Level on Power Word: Disarm?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OK, skipping actually typing this up, since it's pretty much a copy and paste of any other Power Word spell. Just curious as to what level a spell would be that had one and only one effect: You drop whatever's in your hand if you fail the Will saving throw. (Comparable to being successfully disarmed.)

It honestly seems like a stripped-down Command (i.e. without the flexibility), which I could see arguably dropped to level 1 or 0, but it also seems a little more useful than any other level 0 spells.

Thoughts?

 

[Crothian]

Other power words don't give a saving throw, they are dependant on HPs. But if you want to have a save for it then a level 1 spell would be good.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And thus we see the value of actually looking at the spell.

OK, how about without saving throw, then?

 

[Piratecat]

Hrmmm. 3rd, maybe? Possibly 2nd if there's a lower hit point cap. This is tremendously useful if there's no save; for more fun, make them unable to hold a weapon for X rounds.

 

[Tuzenbach]

How about this: For every level of the caster, the weapon of the target actually flies 5' away. Hence, a 10th level wizard can put 50' between you and your Axe of the Dwarvish Lords. Fetch! Direction of "flight" determined at random by the DM.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmmm, this is starting to sound like two different, but both good, spells.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, the saving throw version with a duration equal to caster level? That's already in the PHB: It's the second version of the routinely ignored (including by me) Grease spell.

So a single round saving throw version would be a level lower, which takes us back into cantrip territory.

 

[Tuzenbach]

After having a few hours to "mull it over".......

For every difference in level between the caster and the target, the weapon "flies" 5' from the target's hand. Thus, if the wizard or sorcerer was 13th level and was casting the spell on an 8th level character, the weapon of the 8th level character would fly 25' (as 13-8=5, and 5x5=25). Direction is determined by the DM rolling a d12 and assigning quadrants to the victim, i.e., "1 o'clock, 2 o'clock," etc....

However, if the caster and the target are of the same level (or if the target is of a greater level than the caster), then the weapon merely falls to the ground at the feet of the target.

 

[hong]

One of the possible uses of telekinesis is to disarm someone. There's also an OA spell, magnetism, that can do the same.

 

[Tuzenbach]

One of the possible uses of telekinesis is to disarm someone. There's also an OA spell, magnetism, that can do the same.

What's an OA spell?