Hurricanes in your Game World?

[mythusmage]

Let me put it this way ...

You could stop a hurricane with Control Weather within the area of effect, but the hurricane outside the area of effect would move in and take its place. Better to use your magic to reinforce your place of refuge.

Or you could try this ...

There is a word for dragons that try to fly in a hurricane. The word is, suicide.

 

[Stormborn]

Basically, once the hurrican heads your way you are in trouble. But, let's take the spell Control Weather - against a hurricane not so great. Against a Tropical Storm even. Bt what about a simple area of low pressure? I'm asuming that a sufficiently high level of Know(nature) and magic is going to give you every bit as good an understanding of the way hurricanes work as a modern Meterologist armed with all the next-rad doppler doohickies of weather detection. So, an advanced magical society maybe you have a high level order of magic users who send out these Wonderous Items based on Control Weather to defuse low pressure systems that head their way.

(Actually, just had an intersting idea. Want a high magic advanced society but don't want the Elministers of the world always taking the glory of the PCs? Well Elminster and Co. have more important things to do that put down an hobgoblin invasion - they have to contorl the weather and build all those great magical devices that makes the world work. Let the youngsters have thier fun slaying the dragons, when they grow up in decade or two they can be put to real work.)

 

[atom crash]

But the high level druids understand that natural disasters and severe weather -- including hurricanes -- are part of the natural cycle of things. If you have high level wizards running around with spells and items that disrupt natural weather conditions, they will be opposed at every turn by high level druids who know that if you disrupt and forestall hurricanes then you're just upsetting the balance of nature and creating more severe problems down the road.

The better use of magic, like mythusmage has pointed out, is to reinforce and protect cities and villages in the hurricane's path. Any civilization that lives in the path of hurricanes or other severe weather -- say, for example, the people of the Pacific Rim -- learns to adapt in order to better survive those conditions. They develop better architectural methods so their buildings don't get blown down by every squall that blows their way.

 

[Teemu]

Let me put it this way ...

You could stop a hurricane with Control Weather within the area of effect, but the hurricane outside the area of effect would move in and take its place. Better to use your magic to reinforce your place of refuge.

Well, this is what I actually meant, protecting Sharn. Anyway, one control weather lasts for 4d12 hours, protecting the area it covers for the duration. It doesn't matter if 'the hurricane outside the area of effect would move in and take its place'; the spell creates an area with a radius of 2 miles, in which the caster controls all aspects of weather, for 4d12 hours (an average of 26 hrs).

It wouldn't be wizards using dragonshard focus items - it would be House Lyrandar's most potent heirs using their dragonmarks to power the items. There really aren't enough actual spellcasters to cast multiple control weathers around Sharn (or in Breland).

 

[Silver Moon]

I used a Level Five hurricane as the backdrop for an invasion my an army of monsters on the character's home island. The heroes returned and had to rescue family and friends who had been kidnapped. Plus some family and friends had been set adrift on two of the party's ships to be sunk by the storm. It was great fun, running for three-dozen games. The clerics and druids used a combination of spells to bring the storm down to a Category Three in order to stop most of the devistation.

 

[mythusmage]

...the caster controls all aspects of weather, for 4d12 hours (an average of 26 hrs).

I don't see Control Weather standing up to a hurricane for that length of time. Against ordinary weather events certainly, but not extraordinary events such as supercells and hurricanes.

For the level the ability to treat even a Force One hurricane like a piddlin rain squall makes Control Weather a tad too powerful for my tastes.

YTTMV, EDRH (Your travel time may vary, especially during rush hour.)

 

[Sejs]

I don't see Control Weather standing up to a hurricane for that length of time. Against ordinary weather events certainly, but not extraordinary events such as supercells and hurricanes.

For the level the ability to treat even a Force One hurricane like a piddlin rain squall makes Control Weather a tad too powerful for my tastes.

Why? I mean isn't that in part the focus of the spell itself? To control the weather? To say 'oh you can control some weather, but other weather is just too weathery for you to control' seems, and you'll have to pardon me for saying, but rather lame.

Sort of like saying you can lob a fireball at those orcs while on a dry plain in late summer and it can do damage and all, but you certainly can't light things on fire with it.

I mean with Control Weather you can create hurricane-force winds if you're in the right climate at the right time of year. Why then couldn't you calm them back down within the area of effect?

Edit: I should say though that while turning down the weather itself with CW is one thing, the spell would and should not be able to control any secondary aspects of the storm itself. So while the rain my not be falling in that area, and the wind isn't blowing, the seas flooding up like nobody's business would be outside of the spell's ability to handle. Not to mention the fact that with the spell's area (2 mile radius, centered on the caster) any rain falling from clouds outside of that height would still be coming down just the same.

 

[Teemu]

Yes, according to the spell description, control weather can calm hurricane-force winds in its area. Obviously, you're free to change it in your games, but that's the way it is in the rules. But it is a 7th-level spell...

Not to mention the fact that with the spell's area (2 mile radius, centered on the caster) any rain falling from clouds outside of that height would still be coming down just the same.

Actually, no. The area of the spell is a '2-mile-radius circle'. That's not a sphere, it's a circle, and thus extends all the way up to where 'weather' exists.

 

[Sejs]

Actually, no. The area of the spell is a '2-mile-radius circle'. That's not a sphere, it's a circle, and thus extends all the way up to where 'weather' exists.

Well I'll be! So it does - my mistake.

 

[mythusmage]

Teemu and Sejs,

It's a suspension of disbelief speed bump. It also makes Control Weather a good deal more powerful than most any other 7th level spell. When you consider how strong hurricanes are, the power to stop it in even a limited area make Control Weather equivalent to magic by a major deity

In a word, Control Weather is broken. It can use a bit of toning down.