Problem with Quill Blast

[wujenta]

Hi people

As the title implies i got a little problem with the spell Quill Blast (complete divine pg 176, Druid lvl 5)

Last sesion my players were against a Young adult red dragon ,CR 13 if i remember correctly, and the 5 players were level 10-11 and I though that it was going to be a tough encounter but doable.

It was a piece of cake. With the use of this spell the druid transformed de dragon from killing machine into a puppy. He went near the dragon and cast this spell and rolled 14 with 4d6 as the dragon was huge. After that, the dragon got a -14 to attacks/saves/skills and took 14d6 of damage. Even if he has made the save he would have suffered a -7 to attacks/saves/skill and 7d6 damage.

I dont know if I played the spell right as i was wondering if the quills are treted as magical weapons and have to overcome his DR of 5/magic each one separately, so only the ones which rolled a 6 for damage will have any effect on the dragon.

I find the spell a lot powerful because, even in you made the save, you are left with huge penalties, and I was wondering if Thats the way it is...

So I ask you people advice in dealing with this spell, thanks for any advice in advance

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's been errata-ed to -1 total, not -1 per quill.

 

[wujenta]

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!

Is it errated in the complete divine errata os somewhere else?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If it helps, this spell was updated in Spell Compendium (page 164). The SC version has a fixed amount of quills per target, based on size capping at 12 for Huge or larger. Seeing as how it grants SR, I'd say it isn't subject to DR (further, there's alot of Druid spells in SC that explicitly mention they are subject to DR, this one doesn't). And really, not a terrific spell for level 5 (IMHO), at least SC version. it's a 20 ft spread from you, w/o any discrimination between ally and enemy, it's rather cruddy against non-large foes, and, all it takes is a standard action DC 20 Heal check to remove all quills. For some creatures, high Wisdom alone makes that a fair success rate.

EDIT: Yeah, completely missed the "noncumulative" part in SC. So yeah, really not a good spell.

 

[Jack Simth]

As written in Complete Divine, it's a very evil spell - against a "standard" opponent (e.g., a medium creature) it's worse than Energy Drain (Sor/Wiz 9). Against a bigger opponent? The next spell finishes the deathkabob. The bard can now take down the dragon fairly reliably with Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

Errata downloaded off Wizards.com doesn't include Quill Blast on the list for Complete Divine.

My advice? Ban it. Ban it good.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Actually, reading the part about the heal check again, it appears that's merely to avoid taking another 1d6 damage. Even if you fail, it's just a standard action and 1d6 damage to end the effect, unless I'm reading it wrong.