Rules forum "Book Club": PH spells A-O

[Lucius Foxhound]

SHINY is back!

I agree, Tom .. Animate Rope is useless for preventing spellcasting. I, too, remember the days when you could foul spellcasting by throwing rocks... a fun time.

 

[doktorstick]

What does "familiar" mean wrt locations with the scry spells?

Can you walk clairvoyance? By that I mean can you use the spell, gander the surroundings becoming "familiar" with then, and then cast it again with a new point of origin. After a few days (esp. with a Sor), an entire domicile can be previewed.

I know it is a "C" but scry-type spells were being discussed.

/ds

 

[ashockney]

Here's some notes from my reading of the "A's"...

Acid Fog - never seen this used in a game (probably because it's only 2d6 damage). It's got potential, however, because it's AoE, NO SAVE, for 1 round/level. Hmmm...

Air Walk - why make such complicated rulings like this? Air speed above 20 mph can push along...

Alter Self - lower level fly, same duration...water-breathing too... never caught that one. Cool.

Analyze Dweomer - why include the "physically taxing" disclaimer on this spell. It's like in game design they're making "identifying" SO hard. Why? Does this really enhance gameplay? Not in my games. When I run, our 1st level identify works more like the way they describe this 6th level spell...without the nasty side-effect. How does this work for you?

Animal Messenger - no save, great duration. Very potentially useful...never seen it used.

Animal Shapes - boy does that spell suck! 8th level spell to transform my party into wolves? Hmmm? Or, I could creeping doom our enemies and call it a day! Yeah, I'll go with that instead.

Animal Trance (Sleep) - ahhh...early mezz'ing is good.

Animate Object - maybe it's just the version I'm reading, but isn't this a little light on guidance for the DM? Animates an object...no damage range, nothing like that? Hmmmm...

Anti-life Shell - dollar for dollar, one of the best spells in the game.

Anti-plant Shell - plants? PLANTS? P-L-A-N-T-S?

Arcane Mark - This would be a sweet "trigger" for a whole line of cool "defensive" or "tattoo" spells.

Astral Projection - this spell is a whole can of worms. You could run entire campaigns around one casting of this spell.

Atonement - the "redemption" element would be a great way to end a climax with a re-occuring villian.

 

[the Jester]

Acid Fog - never seen this used in a game (probably because it's only 2d6 damage). It's got potential, however, because it's AoE, NO SAVE, for 1 round/level. Hmmm...

The pcs in my campaign just got a lot of use out of this last night while in a huge battle with a hive of formians and their allies, including eight advespa devils... The advespa regenerated everything except for the acid damage the pcs were throwing at them, and one of the pcs (well, actually a cohort) threw an acid fog out... as they downed the devils (and time allowed) they'd drag them into the fog.

 

[James McMurray]

Acid Fog - never seen this used in a game (probably because it's only 2d6 damage). It's got potential, however, because it's AoE, NO SAVE, for 1 round/level. Hmmm...

It is also great in that it affects all objcts in the area. After a few rounds, you can have your foes naked. Granted, metal's hardness will help protect it, but not forever.

Alter Self - lower level fly, same duration...water-breathing too... never caught that one. Cool.

Alter Self is definitely cool. Not as good as fly though, due tot he speed limitation.

Analyze Dweomer - why include the "physically taxing" disclaimer on this spell. It's like in game design they're making "identifying" SO hard. Why? Does this really enhance gameplay? Not in my games. When I run, our 1st level identify works more like the way they describe this 6th level spell...without the nasty side-effect. How does this work for you?

I'm thinking of integrating Monte Cook's Object Loresight into my game. Its basically a super-powerfl identify. The more times you cast it, the more info you get. It does start off with simple things like last owner's name though, so it may take you a while to learn all of an item's abilities.

Animal Shapes - boy does that spell suck! 8th level spell to transform my party into wolves? Hmmm? Or, I could creeping doom our enemies and call it a day! Yeah, I'll go with that instead.

A party transformed into Dire Weasels could kill the Tarrasque.

Animate Object - maybe it's just the version I'm reading, but isn't this a little light on guidance for the DM? Animates an object...no damage range, nothing like that? Hmmmm...

Animated objects are statted based on size in the MM. They're actually fairly weak, considering that its a 6th level spell.

Astral Projection - this spell is a whole can of worms. You could run entire campaigns around one casting of this spell.

Or ruin entire campaigns with castings of this spell. I almost got it for a psion in my campaign, but then decided against it. Basically the party becomes immune to death or equipment destruction for a while. Then somebody finds their body and its a TPK.

For the B's.

Barkskin would be much more useful as a higher level spell with an hour per level duration. As it stands, the druid in the party casts it, but only with 4x extension, and even then it only lasts 9 hours.

Bigby's Clenched Fist, for a wizard built to have high DCs, is a serious beating.

Blade Barrier needs work (IMO). Then again, flame wars have been waged over that topic, so let's move on, shall we?

Blasphemy, Word of Chaos, Holy Word, Dictum: My players learned to their chagrine that these spells are nearly worthless to a high level party that is travelling the planes.

Bless Weapon: In my campaign, we restricted it to the paladin's personal weapon. Having a single 1st level spell that was capable of allowing the entire party to bypass DR 30/- just wasn't right.

Break Enchantment: Never seen it used outside of a plot driven necessity. But maybe that's what it was designed for?

Bull's Strength, etc.: These spells are all very useful. And they are making me contemplate disallowing stacking of Empower.

 

[shilsen]

It is also great in that it affects all objcts in the area. After a few rounds, you can have your foes naked. Granted, metal's hardness will help protect it, but not forever.

Actually most metal objects will be immune to Acid Fog. Objects take half damage from acid (PHB, pg.135). With 2d6 dmg per round, the spell can do a max of 6 pts of damage every rd. And since hardness still applies and completely metal weapons have a hardness of 10 (more, if magic), the damage will never get through. But you can melt a lot of other things to pieces. Along with the damage, one of the best effects of Acid Fog is the slowing down of speed (1/10 speed). Think Acid Fog + Blade Barrier

 

[maddman75]

Note that Break Enchantment could prove very useful if you run into cockatrices, medusas, or other such nasties. Hard to remember that this spell can break petrification.

 

[Stalker0]

Augury, probably one of my most favorite div spells for low levels when you just got to know (would breaking that "insert thing here" be a good idea

Arcane Mark- a good way for evil wizards to mark their property. Can also be an embarrasment for high up nobles to get branded with this mark. since there's no save involved. Can also be put on your hand for a grocery list

Binding- A group of mages casting this spell is damn powerful for a plot kind of spell. You could potentially raise the caster level so high that no dispel would have a chance of breaking it, and freedom doesn't affect binding. Anyone ever used it?

Bane- does casting this in any part of a blessed area, counter the whole blessed area?

Acid Fog- the more I look at this one, the more you think it would practically destroy all of your items.

Bestow Curse- this one is probably one of the more powerful 3rd level spells considering you can't dispel it off hand. I'm curious, what version do most of you all use?

 

[ashockney]

"The B's..."

Bane - nice spell until about 5th level, after that, it's of too little consequence. I think this would have worked better as a -1 morale penalty per 3 or 5 levels up to -4 or -5. Drop the duration from 1 min/lvl to 1 rd/lvl, it's really of no consequence, because it is only the creatures in the area at the time of casting (which means it must be cast pre-combat or in combat).

Banishment - that's much tougher than I ever imagined, especially with the ability to jack up the SR Roll and SAVE DC.

Bestow Curse - in a campaign I recently ran, one player played a Shaman out of OA, and ran him like an EQ de-buffer. I saw heavy doses of Bestow Curse, it was usually the -6 to an attribute (with prayers for CON), but occassionally would be the 50% no action (particualrly against spellcasters).

Bigby's - very nice no save, damage over time spells, particularly since there are added "stun" or "grapple" effects. That's a nice kicker. Must have against high-level baddies that will blow through saves against most things.

Blade Barrier - 10 min/lvl. Wow.

Bless - similar to Bane, it would be nice if the bonus stacked up a little higher, perhaps +1/6 lvl (up to +3 at 12th).

Bless Weapon - WOW. That is a great spell. Auto threat vs. evil and negate DR. You can even throw it on your non-keen, non-vorpal magic sword!

 

[Tom Cashel]

Just a few quick comments (because my fiance and mother-in-law are conspiring to keep me from having any time to myself)...

I also noticed that acid fog is a great spell...the fact that it slows down opponents (like solid fog) and affects items makes it great!

I used animal messenger once, to send a note back to our patron from the forest in which we were lost. (The Standing Stone, actually...)

My cleric always has break enchantment memorized these days...the list of things it counters is truly comprehensive.

Along the lines of bless weapon...Paladins seem to have a lot of spells that, while very low-level, seem as though they would remain useful, well...forever.