Overpowered/Underpowered Spells?

[Thanee]

.....(sheepish)...I was kinda hoppin' you'd help me out there. My German has never been a strong suit. ...If I ask nicely? Please?

"..., nicht wahr?" would be correct.

This won't be complete, but it's probably close:

Enchantment(Charm)

• Charm Monster
• Charm Monster, Mass
• Charm Person
• Enthrall
• Symbol of Persuasion

Enchantment(Compulsion)

• Animal Trance
• Antipathy
• Binding
• Calm Animals
• Calm Emotions
• Command
• Command, Greater
• Demand
• Dominate Animal
• Dominate Monster
• Dominate Person
• Geas/Quest
• Geas, Lesser
• Hypnotism
• Suggestion
• Suggestion, Mass
• Sympathy

Ok, now tell me please, how many of those spells allow the caster ongoing control over the subject?


Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

A-ha!

Thanee: I know how to use an on-line german dictionary, "nicht wahr?"

Heh. Yeah, obviously...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

I am not trying to pick on Dark Dragon, he said if he recalled it was 2 empowered fireballs.

Metamagic Rod, I guess.

And don't forget, that the NPC wizard must have had tremendous knowledge about the PCs, while they didn't know of him, seeing how he so perfectly picked his targets with his spells.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

... Don't ask me why he took a quite low Con. The druid had a high Dex, Wis and Cha and also a Con of 10. The player had chosen these stats for pure flavour reasons and she shouldn't be critizised for that IMHO.

No, absolutely not!

It's not inherently bad to not put your second highest stat into Con.
But at 15th level there are plenty items and spells to even this out.

It is, however, not excuseable, that the PCs didn't have ANY kind of plan for this situation. I can only guess, that they had not yet fully grasped the 3E rules and were therefore completely unprepared as players.

So it was probably the fault of the inexperience from the players (15th level characters generally aren't that inexperienced) and maybe even the DM (you ), who might not have seen that this wizard could actually slaughter the party, altho he was significantly less powerful.

It surely wasn't the fault of overpowered spells, not even 3.0 Haste, in that encounter. Haste was powerful for sure, but not THAT powerful!

There were numerous ways to live through that encounter, all very much within the limits of the characters, even with a 10 in Con.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

The cleric had Endurance on the whole day, plus Magic Weapon, plus Magic Vestment (he cast them twice per day), plus Energy Immunity (don't recall which version, he changed it often), plus some other long lasting spells. In the end, the cleric was buffed to the end, but low on attack and healing spells...

He must have cast a lot of spells, if he was low on healing spells afterwards.

Well, that or worship an evil deity...

BTW, in 3.0 you could cast the buff spells in the evening and have them up and running pretty much all day with the full alotment of spells prepared still!

That's at least how we did it back then... *shrug*

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

No, the overpowered spell was improved invis. Going through the encounter step by step how different would the situation have been if improved invis had not been available? Say just invis.

Yep, the invis was the biggest problem here... the only one, really.

However, I like the 3.5 version, it's cool for one combat, but not good enough for anything else. The 3.0 version had a decent enough duration to be used in stealth situations as well, protecting retreat and all that.

And there are plenty countermeasures for invisibility available!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

(admittedly the wizard used short range spells - magic missiles - in this particular instance)

Psst... Magic Missile... Range: Medium.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Psst... Magic Missile... Range: Medium.

Heh. That'll teach me to buy cheap memory without parity

OK, so that basically makes my point stronger - the whole attack could be pulled off outside the range of true seeing

- which rather begs the question "what's the point of true seeing then?" Sure, it's good for some other stuff, but it seems odd that it doesn't equal the efficiency of the 2nd level see invisible (which is the *only* effective counter to the invisible flying mage)

 

[Thanee]

Faerie Fire and Glitterdust would work with a readied action.
Most spells used gave away the position of the mage at that moment.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Most spells used gave away the position of the mage at that moment.

How so?

Some of the direct damaging spells certainly (lightning bolt, fireball, magic missile) but "most" spells? I would have thought that the majority don't actually give anything away.

It is also arguable whether you can ready an action to do something to someone you can't see. the examples in the SRD imply an awareness of the casting process, which must normally mean either being able to see or hear them.

Distracting Spellcasters: You can ready an attack against a spellcaster with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell.” If you damage the spellcaster, she may lose the spell she was trying to cast (as determined by her Concentration check result).
Readying to Counterspell: You may ready a counterspell against a spellcaster (often with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell”). In this case, when the spellcaster starts a spell, you get a chance to identify it with a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If you do, and if you can cast that same spell (are able to cast it and have it prepared, if you prepare spells), you can cast the spell as a counterspell and automatically ruin the other spellcaster’s spell. Counterspelling works even if one spell is divine and the other arcane.

If you can't see them start casting a spell, you can't do it.

I suppose it might be possible to ready an action to cast a spell against someone "as soon as they have cast their spell", as long as the DM is happy that it is not too general a stipulation (readied actions normally have to be pretty precise, don't they?)

Cheers