Is Wall of Thorns as utterly broken as it seems to be?

[maggot]

Fifth level spells? Not many. Plenty of lower level spells though. Most of them have already been mentioned ...

Okay, I should have said "5th level or lower."

Spells mentioned here do not help everyone trapped, or simply don't work. Someone mentioned fly, that doesn't help you if you are trapped. Dimension door helps you if you are trapped, but it doesn't do much for your fighter friend who spends the next five rounds trying to make a DC 25 strength check so he can move 5' through the thorns. Freedom of movement helps, but only one person. A combination of FoM and DimDoor or multiple DimDoors might do the trick.

Dispel magic helps of course because that works against nearly anything.

 

[IcyCool]

Okay, I should have said "5th level or lower."

Spells mentioned here do not help everyone trapped, or simply don't work. Someone mentioned fly, that doesn't help you if you are trapped. Dimension door helps you if you are trapped, but it doesn't do much for your fighter friend who spends the next five rounds trying to make a DC 25 strength check so he can move 5' through the thorns. Freedom of movement helps, but only one person. A combination of FoM and DimDoor or multiple DimDoors might do the trick.

Dispel magic helps of course because that works against nearly anything.

Well then, what exactly is your complaint? That Wall of Thorns isn't completely useless against all classes equally?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Uh oh, the whole spell dealing damage vs. DR discussion again...

Andargor

Wasn't this clarified in the FAQ, IIRC, for the crystal shard psionic powers. I think they reiterated flat-out that spells bypass DR.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Wasn't this clarified in the FAQ, IIRC, for the crystal shard psionic powers. I think they reiterated flat-out that spells bypass DR.

They say it flat-out in the rules, too.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Sure it can. Take any of the Summon Monster spells, for instance. Or pretty much the entire school of conjuration.

Summon Monster doesn't do damage. It summons a monster. The monster is a normal monster of its type, and is therefore subject to DR, but is unaffected by SR unless it casts a spell or spell-like ability. Any conjuration spell that does damage (spells that do damage spell out how much damage in their descriptions, so Major Creation is also not a spell that does damage) is unaffected by DR even if it is also unaffected by SR because while they may be called out to be specifically unaffected by SR, there is no such rule that says DR applies to conjurations.

It would make sense to say that a conjured thorn does damage as a regular pointed stick, because that would explain the slashing/piercing/bludgeoning types on certain spells, but the rules say that the conjured thorn does damage as a spell. If you want to house rule otherwise, that's a house rule, but the RAW is clear.

 

[andargor]

Wasn't this clarified in the FAQ, IIRC, for the crystal shard psionic powers. I think they reiterated flat-out that spells bypass DR.

Just a comment about recent rules fencing matches with Hyp and others on the subject.

A sample in this thread.

EDIT: And Patryn of Elvenshae doesn't consider the FAQ as official...

Andargor

 

[Hypersmurf]

A sample in this thread.

Speaking of which, I just dropped you a question about the Faithful Hound

-Hyp.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Since dim door gets the caster plus 1 target/three levels, it helps the fighter a whole lot--and potentially the whole party if you were clumped together. (And if you weren't you probably weren't all in the wall of thorns.

Spells mentioned here do not help everyone trapped, or simply don't work. Someone mentioned fly, that doesn't help you if you are trapped. Dimension door helps you if you are trapped, but it doesn't do much for your fighter friend who spends the next five rounds trying to make a DC 25 strength check so he can move 5' through the thorns.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

EDIT: And Patryn of Elvenshae doesn't consider the FAQ as official...

It's "official," it's just not Core.

And, for what it's worth, all the cool kids agree with me.

 

[andargor]

It's "official," it's just not Core.

And, for what it's worth, all the cool kids agree with me.

Are they parted in the middle too?

And I'm not cool, I'm hot!

Andargor