Protection against glitterdust?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

No, it's more like "I have an enlarged fighter in my game that keeps improved tripping people at range with his spiked chain." And, there are plenty of people who have nerfed/banned spiked chains.

It doesn't become less effective. The DC will continue to increase on par with Good saves and better than Poor saves. Please tell me what level spell is a limited duration mass blindness that can go around corners (not targeted).

Glitterdust?

The spell becomes less effective if not cast via Heighten Spell. And then, it's no longer really a 2nd level spell, and compared to other spells you have to save against, it will seem pretty weak... The non-targeted aspect is usually only important for the spells original function - revealing hidden/invisible creatures. For the blinding function, it's rarely neccessary.

 

[Jack99]

Not sure why you'd want to put a stop to this anyway. To me its exactly like saying "I have a fighter in my game that keeps hitting people with his battleaxe. What can I do to stop that?"

Glitterdust is a good spell that will become less effective as he goes up in levels. For now, instead of coming up with a way to nerf or counter Glitterdust, just have the next badguy cast Glitterdust on HIM! Balance restored and you don't have to re-write the rules.


Storme

Since I roll all rolls in the open, I do not have the luxury of cheating on saves, like so many other DM's. That's why, for the good of the story or the combat, it is nice to have options, legitimate options, to help me "control" (loosely used) combat, ie to make it more interesting or exciting, if you will.

Cheers

 

[Krensus]

Glitterdust?

The spell becomes less effective if not cast via Heighten Spell. And then, it's no longer really a 2nd level spell, and compared to other spells you have to save against, it will seem pretty weak... The non-targeted aspect is usually only important for the spells original function - revealing hidden/invisible creatures. For the blinding function, it's rarely neccessary.

Yes, an AoE blindness that uses a Will save, is not subject to Spell Resistance, and has a secondary effect that reveals invisible/hidden characters. Sounds like a bad choice to me, too.

 

[akbearfoot]

At 7th level he can smack something for 8d6 with his scorching ray, or catch a whole lot more than 2-3 critters in a hallway with a web...or keep the rogue who snuck up on him and just stabbed him in the back for 30 damage by casting invisibility on himself.


That much investment into spell focus conjuration, and even taking such a crappy feat as heighten spell says he's a 1-trick pony.

When it works, he's gonna he very effective...when it doesent work he's going to be practically useless.

Outsiders, dragons, constructs, powerful undead, oozes, and almost any monster that would normally have SR in the first place will all stand a reasonably good chance of saving against this spell.

I played a similar character once in 3.0 that was a transmutation specialist who'se signature spells were Blindness and Slow. He never took more than 1 fireball in a day and only kept a few other flashy spells on scrolls for emergencies. He had spellcasting prodigy, greater spell focus, used Spell enhancer and had fatespinner levels to even further boost the save DCs. Anything that was percieved to be a 'big smashy', or stealthy leather armor wearing type got slowed...Spell casters got blinded, and cannon fodder got squished by everyone else in the party. If it was really important to make a critter fail its save, I'd burn 3 pts of spin, cast spell enhancer, and IF it made it's save I could force it to re-roll once a day. At 9th level he could force a save vs blindness up to DC 27 and make you roll it twice. He was a ton of fun to play until we started fighting monsters that had ways to flee...We fought the SAME ogre magi 4 times, and usually soon after he'd blow us away with his Cone of Cold I would blind him. Since word of our tactics had then gotten out, every subsequent encounter was more difficult.

The next time around he brought creatures with scent to sniff me out while invisible and grapple me. The 3rd time, it was 'EVERYBODY kill that mage!'. The 4th time he was at our house polymorphed into one of our allies and had a ring of counterspells loaded with blindness, lol. We're all sitting in the living room talking, and suddenly he stands up and we all take a point black CoC to the face.

Anyhow, the point of the story was that the 1-trick pony has advantages and disadvantages...Once his primary tactic becomes known the bad guys will be more prepared. They'll stay more spread out, they'll create ways to flee. Have an low level hidden invisible spellcaster specifically to counterspell the glitterdust, something. Ready an action to rush behind a tapestry covering a concealed doorway if he casts glitterdust or something. Or just have a hiddne/invisible critter sneak up and grapple him/ interrupt his casting with a dagger to the spleen.

 

[Mistwell]

Give an opponent or two a single level of the Mindbender prestige class (which grants at-will telepathy in 100 ft.), and the Mindsight feat from Lords of Madness (which allows them to precisely pinpoint other thinking beings within range of telepathy). For one level and one feat, you've entirely beat any kind of blindness, or concealment, and even some illusions and other things that depend on sight.

 

[Shayuri]

Lets not forget Blink and Greater Blink. The miss chance applies normally to Glitterdust.

There are also some items in the MIC that make you immune to blinding.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Lets not forget Blink and Greater Blink. The miss chance applies normally to Glitterdust.

How so?

Physical attacks against you have a 50% miss chance.

Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you’re blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures.

While blinking, you take only half damage from area attacks (but full damage from those that extend onto the Ethereal Plane).

Glitterdust isn't a physical attack, or an individually targeted spell; of those three, it fits 'area attack'.

So what effect does Blink have on Glitterdust? It means you take half damage. Anything else about the spell is unaffected.

-Hyp.