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Is stoneskin underpowered?
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<blockquote data-quote="AaronOfBarbaria" data-source="post: 6714935" data-attributes="member: 6701872"><p>I think there is something fundamentally different in the way that you and I think about NPCs, because I basically treat them as a one-time use challenge morsel that is built to fail, so them not being tuned so that their concentration spells are reliable doesn't register as a problem - just like their chances of surviving the party being low doesn't register as a problem, because they are there to be defeated.</p><p></p><p>And I think it is entirely shortsighted to try to consider only this one context of a spell when deciding if it is good enough as written, especially since most NPC options don't even involve spells, and the NPCs can just as easily use stoneskin like a PC party should (put it on the beat-stick while the caster aims at avoiding damage to maximize its effect while minimizing concentration loss chance).</p><p></p><p>The only "hoop" being jumped through is asking yourself "when is this spell useful?" and not trying to force the answer to be "always, no matter what." since that isn't how any spell in 5th edition actually works - they all have situations they are excellent in, and other situations where they don't even remotely matter.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is likely just difference in our personal experiences, but you have labelled the most common types of damage (nonmagical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing) as being a "very narrow range."</p><p></p><p>Yet you bring up a "pretty much identical spell" that is lower level and doesn't have a costly component as though the two are equal. They aren't. Protection from energy applies against far less common damage, and since you have to select the type of damage from a short list you might not pick the most useful type or might not even have many monsters you face while it lasts actually use that damage type - but bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing? Really good chance you run into monsters that use those, and that it is nonmagical too, unless your DM is specifically selecting from only a narrow band of monster intentionally to limit the damage types being dealt.</p><p></p><p>Immunity is a bad idea because it makes certain character types unable to contribute and misses the entire point of why concentration can be broken through damage in the first place.</p><p></p><p>Resistance to all damage? Well, sure... if you want stoneskin to be hands-down the best buff spell on the books, that's the way to do it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AaronOfBarbaria, post: 6714935, member: 6701872"] I think there is something fundamentally different in the way that you and I think about NPCs, because I basically treat them as a one-time use challenge morsel that is built to fail, so them not being tuned so that their concentration spells are reliable doesn't register as a problem - just like their chances of surviving the party being low doesn't register as a problem, because they are there to be defeated. And I think it is entirely shortsighted to try to consider only this one context of a spell when deciding if it is good enough as written, especially since most NPC options don't even involve spells, and the NPCs can just as easily use stoneskin like a PC party should (put it on the beat-stick while the caster aims at avoiding damage to maximize its effect while minimizing concentration loss chance). The only "hoop" being jumped through is asking yourself "when is this spell useful?" and not trying to force the answer to be "always, no matter what." since that isn't how any spell in 5th edition actually works - they all have situations they are excellent in, and other situations where they don't even remotely matter. This is likely just difference in our personal experiences, but you have labelled the most common types of damage (nonmagical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing) as being a "very narrow range." Yet you bring up a "pretty much identical spell" that is lower level and doesn't have a costly component as though the two are equal. They aren't. Protection from energy applies against far less common damage, and since you have to select the type of damage from a short list you might not pick the most useful type or might not even have many monsters you face while it lasts actually use that damage type - but bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing? Really good chance you run into monsters that use those, and that it is nonmagical too, unless your DM is specifically selecting from only a narrow band of monster intentionally to limit the damage types being dealt. Immunity is a bad idea because it makes certain character types unable to contribute and misses the entire point of why concentration can be broken through damage in the first place. Resistance to all damage? Well, sure... if you want stoneskin to be hands-down the best buff spell on the books, that's the way to do it. [/QUOTE]
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