Overpowered/Underpowered Spells?

[Thanee]

I can't believe that Tasha's Hidious Laughter isn't on this list.

I considered to add it (or Hold Person for underpowered ), but they are not enough removed from the average IMHO to be listed.

Bye
Thanee

 

[isoChron]

Overpowered:
Arcane Sight (foils Illusions in 1 round)
Blindsight
Energy Immunity
Find the Path (Tells you all about traps and passwords... )
Teleport spells (come to early)
Mindblank
Hunters Mercy (watch a Deepwoodsniper with an energy burst bow ...)
Animal Growth (with polymorph/wildshape)
Blasphemy dazed condition can be a real killer. Fight a surprising balor with a kobold servant and you know what I mean.
Firebrand (shapeable great area with good damage)
Holy Star
Hide Life
M. Disjunction
Gate


A mess:
Polymorph/Wildshape Pfffff. They got wildshape right in Masters of the Wild but then they tied it again completly to polymorph. Polymorph is a mess since I know it. No other spell has seen so many different versions and interpretations.
Know Protections
Know Vulnerabilities
Power Sight
These give informations that are very off game and statistical.



Underpowered:
Sleep (3.5)
Animal Buffs
Cone of Cold
Energy Drain
Cocoon
Foresight

All just in my experience and opinion

 

[Chris Parker]

Arcana Form, I believe lets you burn menial amounts of HP for spell slots. Maybe as a Sorceror... but not as a Wizard.

releasing a black ray of crackling negative energy that suppresses the life force of any living creature it strikes.

Sounds evil to me, specially that bit about the _negative_energy_ and _necromancy_

 

[Pants]

Overpowered:
Firebrand - Less of a morphable area works for me. As it is, it's almost as good as Horrid Wilting
Gate - Less broken than before, but the spell should be based off of CR rather than HD maybe
Shapechange (the king of overpowered) - either reduce the duration and don't allow form switching or just get rid of the grants Su abilities nonsense
Mord's Disjunction - Same as above
Blasphemy - get rid of that nasty dazed for 1 round and bring it more inline with the other spells
Entangle - too good of an area and too much of a hassle to get rid of.
Miasma - Bleh, I banned this one right away

WTF were they thinking Spells:
Fabricate/Polymorph Any Object - I'd just get rid of these
Astral Projection - the loophole spell king

Underpowered:
Cone of Cold - Not too sure on this one yet, but it doesn't look that good
Sleep - Either increase the casting time and keep the 2d4 HD or put keep the static HD and make the casting time a standard

 

[The Souljourner]

Enervation is not evil. If it were evil, it would have the [Evil] descriptor or say so in the description. Necromancy isn't evil. Raising the dead is evil, but necromancy in general is not. Negative energy is not evil.

Dude, Fireball *sounds* evil. Which would you rather - have your "life force suppressed" or be burned alive?

Arcane Sight? It's a third level spell that duplicates detect magic, a 0th level spell, except at a minute a level. One minute a level. That's over in a flash. Sure, permanancy... blow XP on a spell that can just be dispelled. Sweet.

Overland Flight! Overland Flight!? I'm aghast. That spell sucks! It's not overpowered, it's horribly underpowered. It's a *5th* level spell that only affects you! If that spell is unbalancing your game, something is seriously wrong with your game. Fly is two levels lower and can be cast on others. Pits aren't *supposed* to be dangerous to 9th level characters.

And oh yeah.... Mordenkainen's Disjunction is sick. It does stuff you can't even do with epic spell seeds. Nuh uh.

Cone of cold is the suck.
Sleep is the suck.

Power Word spells are underpowered.

Mind blank is fine. It's personal only, 8th level, and only protects you against spells you already have a really good save against. Whatever.

-The Souljourner

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Is Creeping Doom underpowered now?
It does, what, 9 points of damage per round per target to things that can't fly, don't have DR, and can't fight or outrun the swarm?
It used to be a good spell against tough melee brutes (e.g. giants), but I suppose now it is useful against armies of 1-HD foes. Except that 13th-level druids rarely face armies of 1-HD foes.

 

[dcollins]

If I'd written anything, it would basically just duplicate what Souljourner said, so count this as fully seconding his critique. Must be something in the water around here.

(One exception: I can live with Mordenkainen's Disjunction. I abstain from Epic so as a 9th level spell I haven't seen a problem with it.)

 

[The Souljourner]

Thanks for the support Disjunction bugs me more than it's overpowered I guess. Automatic dispel is powerful... buffs at higher levels can really swing the tide of a battle, and I never like anything that destroys magic items.

-The Souljourner

 

[Brekki]

Mind blank is fine. It's personal only, 8th level, and only protects you against spells you already have a really good save against. Whatever.

-The Souljourner
Mind Blank has a target of "one creature", so all your low-willsave fightertype buddies will be very happy.

 

[iwatt]

Enervation is not evil. If it were evil, it would have the [Evil] descriptor or say so in the description. Necromancy isn't evil. Raising the dead is evil, but necromancy in general is not. Negative energy is not evil.

Maybe it just how we play it in my groups, but sucking energy seems mighty close to evil. I agree that it doesn't have the Evil descriptor, but IMCs (as player and DM) going around throwing harm and inflicts makes for an evil reputation at least.

But getting back on topic, I believe enervation is one of the nastiest spells in the game. Specially against clerics and mages. The losing of spells is really harsh.