It's official: Harm is broken.

[Kwalish Kid]

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/ei/ei20030105a

In this article by Andy Collins, Epic Insights: Tweaking Your Epic-Level Game, we see that WotC has owned up to the fact that spells like Harm just don't fit in D&D.

While that can be a reasonable solution for groups willing to look past the letter of the rules in favor of the spirit of an enjoyable game, it's not always enough simply to say, "Hey, stop casting harm on every dragon you meet!"

The article is really a showcase for a No "Save or Die" Spells variant of D&D. Perhaps this will be incorporated into 3.5E in the summer, if it receives accolades on the WotC message boards.

(Note that there are two other variants given some space, but the second also includes the changes to Harm. The third is pretty much useless: it's about not stacking metamagic feats. Heck, in our game, we thought that you couldn't apply the same feat to a single spell twice, so this is news to me.)

 

[sotmh]

There are so many spells besides death spells that neutralize your target instantly on a failed save. I don't see how the "No save or die spells" variant affects those. You'd just see spells like Dominate Monster, Forcecage, and Imprison become more prevalent.

 

[Psion]

Good point. Ressurection is so easy at those levels, I don't see it being worth my time rolling 40 dice for failed saves...

I'm still on board with fixing harm, though.

 

[Falcon]

I hope WotC revamps the whole lot of those spells. It seems fine when players use them, but, oh the wails of protest when they are hit by 'em.

 

[Alzrius]

Just so everyone knows, I mentioned this article to the boards here last night (and it was since moved to D&D rules) and has already gotten quite a few opinions (and even a minor flame war that has thankfully died down). Discuss this topic (the article and its take on Heal/Harm) more here: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36103

 

[Destil]

Other things 'officaly broken' by this defenition:

Auto hit on a 20 and miss on a 1 (there's a varient in the DMG that changes it).

Spell DCs being set at 10+ Spell level (rolled variant).

The above, with AC.

Half orc and gnome PC's not having access to the Scent feat, again there's a DMG varient that allows this, so it's clearly 'officialy' broken.


(The idea of 'offical' balance is almost as amusing to me, but this was more apealing)

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

I hope WotC revamps the whole lot of those spells. It seems fine when players use them, but, oh the wails of protest when they are hit by 'em.

Hey now. There's not need to get personal. Of course it is cool when some god offal thing is sent packing buy a player cast spell. That is why we're the HEROES of the story. We take down the bad guys. It's nothing personal (or is it?) but that's why they're there. Now it is a whole other story when a pc gets hit my a Save or Die spell. That sucks. I mean I spent many hours with this peice of paper. Think about how long it took for me to get to 12th level. how many gaming sessions was that? and your Npc wizard who you threw together in a half hour just sucks the life from his body. Of course I protest. I protest to the highest degree. I sometimes stand on the table and shout at the top of my lungs about the injustice done to my poor, poor departed character. I weep tears of pain and sorrow for I know that poor Blackleaf will be no more. O the agony! O the pain!

 

[Darkness]

Other things 'officaly broken' by this defenition:

Auto hit on a 20 and miss on a 1 (there's a varient in the DMG that changes it).

...and a similar, but even better, one in the ELH.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Upon seeing 7,862,968th Harm thread:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH--sputter--!!!

Harm's not broken. Andy Collins is.

On the "Save or Die" thing, just last session a PC cast hold person on an enemy (2nd lvl cleric version). The enemy failed the save and got coup de grace'd next round. Dead.

Save or Die is a part of D&D.

 

[hong]

Sorry.