D&D 3E/3.5 List of Problem 3.5e spells? Where?

[Scion]

On getting Efreet to cast Wish for you.... This seems pointless for the purpose of getting inherent bonuses. In order to get greater than a +1 bonus, the wishes have to be cast in immediate succession, and you'll never be able to get higher than a +5 in any case.
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Gate in an efreet.
Gate in second efreet.
Tell first efreet, 'wish my intelligence to increase 3 times as fast as possible.'
Tell second efreet, 'just as this efreet finishes his 3rd wish you wish my intelligence to increase twice and then wish for item *insert item worth 15k or less* as fast as possible.'

Once they are done tell them to fight to the death.
Repeat on day 2 and each subsequent day.

By the end of the 6th day all of your stats have +5 inherant bonus, 6 magical items, and 12k exp lower.

Not too bad for a weeks work

While this may or may not be a problem I definately feel that wish should not require to be used so quickly in order to gain those bonuses. If you have a book +3 and a book +2 to one stat it should give a +5. Total they cost as much as a +5 anyway. It just seems dumb to not allow it to work as it seemingly should according to costs. Other costs increase in powers, this increases linearly, the difference makes the point clear.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Does anybody else see a problem with Blasphemy ?
Balor and his poor Kobold wait for party. (Some tunnel or narrow passage perhaps.)
1. Balor casts Blasphemy (no one in the group is level 20) and all are dazed and can take no action at all.
2. Kobold starts killing party one by one while Balor casts Blasphemy (at will!) every round.
3. TPK...
Am I missing something ? Even 6 characters of Level 19 have no chance against this trap. (OK, being evil helps )

WotC forgot to give it a saving throw. It's silly that you can't ever fight in an enclosed room because of a broken spell.

The kobold doesn't need to CdG... it just slowly kills the players since they can't do anything.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The 8th level Polar Ray spell is sometimes considered a bit underpowered now - what is it, ranged touch ray of cold against one target, doing leveld6 damage - say 16d6 at 16th level. In comparison a wizard could use a 7th level slot to cast maximised empowered scorching ray and get 3 bolts doing 24+2d6 each.

Comparing 16d6 (ave 56?) with 72+6d6 doesn't look too great. The only advantage polar ray has in this scenario is that it will be less affected by Resist Elements which would eliminate nearly all the scorching ray damage.

Comparing polar ray with horrid wilting seems like a nonevent - horrid wilting does the same damage to multiple opponents with a Fort ST for half and no spells to resist its damage. Seems much more useful to me.

So I nominate Polar Ray.

I also nominate the 4th level Illusionary Wall which allows you to create a permanent illusion of a wall. That's all. Pretty feeble eh?

Cheers

 

[dimonic]

Broken Spells

I do not know of a list, but (mostly due to my dextrous sorcerers) many DMs in my area are granting saves to Ray of Enfeeblement, Enervation, Touch of Idiocy and other "no save" spells I cast.

 

[James McMurray]

Trying to force an evil creature into granting wishes is never the best thing to do. Stories are rife with wishes going awry when they come from an evil source.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Trying to force an evil creature into granting wishes is never the best thing to do. Stories are rife with wishes going awry when they come from an evil source.

Sure, but the DM is going to have to break the rules in order to have this actually happen. By the rules, the efreeti's wish-granting ability duplicates the effects of the spell: No special twisting. Moreover, since the efreeti are called, you could just kill them after the wish-granting is done and not worry about them holding a grudge.

And Storm Raven: Your whole stance on SLAs that duplicate spells with XP components is, as nharwell said, a house rule. Moreover, keep in mind that the SLA doesn't cost the efreet 5000 xp.

 

[James McMurray]

Sure, but the DM is going to have to break the rules in order to have this actually happen. By the rules, the efreeti's wish-granting ability duplicates the effects of the spell: No special twisting.

Character says "wish to make me stronger three times in rapid succession". Efreet grants the first one by permanently turning the wizard into a Troll, complete with the mental attributes. The second two make the troll slightly stronger, by shifting points from intelligence to strength.

Just because the list is given in the PHB doesn't mean that the efreet summoned has to choose one of those interpretations of the wish. Heck, it could even just wish for the wizard to be targetted by bull's strength, then animal affinity, then get a temporary chance to wear a belt of strength +6.

There is no way to word a wish that an intelligent evil creature cannot twist, and that does not use game mechanics.

And if you start gating and killing efreet, you're likely to bring the wrath of the entire City of Brass down upon your head. Do you really want to tick off a city full of creatures that can grant wishes?

"Excuse me, Mr. kobold, sir? If your first wish is read directly from this sheet of paper, I will grant you two more wishes." The genie hands the kobold a sheet of paper with a highly detailed wish that is sure to bring extreme suffering to a certain foolish wizard.

I don't think that DMs should wantonly try to distort wishes, but if something like this were tried, he'd be not only within his rights, but also highly justified ingame to bring the character that attempted it's career to an abrupt and unpleasant end.

 

[two]

Answering the Initial Question

The following spells, in 3.5, are, I think, on the outer limit of the power band. Most of them are talked about alot, no surprises.

1) Magic Missile. Just does everything, all the time.
2) Silence.
3) Enlarge Person

Comments:
These are all low level spells. Magic Missile is the sacred cow; it needs a damage cap or to be downgraded in some way. This is pretty obvious, also obvious it does not "unbalance" the game to any significant degree. It's just better than a 1st level spell should be. It's like a level 1.5 level spell.

Enlarge Person is in the category of "duh," because the benefits of size for fighter-types is pretty overwhelming, particularly when you get to higher levels (and have more feats with which to do horrible things with reach). It ramps up extremely well. It's one of those 1st level spells that a high level character always wants cast on him, if it's not been already achieved in some way (ring of permenant enlarge, wondrous item of enlarge 3x/day). There are not many other spells that ramp up so well from 1st level.

Silence is perhaps the most overpowered, and effects game play at times. A dedicated silence-caster will shut down opposing spellcasters completely, unless the GM goes out of his way to have "silenced" versions of spells prepped, etc. and uses other tactics. No other 2nd level spell, on it's own, forces this sort of pre-preparation; telling me it's very possibly too good.

 

[ciaran00]

So you'd grant the wish and then screw them over somehow? Wish says "You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.)" If they just wish for something that falls under one of the "standard" uses though, there's nothing you can do, unless you house rule Wish.

From an Efreet? Is that a house rule? No. I'm just playing his alignment. Also, look at rule 0.

And the "standard" are you talking about... A) Anything said can be perverted B) Player characters don't know the concept of a Player's Handbook, much less the Spell section of it, or even English. I shouldn't have to house rule the idea that "don't ask a true bastard for something big (read: free) unless you really know what you're doing." It's common sense.

ciaran

 

[Particle_Man]

I also nominate the 4th level Illusionary Wall which allows you to create a permanent illusion of a wall. That's all. Pretty feeble eh?

Cheers

I disagree. If one is designing a dungeon, castle or hide-out, having one's secret doors covered by an Illusionary Wall is useful. And the permanency means that you don't have to renew it after the initial casting.

Now as mobile adventurers it will be less useful because you don't stay in one place for long enough for a permanent-to-a-location spell to be useful. But for some NPC's and sessile PC's it is more useful.