Miasma: Overpowered?

[Ysgarran]

Is there any errata for this spell? It strikes me as grossly over-powered but I have not done a thorough evaluation of other fourth level druid spells.

Miasma is a fourth level druid spell from 'Masters of the Wild' that effectively 'silences' one character without any save. It has other effects but the immediately one is that forces the target to hold its breath...

toughts? opinions? errata?

thanks,
Ysgarran.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

No errata for MotW yet. I love the MotW book, but I have yet to experience a druid in 3e, so I don't really know if the spell is over the top or not. I have heard others say it should be a higher level spell, however. Sorry, not much help here.

 

[Crothian]

All I can say is it worked fine in our game.

 

[Dagger75]

As the DM, my monsters have been the victim of this spell. It is quit nasty. Basically you can't breath. You can hold your breath for a number rounds x2 of your Con. But the nasty part is if you fail a CONCENTRATION check you try to take a breath and go to -1 hit points. The dificulty is 10+1, increases by 1 every round. How many fighters do you know that have concentration for a skill. I think this is how it works. I am work and don't have the book in front of me.

Well my players will soon meet this spell.

 

[Mr.Binx]

I would have to agree. A character with an average constitution of 10 would be killed by this spell regardless of level if targetted by a druid of the minimum level required to cast this spell since the recipient would have to make 15 increasingly harder constitution checks (the last 6 only have a 5% chance each of succeeding). The added effect of silencing the charcter makes the spell that much more powerful. The fact that this spell doesn't require any type of save makes it even worse.

 

[Crothian]

As the DM, my monsters have been the victim of this spell. It is quit nasty. Basically you can't breath. You can hold your breath for a number rounds x2 of your Con. But the nasty part is if you fail a CONCENTRATION check you try to take a breath and go to -1 hit points. The dificulty is 10+1, increases by 1 every round. How many fighters do you know that have concentration for a skill. I think this is how it works. I am work and don't have the book in front of me.

Well my players will soon meet this spell.

I thought it was an endurance check. You get to add your con modifier to the roll and +4 if you have the Endurance feat.

 

[Catalyst]

It's a Constitution check. You can hold your breath for 2x your Con score, after that you start making Constitution checks (that get increasingly difficult). The spell, however, lasts for five rounds per level, no save.

Basically, it's a slow death unless you have someone who can dispel it. Unfortunately if it's cast at your spellcaster, he/she is simply going to die unless they have Silent Spell *and* Dispel Magic. Nasty, indeed.

 

[Crothian]

It's a Constitution check. You can hold your breath for 2x your Con score, after that you start making Constitution checks (that get increasingly difficult). The spell, however, lasts for five rounds per level, no save.

Basically, it's a slow death unless you have someone who can dispel it. Unfortunately if it's cast at your spellcaster, he/she is simply going to die unless they have Silent Spell *and* Dispel Magic. Nasty, indeed.

Average con of 10, you can hold your breather for 20 rounds. That's 20 rounds to take down the druid. A lot can happen in 20 rounds.

 

[Mr.Binx]

Average con of 10, you can hold your breather for 20 rounds. That's 20 rounds to take down the druid. A lot can happen in 20 rounds.

The spell does not require concentration and says nothing about the duration ending prematurely if the caster is killed. Therefore, even if you kill the druid, the spell runs it's duration unless some abjurative actions are taken to save the target.

 

[Ysgarran]

Average con of 10, you can hold your breather for 20 rounds. That's 20 rounds to take down the druid. A lot can happen in 20 rounds.

It has not been the consitution check that has been the problem, it has been the fact that it shuts down an enemy spellcaster without any save that has been the problem. You take away a spellcasters verbal component without a save you are pretty much taking him out of the fight...

Ysgarran.