah! Shapechange will almost certainly be hit with the nerf-bat, so I'll say I have 1.

 

[Crothian]

None. I have yet to ever ban a spell. I thinking banning a spell is admitting defeat.

 

[takyris]

Just the Shadow Conjuration / Evocation chain of spells from 3.0. Either my player was picking the perfect WRONG spells, or these guys weren't brought over well. It resulted in constant polite disagreement regarding when the Will save / Existence chance was brought into play, and there were questions about other PCs voluntarily failing their saves in order to receive the benefits of a good evocation spell that made my head ache. "Look, just don't look too hard at this Wall I'm creating to make a bridge for us across the chasm, alright? Really. Just trust me. I'm making a wall. This is totally a real wall."

Fortunately, I had shadow magic as evil in my campaign, and my player was willing to drop the spells and get other stuff instead as the "touch of shadow magic" tried to corrupt him.

That said, I was a younger DM then, and I might allow those spells now and just shrug and let it go when I thought the player was getting silly with them.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Not a one. Even Shapechange doesn't bother me as much as it does some people. I find that most of the reasons people come up for spells being 'broken' are very very specific and something that players don't usually come up with on their own without a lot of time to think.

 

[derelictjay]

None, zero, zip, zilch. Don't see a purpose for banning any spell from the PH, if I can't do something about the spell in game, then I'm not a good DM (at least thats how I see it), and deserve to have the sheet pulled over my head. Now spells from other sources might get a no for picking, but thats because I haven't had a chance to scrutinize them.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Nope, no banned spells. I suppose if I ever have a spell-abuse problem I might consider it, but it hasn't happened. And I'm not going to ban spells based on potential possible abuse. That's too much bother.

 

[Sammael]

I voted "zero" before remembering that I have, in fact, merged detect chaos/evil/good/law into "detect aura." But that's not really banning, and the effect is still pretty much the same.

Other spells I've changed somewhat (but not too much) include disintegrate (back to 3.0), feeblemind (arcane casters don't have a save penalty against it), freedom of movement (+10 on opposed grapple checks rather than auto-success), flesh to stone (affects cadaverous undead), gate (under no circumstances can it bring a creature with more HD than caster level), mirror image (all images remain in same space as caster), Mordenkainen's disjunction (items are only permanently disjoined if they fail the save on a roll of 1), planar binding (Diplomacy check instead of Cha), protection from chaos/evil/good/law (grants a stackable AC bonus, doesn't auto-protect from enchantments), raise dead/resurrection/true resurrection (added XP component), sculpt sound (Fort negates), slow (Fort negates), teleport (slower casting time, requires Spellcraft check instead of % chance), true seeing (range 60 feet).

I also shuffled a few spells' levels around. Spider climb has no business being 2nd level.

 

[Darkness]

I thinking banning a spell is admitting defeat.

Now, I don't ban spells either - I modify them so they work for me -, but...

Admitting defeat? You can't be serious.

Now, it can be the reason. (Some DMs don't like having to deal with Divination spells, for example.)

But some spells just don't fit in some worlds. Take Dark Sun. As I recall, Dark Sun banned a lot of spells in 2e.
Ravenloft banned a lot of detection spells.

Also, banning resurrection magic, which seems a somewhat popular ruling, isn't admitting defeat; it's a question of taste. (It's not to my taste, but whatever floats someone's boat, right?)

Sometimes a spell is just so broken that trying to salvage it isn't worth the effort for some people. Like it or not, not everyone is a super rules tinker and not everyone is playing with a group that accepts rules changes more easily than simply banning stuff. It saddens me that you think less of people for that.

 

[Fundin Strongarm]

I play 3.0. Haven't banned any. Just nerfed Identify. Now it's 1 minute per item with a cost of 5gp of "diamond ground marble dust" per minute. Items with multiple abilities just take longer. Spell level limits remain unchanged -- ie. 1 item per caster level.