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

[Nifft]

Animal Growth: Anyone else allow it to be cast like Plant Growth, to increase the usable meat from a herd of animals by 1/3?

Bless Weapon: I thought this was clarified to bypass DR as though the weapon were +1, not to bypass all DR. That's how we use it in the campaigns where I DM or play. Otherwise, Holy Sword hardly seems worth using.

Animal Messenger: My party used this spell a few times. It's great for getting word back to a base of operation.

Animate Object: I agree, it's very weak for its level.

-- Nifft

 

[Stalker0]

The more I've thought about it, the more I agree that bless weapon should only negate DR of +1. I mean, hell it could technically negate +6 DR!!

But holy sword for the most part is still better. It gives you a +5 sword, so it takes care of DR, and doubles all damage, hard to beat.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

A few thoughts:

Aid--this spell is really pathetic. 1d8 hp and the effects of a personal bless. Give me bull's strength or Endurance or even Cure/Regenerate Light Wounds instead. If it were first level it would be a decent spell but not at 2nd level.

Alarm--this seems like the most under-rated spell in the books. It's the kind of spell you can leave a slot open all day for and if you haven't needed to fill it with another magic missile or shield spell, prepare alarm for the camp in the evening.

Animal Messenger--this is a great plot device spell and a good way for armies and spies to communicate. Since it's relatively low level, it's much more available than Sending.

Bestow Curse--I guess this spell has some uses (like punishing criminals, etc) but I really don't see it as that useful in combat. In most situations, if the enemy is going to blow a will save vs my 5th to 7th level cleric, I'd rather give them 3d8+lvl damage with an inflict spell (and still do 1/2 that if they make their save). Permanent duration is pretty moot if the enemy will hopefully be dead in a few rounds. It's a decent choice for a glyph of warding though (although not as good as combining Hold Person with Summon monster III if you ask me or a sonic blast glyph to warn you that someone just broke into your flat/evil sanctum or a poison spell to just plain kill the intruder).

Blur--This spell would still be weak even if it were 1st level. Less protection than Mage Armor (except against sneak attacks) for less time. Usually less protection than protection from Evil for that matter. And there are other ways to deal with sneak attacks (obscuring mist and magic missile, for instance).

 

[Asmo]

SHINY is back!

Yes, I noticed!!
And I´m very glad!!
SHINY lives!!!

Asmo

 

[Sir Hawkeye]

A few thoughts:


Blur--This spell would still be weak even if it were 1st level. Less protection than Mage Armor (except against sneak attacks) for less time. Usually less protection than protection from Evil for that matter. And there are other ways to deal with sneak attacks (obscuring mist and magic missile, for instance).

From a party standpoint, blur doesn't interfere with your own rogue like obscuring mist would. Something to consider. Also, if you've reached the point where enemies are going to hit the wizard with or without mage armor, blur still helps. Of course, by that point the wizard is usually flying and invisible, possibly with stoneskin.

 

[Stalker0]

A few thoughts:

Aid--this spell is really pathetic. 1d8 hp and the effects of a personal bless. Give me bull's strength or Endurance or even Cure/Regenerate Light Wounds instead. If it were first level it would be a decent spell but not at 2nd level.

Until you summon a latern archon to cast it at will

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I hear this quite a lot but I don't think it's true except in a few very exceptional cases. In my experience, most wizards with time for defense usually have a 20 or so AC before mage armor (+2 dex, +7 cover (shield spell), +1 natural armor or deflection). So, even if this is an unhasted wizard facing a monster with +18 to hit, the wizard gets marginally more milage out of mage armoring up to AC 24 (requiring a 6 to hit--so 75% of the critter's blows hit) than blur which gives a 20% miss chance (but actually cuts less than that off the damage because 1's always miss and 20% miss chance x 95% chance to hit=19% less chance to hit).

In any event, the situation is rarely that dramatic and consequently the effect of blur is more often comparable to protection from evil (+2 deflection bonus; an additional 10% of attacks miss) than mage armor.

Also, if you've reached the point where enemies are going to hit the wizard with or without mage armor, blur still helps. Of course, by that point the wizard is usually flying and invisible, possibly with stoneskin.

 

[Vanye]

A few thoughts:

Aid--this spell is really pathetic. 1d8 hp and the effects of a personal bless. Give me bull's strength or Endurance or even Cure/Regenerate Light Wounds instead. If it were first level it would be a decent spell but not at 2nd level.

And it's not even 1d8 REAL hp. They're temporary. If it at least healed you, and anything over your max was temporary, that would be useful....

Blur--This spell would still be weak even if it were 1st level. Less protection than Mage Armor (except against sneak attacks) for less time. Usually less protection than protection from Evil for that matter. And there are other ways to deal with sneak attacks (obscuring mist and magic missile, for instance).

It's better than obscuring mist in that you can still see your opponents, while they still have a 20% chance of missing you outright. It affects all attacks, not just sneak attacks.

 

[Burne]

Blur is also Verbal only. Our parties fighter/sorc took blur over mirror image for just that reason.

The Bigby's spells are redictulous. In our high level game, our party wizard cast a the 9th bigby's at the undamaged after 5 rounds, half fiend half crack cleric 24 of the high god of DM cheese.... and the cleric ran away, then cast a miracle to disintigrate the hand. Did the hand effect him, no. Was he scared of the big force hand of love. YES.

 

[dkilgo]

Bless and Bane are really cool spells for lower level games.

I tis just too bad that they cancel eachother out. SUCKS!