save or die 3.5

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

And honestly I think its added functionaility was easily balanced by the to hit roll needed to succeed.

It cut right through death ward. There aren't many logical ways of fixing this.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I bump into death ward how many times?

Its 10 minutes a level you can't cast this at the begining of the day and be protected. If death ward is protecting my foes before I get there either we screwed up big time or something is up with some GM metagaming.

 

[Hypersmurf]

NPC wizards should cast some defensive spells. I suggest mirror image - that works against nearly everything.

Caster Level 8 Wand of Message: 6000gp.

To solve all your Mirror Image worries, it's a bargain

-Hyp.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Caster Level 8 Wand of Message: 6000gp.

Ok, Hyp. That's the second time you've mentioned this. What's the catch?

As for death ward, I'm amazed the evil high priest doesn't use it. Disintegrate works on two more creature types and goes right through one of the best defensive spells. I think that's worth a level over finger of death. The ray bring it back to 7th-level.

Not 6th-level, unless you're a Destruction cleric.

 

[I'm A Banana]

For me, it's good that they didn't change the Reverse-Life Spells (Basically Finger of Death vs. Raise Dead, etc.).

I think of it like this:

Player: "I Disintegrate!"
*rolls a bunch of dice*
DM: "Good job, you nailed him...only since he's so uber tough, and your roll was kinda crap, you only winged him. You basically blasted a hole through his upper thigh with your ray. Nice work."

vs.

Player: "I Finger of Death!"
*rolls a bunch of dice**
DM: "Nice! He failed his save...but you didn't manage to kill him."
Player: "It's called 'Finger of Death.' Why is there no death?:
DM: "Well, with the revision, there are no save-or-die effects. So Finger of Death is now Finger of Really Big Damage."
Player: "So my cleric can restore the dead to life, but not kill the living? Wouldn't they basically be the same effects, just in reverse? Why doesn't Raise Dead just restore a lot of hit points?"
DM: "Sorry...yeah...it's wierd, but that's the way it's written. Just a lot of damage. He'll die if he takes enough, of course."
Player: "Wow...really...he'll die if he takes damage. Revelation. Why isn't Finger of Ouch or something? Pheh. Finger of Death. More like Finger of the Shaft."
(purile jokes about fingers, shafts, and Soveliss ensue).

It's a flavor thing. If my cleric can manipulate the forces of life and death I want them to be able to slay people as easily as they can bring them back from the dead. Not....deal out lots of damage...I mean, whoppee, really, that's no different than a bunch of Fireballs...which is the Wizard's schtick.

Basically, if Finger of Death involved no immediate Death it should be called Finger of PAIN! OY! IN THE GLAYVIN! NICE LADY!

 

[MerakSpielman]

...PCs are usually fighting monsters, not NPCs.

Says who?

 

[ashockney]

Anyone care to speculate or comment officially on what limitations if any may apply to finger of death, that won't apply to disintegrate. For example, it sounds like Disintegrate pretty much works on everything, but FoD will only work on humanoids, or living creatures, or creatures of x HD or less, etc.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Ok, Hyp. That's the second time you've mentioned this. What's the catch?

(It's a lot more than the second time )

According to the PHB description of Mirror Image, a successful attack roll destroys a figment. Magic Missile has no attack roll, so a PHB Mirror Image cannot be destroyed by a Magic Missile.

The FAQ decided to change the spell, for some reason, and states that a targetted spell can also destroy a figment. It goes on to clarify that a targetted spell is any spell with a 'Target' or 'Targets' entry in the stat block.

Message can hit one target per caster level - thus completely destroying a Maxed Mirror Image at CL8, while Magic Missile caps at 5 targets at CL9.

Message is thus one of the best anti-Mirror-Image spells around.

It's better cast by a wizard than from a wand, because the cost of the wand scales with caster level... but it's not the sort of spell you want to memorise "just in case", usually.

-Hyp.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Without the "die," you may as well get rid of the "save" next.

Save or Die is good...it reminds us that with a simple roll of the die (no pun intended), any PC can be annihilated. Kind of like in real life, y'know?

And (Psi)Severed Head...for the last time, it's irresistible, not irresistable. If you change it, I'll stop claiming that you're completely misinformed about Harm. 'Kay?

 

[Ravellion]

It's a flavor thing. If my cleric can manipulate the forces of life and death I want them to be able to slay people as easily as they can bring them back from the dead. Not....deal out lots of damage...I mean, whoppee, really, that's no different than a bunch of Fireballs...which is the Wizard's schtick.

Basically, if Finger of Death involved no immediate Death it should be called Finger of PAIN! OY! IN THE GLAYVIN! NICE LADY!

It still sometimes failed before though. It was quite often "Just a finger of nothing mucha t all". Now, if Roy is wrong, part of the times it fails, but it still affects the victim in a meaningful way (though it probably will work less often).

If you must slay people as easily as you bring them back from the dead, I am sure the DM can grant you a 1 minute casting time spell with a 500 gp material component to achieve just that.

Rav