wall of force doesn't say you can capture people within it
But it does give an area of effect, and say you can create it at range. Thus, you could create the area in such a way that creatures within it are trapped. Allowing this use (with a reflex save to negate) seems reasonable to me.
the hidden resilient sphere will eventually get you... two mages, both casting it per round will eventually kill a party. Even a twentieth level party. Certain party members can counter it, spell casters using dispell magic.. etc., but you give the bad guys scrolls with the hidden resilient sphere on it and the party will fall. The 4 person party only has two spell users and every round they'd be sphered while the enemy mages henchmen fight the rogue and the fighter. All the mages have to do is stay out of reach of the fighter and rogue.. not that difficult really.
Again you are discounting the capabilities of a 12th (and 20th) level party. The mage stays inside his bubble for a round, casting haste and see invisible. The next round, he casts dispel magic or disintigrate, and with his haste action readies a Cone of Cold (or some other massively damaging spell) to hit the enemy mage with when he casts the sphere. Spell disrupted.
Meanwhile the rogue has used his scroll or wand of see invisible and his item that allows flight to chase down the other mage and grapple him. Now that he's grappled, he gets killed rather quickly with the sneak attacks from the dagger.
A 20th level party is even more capable of stopping this. Haste + See Invisibility, followed by Gating in a Solar should stop those pesky enemy mages.
finally, although your encounter was nominally an EL12, by adding ambush to the mix, you increase the EL, thus increasing the resources necessary for survival.
That's the reason Hide feat is bogus. It is the only metamagic feat that negates the RECPIENTS abilities, not just changing the caster's abilities.
Silent and still spell affect the target's ability to spellcraft the spell or find the caster.
As to the shapechange spell.. you can become anything you are familiar with. that "you" there means the caster not the player. How many players are familar with the tarrasque or unique dragons. I define familiar as something you've had significant interaction with. You've fought it a few time, its your friend, etc.. not something youve heard about or read about. I (joseph browning) know about wolves. I am not familar with them. I am familar with cows and monkeys and dogs and cat... etc... (i've been to india for the monkeys)
Perhaps the tarrasque was a poor example, but by the time you're cating shapechange you should be familiar with all sorts of big nasties.
ps. that hidden earthquake would get the tarrasque.
As well it should, since he is CR20, and the caster is at least 21st level. He shouldn't be too much trouble to handle for an epic spellcaster.
Don't forget this also is great with improved invisibility. Consider this scary secnario. Improved invis wizard casts a fireball at you. You can trace the fireball back and take a guess at his square. Not so with this spell.
But you can locate the guy via hearing. Tracing the fireball is fairly worthless if he 5' steps anyway. Again, if a hhigh level party has no way to deal with invisible spellcasters, or flying creatures, they deserve what they get.
Also this is great for a smackdown. 20th lvl sorc lobs 5 delayed blast fireballs around. You can't see them sitting there untill they all go off at the same instant with no save. Is 100d6 no save powerful enough for you?
If you hear the sounds of spellcasting nearby and see no effects, then decide not to move or try to find the source of the spellcasting, then you deserve what you get. As for 100d6 no save, he can do 100d6 save for half using Time stop and delayed blast fireball. Sure, you get 5 saves, but he also hasn't used 5 8th level slots (only 2 9th and 5 6th).
I'm looking for a sensible answer.
Please don't bring the Sage into this.
What he said.
Hmm... Two feats (silent and still) add two levels of spellcasting and still don't truly "hide" the spell. The argument that this is not a proper comparison seems silly to me: The "Hide spell" is simply more powerful, since hiding the spell effect simply is more powerful. I think the feat is perfectly balanced without the part in it that gets rid of the saves.
Except that without hide and still spell, you can find the caster (or at least realize he's there and take steps to find him.
Think about it: how often do your mages need silent or still spell? Will saves against the cleric's silence is the only time it might be useful, but this rarely happens (much rather target the wizard with a fort save... or a mace.).
Yes, casting a silence spell at a wizard is generally futile. However, when you cast it on your fighter buddy who runs up and grapples, that wizard will be very thankful he has silent and still spell. Also, my players recently found themselves in a vaccuum, silent spell saved their lives.
Hide spell is far more useful, and it is also simply "no fun": rollig dice behind your screen and saying: "You are dead" without save is just that: no fun. Leave some control in the hands of the players. Otherwise you might just play by yourself. The fact that the players could use this as well, doens't realy matter when you look at the ramifacations from the DM side of the screen.
Sure, of you set up an ambush that leaves the party no chance of survival, they're going to get ticked off. But you can do that without hide spell, after all, you are the DM. If a hidden fireball goes off, odds are it won't kill anyone in a party of characters capable of facing 9th level ambushing foes (EL10 at least). They then get a chance to react to that attack.
