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My playtest of new Mage (Essentials) spells
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<blockquote data-quote="Nightfly" data-source="post: 5323210" data-attributes="member: 89601"><p>Arc Lightning was nothing special, but sometimes you don't need anything special. Beguiling Strands was clearly the best at-will: it massacred minions, ruined enemy positioning, and improved ally positioning. But when the minions were all dead and my party had the bad guys set up where they wanted them, Arc Lightning was a really solid smack-the-monster spell to fall back on. Although it was not my best at-will, it was the one I cast the most. </p><p></p><p>Mind you, I still probably wouldn't take that spell on a real character, because there are too many good controller-y at-wills available. And as good as it was in this RPGA game, Phantasmal Assault would have been better (we had a multiclass rogue that had trouble getting combat advantage). But Arc Lightning is solid enough. When a level 3 non-striker is dishing out 22 total damage with an at-will, that's not trifling. Even a controller sometimes wants to impose the "dead" condition. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No. I can only recall one monster that seemed to hit hard enough that Hypnotism might have been worth it, and I don't think it was ever adjacent to another. Also, that monster had a grab, so I was busy using Beguiling Strands to keep breaking it.</p><p></p><p>If the spell didn't have the word "adjacent" in it, I could have found a use for it. I was surprised how rarely two monsters were side-by-side: the ranged enemies never were, and the melee enemies were usually trying to flank or run past the defender. And even when they were adjacent, well, why not just Arc Lightning them both and skip the low-percentage combo stuff?</p><p></p><p>Honestly, if a power needs TWO successful die rolls to do something, it better be something awfully good. Knocked unconscious, like Sleep does? Sure. Deliver, say, 1d12+6 melee damage? No. I'm not saying Hypnotism could never be useful, even massively useful, but it seems to me to be very, very situational. I will try it out again sometime and see if works better for me with a different party and module.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nightfly, post: 5323210, member: 89601"] Arc Lightning was nothing special, but sometimes you don't need anything special. Beguiling Strands was clearly the best at-will: it massacred minions, ruined enemy positioning, and improved ally positioning. But when the minions were all dead and my party had the bad guys set up where they wanted them, Arc Lightning was a really solid smack-the-monster spell to fall back on. Although it was not my best at-will, it was the one I cast the most. Mind you, I still probably wouldn't take that spell on a real character, because there are too many good controller-y at-wills available. And as good as it was in this RPGA game, Phantasmal Assault would have been better (we had a multiclass rogue that had trouble getting combat advantage). But Arc Lightning is solid enough. When a level 3 non-striker is dishing out 22 total damage with an at-will, that's not trifling. Even a controller sometimes wants to impose the "dead" condition. :) No. I can only recall one monster that seemed to hit hard enough that Hypnotism might have been worth it, and I don't think it was ever adjacent to another. Also, that monster had a grab, so I was busy using Beguiling Strands to keep breaking it. If the spell didn't have the word "adjacent" in it, I could have found a use for it. I was surprised how rarely two monsters were side-by-side: the ranged enemies never were, and the melee enemies were usually trying to flank or run past the defender. And even when they were adjacent, well, why not just Arc Lightning them both and skip the low-percentage combo stuff? Honestly, if a power needs TWO successful die rolls to do something, it better be something awfully good. Knocked unconscious, like Sleep does? Sure. Deliver, say, 1d12+6 melee damage? No. I'm not saying Hypnotism could never be useful, even massively useful, but it seems to me to be very, very situational. I will try it out again sometime and see if works better for me with a different party and module. [/QUOTE]
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