OMG, Tasha's Laughter is crazy good.

[RangerWickett]

So tonight, a major villain got hit with Tasha's Hideous Laughter. He rolled a 1 for his save, and I figured, What's the worst that could happen? He's unable to attack for 3 rounds, and then the fight continues. But apparently they've changed some things now, so that it lasts one round per level. Sure, it's not as immediately lethal as hold person, but . . . this was a fairly high-level game, and having the main badguy take no offensive action for 13 rounds is kinda boring.

I as DM was a little disappointed that I didn't get to enjoy my munchkin fun, but hey, the PCs got lucky. What are y'all's thoughts on this little gem?

 

[Telperion]

I was also unaware of the change, but when I was generating a PC bard for an upcoming one-shot session I got seriously interested in this little detail.

Sure, there's a Will-save, but if the BBEG botches, or simply rolls really bad, then the BBEG gets to sit around and watch while his cronies are cut to pieces. And he also gets a good belly laugh while he's doing it . Back in 3.0 I never really saw much use for Tasha's Hideous Laughter spell since Hold Person was so much better.

Since 3.5 came out the scales have been reversed. Tasha's Hideous Laughter is now definitely the better of the two spells.
-You can target any creature that is subject to mind-effecting magic.
-Duration is 1 round / level.
-Only 1 Will save.

Hold Person:
-You can target only humanoids or monstrous humanoids.
-Duration is the same, but target gets a new Will-save each round.
-Target is helpless (Coup de grace, anyone?)

Considering that Tasha's Hideous Laughter is a 1st level Bard spell and Hold Person is a 2nd level Bard spell I don't think many bards will be opting for Hold Person in my group from now on. Add Spell Focus and the Will save gets a boost as well.

 

[Ferret]

What about the racial deficit of a +4 bonus?

 

[Darklone]

I treat it as Hold Person: One save per round. It's still good and our sorcerer took it.

 

[Telperion]

What about the racial deficit of a +4 bonus?

True, there is that, but considering that the spell can target most creatures I don't think it a bad trade-off.

 

[kwiqsilver]

I love it. I had a wizard use it on the ogre combat brute the DM threw against us once. He went down for three rounds. I stood next to him (he couldn't AoO my spell casting, and he provided cover) to flank him and a rogue stood on the other side sneak attacking him. He died with a smile on his face.

 

[CalrinAlshaw]

Long ago in the age of ADD2e (about 6 years ago) a jester casted a TUHL on a white dragon that was flying, the dragon then proceeded to fail it's magic resistance, and roll a 1 on it's spell save...it landed on frozen trees, back-first, and died. This was done by a level 8 bard with the Jester kit.

Moral: Flying creatures are fun to disable mid-air, and it's amusing when they die laughing.

Calrin Alshaw

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

IIRC, it's language dependent too. So, unless you speak Giant, it won't work on the giant and unless you speak draconic, it won't work on the troglodyte, etc.

 

[SSquirrel]

Tasha's has always been a fave spell of mine all the way back to 1E. I don't own 3.5 yet so I was unaware of the craziness of it now, I always thought it was just plain cool before. If I ever get in a 3.5 game I'll definitely have to make use of it *grin*

Hagen

 

[Thanee]

What about the racial deficit of a +4 bonus?

Still better than not being able to affect the target at all (Hold Person).

Bye
Thanee