ray of enfeeblement

[Thanee]

Maybe. I tend to think that Protection From Evil is better gained through the magic circle against evil spell.

Yeah, that's right. I was more thinking of situations, where you are not really buffed, but still, magic circle is just the better spell by far.

Shield is a pretty dodgy spell to quicken since 3.5 nerfed it.

It still gives +4 AC on top of what you have, usually, and protects against magic missiles. Not too bad.

Well, I just listed some spells, which I felt are still useful at higher levels.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Saeviomagy]

The only thing I houseruled: It doesn't work against undead. In 3.0, this wasn't a problem, but nowadays it does not allow a Fort save anymore, thus undead aren't immune anymore.

It's a necromancy effect - I'd say there's no problem with it sapping unlife at the same rate as life...

 

[Caliban]

Enlarge Person though. That's also worth quickening. It's still very useful at high levels and doubly so if the person you cast it on uses a reach weapon or improved trip. So there's three core 1st level sor/wiz spells worth quickening.

I don't think you can quicken full round spells in 3.5.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I don't think you can quicken full round spells in 3.5.

No. In 3E, you could Quicken any spell whose casting time was not more than one full round. (So you could Quicken Summon Monster, for example.)

In 3E, you can Quicken any spell whose casting time is not more than one full round action.

Enlarge Person has a casting time longer than one full round action, so it can't be Quickened in 3.5.

(You can do it if you combine it with the other feat from Complete Divine, I think... Rapid Spell, or something? I'm away from my books, though, so I'm not certain on that.)

-Hyp.

 

[FireLance]

Ray of Enfeeblement is a good reason to have a Potion of Lesser Restoration handy (the spell takes 3 rounds to cast, so it is less useful in combat).

Interesting to note that by the core rules, the Restoration series of spells seem to be the only ones that work against "magical effects reducing one of the subject's ability scores", barring general anti-magic remedies such as Dispel Magic. Even Heal will not remove the penalty from a Ray of Enfeeblement or Touch of Idiocy, although it cures ability damage (but not permanent drain).

If you feel that Ray of Enfeeblement is too powerful, you could do either or both of the following:
1. Allow Heal to remove a penalty to an ability score.
2. Treat it as a negative energy effect, so that Death Ward grants immunity to it.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Actually, if you read the description of spell casting times in the spells section of the PHB, it very explicitly says that spells with a listed casting time of one round take "one full round action" to cast.

Considering that there are no core or official builder/Complete book spells with a listed casting time of one full round action (other than those that say "1 round") and that the Quicken Spell feat explicitly excludeds the only other spells that could, through game mechanics gain a casting time of one full round action--namely spontaneously cast metamagic spells with a casting time of one action--it seems that the only possible interpretations of the Quicken Spell wording is either that the authors didn't give serious thought to what they were writing (thus unintentionally including 1-round spells along with the intended but non-existent full-round-action spells) or that they intended spells with a one round casting time to be included but worded it in a confusing manner.

So the long and the short of it is: 1 round casting time spells like Summon Monster and Enlarge Person take a full round action to cast and can be quickened. Either that or we're reduced to guessing the intentions of the writers which opens up a whole can of worms about any spell or feat description that seems to be worded in a confusing manner.

No. In 3E, you could Quicken any spell whose casting time was not more than one full round. (So you could Quicken Summon Monster, for example.)

In 3E, you can Quicken any spell whose casting time is not more than one full round action.

Enlarge Person has a casting time longer than one full round action, so it can't be Quickened in 3.5.

(You can do it if you combine it with the other feat from Complete Divine, I think... Rapid Spell, or something? I'm away from my books, though, so I'm not certain on that.)

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Actually, if you read the description of spell casting times in the spells section of the PHB, it very explicitly says that spells with a listed casting time of one round take "one full round action" to cast.

The action you use is the Cast a Spell Full round action. However, the casting extends beyond this action until just before your turn in the next round.

Even once your full round action is over, the casting is not. Therefore, the casting time is "more than one full round action".

From the 3.5 Main FAQ, p17:
Any full-round action takes place entirely during the acting
character’s turn. That is, the action begins and ends during the
acting character’s turn in the initiative order. Though taking a
full-round action leaves you no time to move (except, possibly,
a 5-foot step) it does not continue into the next round in the
same way a spell with a casting time of 1 round does. A full-round
action is quicker than a 1-round casting time.

If a full-round action is quicker than a 1-round casting time, then a 1-round casting time must be longer than a full-round action... and thus is ineligible for Quicken Spell in 3.5.

-Hyp.

 

[Liquidsabre]

As Hyper mentioned, the feat Rapid Spell in Complete Divine reduces a spell's casting time, such as 1 full round to standard action for a summon spell and mentions "special: A spell can be made rapid and quickened only if its original casting time was 1 full round."

I doubt that if a spontaneous caster can't cast quicken spells due to full-round casting that a prep caster could manage to cast a 1-round spell as a quickened spell.

 

[Trainz]

It's also very good for high level casters to use a 6th spell slot to cast an empowered, maximised RoE. With no save, we're looking at a penalty to hit and damage from -7 to -8. An enervation spell would substract from -2 to -8 to hit.

Of course, it isn't forbidden to cast both !

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

That makes it a question of the FAQ explicitly contradicting the core rules then. The 3.5 PHB, p. 174 says:

A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed.

Thus there is an explicit contradiction between the FAQ "quicker than a 1-round casting time" and the PHB which identifies a one round casting time as "a full round action." Either way, any arguments that assume the truth of all implications of both statements exactly as worded are going to be highly implausible (for instance, a full round action is quicker than a 1-round casting time but a 1-round casting time isn't more than a full-round action).

However, if one considers the context of the FAQ question, it appears in the context of a question asking when a spontaneous caster's metamagicked spell comes or a coup de grace comes into effect. Thus it is possible to narrowly construe the FAQ answer to be about the timing of effects and the PHB statement (found in the "casting time" section) to be about casting time. The 1-round casting time spell doesn't take longer than a full-round action to cast (thus making it eligable for Quicken Spell) but does (as the FAQ notes) take longer to come into effect.

I think that it is probably best to construe the FAQ narrowly in general. Otherwise, you end up with absurdities like the interpretations of the 3.0 FAQ that said, since the FAQ says that a ten foot pole oriented diagonally only takes up one square and the description of a reach weapon specifies that it may not attack adjacent targets, a reach weapon may not attack on the diagonal at all. Since the FAQ does not go through as rigorous an editing process as the PHB, I suggest that it's best to narrowly construe FAQ answers so as to avoid contradicting the PHB whenever possible.

The action you use is the Cast a Spell Full round action. However, the casting extends beyond this action until just before your turn in the next round.

Even once your full round action is over, the casting is not. Therefore, the casting time is "more than one full round action".

From the 3.5 Main FAQ, p17:
Any full-round action takes place entirely during the acting
character’s turn. That is, the action begins and ends during the
acting character’s turn in the initiative order. Though taking a
full-round action leaves you no time to move (except, possibly,
a 5-foot step) it does not continue into the next round in the
same way a spell with a casting time of 1 round does. A full-round
action is quicker than a 1-round casting time.

If a full-round action is quicker than a 1-round casting time, then a 1-round casting time must be longer than a full-round action... and thus is ineligible for Quicken Spell in 3.5.

-Hyp.