Persistent Spell?

[reichtfeld]

I'm guessing that the cone can be moved as a free action on the caster's turn or how exactly does that work?

Has anyone houseruled allowing target: touch buffs to be used as persistent? If so, with what results? Anything exceptionally unbalancing? Because if I were DM'ing I'd be tempted to allow them and likewise tempted to ask approval of a DM for those allowances. Of course this is with consideration to Haste being revised.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Revised or not, Haste is ineligible. Range: Close.

-Hyp.

 

[reichtfeld]

Whoops. I was thinking of Rapid Strikes from Dragon #275. Level 2 spell that is "mini-Haste," giving one extra attack instead of a partial action and the +4 AC. I forgot that was touch but haste itself is close range.

 

[SimonMoon5]

Here's a list someone on the Wizards boards made:

'Fixed' range non-instant PHB spells of 5th level or lower.

Antiplant Shell
Arcane Eye
Bane
Bless
Blink (or you could buy a Ring of Blinking)
Comprehend Languages (or buy a Helm of Comp Langs)
Detect Chaos (or buy an Amulet of Detect 'Fill in blank')
Detect Evil
Detect Good
Detect Law
Detect Magic
Detect Scrying (already is 24 hours)
Detect Secret Doors
Detect Snares and Pits
Detect Thoughts
Detect Undead
*Divine Favor
*Divine Power
Entropic Shield
Expeditious Retreat
Fire Shield
Freedom of Movement
Helping Hand (you should only ever need 8 hours)
Invisibility Purge
Leomund's Tiny Hut (2 hours/level anyway)
Levitate
Meld into Stone
Phantom Steed (1 hour/level normally)
Polymorph Self (1 hour/level normally)
Prayer
Prestidigitation
Prying Eyes (1 hour / level normally)
Read Magic
Repel Vermin
*Righteous Might
Shield
Speak with Animals (yeah, here's a nut, go away)
Speak with Dead (somebody, tell the corpse to shut up.)
Tree Shape (1 hour/level normally, but who wants to be a tree for 24hours?)
Tree Stride (1 hour/ level normally)
True Strike (only for your next attack)

 

[reichtfeld]

I've also got Arcane Sight, Ghostform, Mestil's Acid Sheath, and Minor Reflection jotted down in notepad from when I started looking. These are all from WotC splatbooks or Dragon issues. Persistent minor reflection is an especially useful one to use considering it grants the tarrasque ability to reflect ray spells. Also, wouldn't mirror image from the PHB apply for the requirements?

 

[LokiDR]

I've also got Arcane Sight, Ghostform, Mestil's Acid Sheath, and Minor Reflection jotted down in notepad from when I started looking. These are all from WotC splatbooks or Dragon issues. Persistent minor reflection is an especially useful one to use considering it grants the tarrasque ability to reflect ray spells. Also, wouldn't mirror image from the PHB apply for the requirements?

According to the MoF errata, no, Mirror Image can not be dispelled because its effect can be discharged.

As for the touch spells you seem to want to allow: don't. On the wizard list, there aren't that many (though fly is one), on the cleric list there are many. When we applied this errata in our game, the cleric lost 3+ buffs he was persistanting. In the hands of powergamers (like me) it doesn't work well at all.

 

[reichtfeld]

Loki: thanks for the feedback on your experience with persisting touch buffs. Are you sure about mirror image? I don't think of it as being "discharged" so much as individual images being dispelled by a successful targeted attack. I do understand your point of view but I feel like it could go either way depending on the DM. Granted, once an image is destroyed from an attack it is gone for good. But I still think a very cautious wizard wouldn't mind using a slot for persistent mirror image in case something got the drop on him/her. Even having a single image left still means a 50% chance to mistarget.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hmm. Persistent Mirror Image.

That reminds me of an idea I had for an NPC, but I could never figure out the rules mechanics to pull it off.

A small town, who live in fear of the halfling who wields all the power. He holds no office, but the mayor, councillors, sheriff, etc are all terrified of him.

Everywhere he goes, he's flanked by a pair of big half-ogre thugs. They've never actually hit anyone... but they look big and tough enough that they've never had to. The halfling comments on how nice that jacket would look; one of the thugs grins and cracks his knuckles; the shopkeeper presents the jacket as a gift with his compliments.

And obviously, if the halfling can command big freaky bodyguards like that, he must be more than he appears!

In actuality, the bodyguards are illusions, backed by an Unseen Servant type effect so they can casually drop vases on the floor, or poke someone in the chest, or open doors for the halfling. He relies on the fact that nobody has the guts to try and stand up to them to keep the deception going...

-Hyp.

 

[reichtfeld]

Hypersmurf: Gimmicks like that have tempted me to make an illusionist before, but it seems a lot more effective to use as a DM rather than a player. Since, of course, the DM's adjudication of NPC's reactions to your illusions are left entirely up to them. But the DM can exert a lot of control over presenting illusions to players.

 

[LokiDR]

Loki: thanks for the feedback on your experience with persisting touch buffs. Are you sure about mirror image? I don't think of it as being "discharged" so much as individual images being dispelled by a successful targeted attack. I do understand your point of view but I feel like it could go either way depending on the DM. Granted, once an image is destroyed from an attack it is gone for good. But I still think a very cautious wizard wouldn't mind using a slot for persistent mirror image in case something got the drop on him/her. Even having a single image left still means a 50% chance to mistarget.

My call would be that discharged==dispelled. If all your images are hit, there is no more spell. I don't know what the "official" ruling would be, but I think it would fall along those lines.

Then again, I don't see too much of a problem with it, so I would allow it if a player really wanted it.