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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6028985" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Greenslime, I notice that a a lot of the "buffs" you list aren't buffs at all.  Fireseeds?  Come on.  Charm Person?  Who exactly are these spells buffing?Yes, there are spells that can last a long time.  There are magic items that last all day, items that duplicate a great many of the actual buff spells:  Amulet of Natural Armor, for example requires the Barkskin spell, so they won't stack.Protection from Evil/Chaos/Law/Good all create a Deflection bonus, the same as any Ring of Protection.  They won't stack.Any stat bump spell, such as Bull's Strength has an item based on the spell.So with fairly common items you can buff your party forever more.But their magical offense, and much of their ability to dish over-the-top damage is short term.Wall of... spells (except for Stone or Iron) provide temporary obstruction/defense that lasts a few minutes at most.Fire Shield or Body of the Sun are good "hurt-em-back" type defensive spells.  For a few minutes.And Potions.  Potions that let a non-spell caster fly, spot invisible opponents or become invisible, turn into a giant or attack with blinding speed, these are wonderful things.  But like the spells that go into them, they last for a few minutes.These things are great in a pitched battle in some old ruins, when you're fighting for your life.  But facing a wary commander in a larger scale conflict, one with time (and soldiers) to spare?  He can wait you out.A small group may be able to strike then flee the field, but if the goal was to hold the ground against an encroaching adversary, that's a losing strategy.  The massive enemy absorbs the losses you inflict, then advances as you retreat.As someone else pointed out a low level Bard (3rd, minimum) with the right feats and/or spells, using a Masterworked drum as his instrument, can give your entire army +4 to hit and +5 to damage, and if you allow the right items/spells from places like the Book of Exalted Deeds, you can double that to +8 to hit and +10 to damage.  And Bard songs don't have any stated time limit.That's a really nice bump for a leveled party.  It's an insane bump for a unit of 1st through 3rd level Warriors in a field formation as part of a divisional scale assault.  And make no mistake about it, what I've just described is the typical military unit of the game world.  (Standard world builder rules give the distribution of leveled individuals in any given city, and then say to populate said city with enough 1st and 2nd level Commoner types to reduce the leveled ones to 10% of the population or less.)Inspire Courage (Bard song) affects all in hearing range, and war drums can be heard for miles.  Add in the Amplify spell (1st level Bard spell) and for a few minutes you can make that range even longer.  So one good Bard can completely rewrite the outcome of a battle.  Their power has the range and duration to cover a divisional level, lasts-all-day confrontation.But if both armies have Bards with similar abilities?  The battle turns into a blood bath, since the impact of the Bard's performance enhances accuracy and damage, but not the AC or Hit Points of those line troops, which is what's needed to counter the effect.  Both armies suddenly become glass cannon, with men dying on just about any hit, and men being hit far more often than not.For leveled PCs, this is their worst nightmare.  PC fighter types of level 8+ were already hitting the enemy troops on anything but a 1, and killing pretty much one per blow.  The impact of the Bardic Music turns their already resent overkill combat abilities into more serious overkill, but you can't kill an enemy more dead.Our own combat machine PC was very frustrated fighting the Persians.  He'd hit on anything but a 1, Great Cleave through every enemy soldier within reach, and kill them all.  He wouldn't get to use his 2nd or 3rd attacks because there wasn't anyone within weapon reach.  He had to take his 5 ft step to advance close to the next rank of enemy soldiers, and then he was done.  You can't take a step between attacks in 3.5.We described it as him having to climb over or wade through the gathering heap of corpses around him, lest he be buried in fallen enemies.Grand image, frustrating reality in play, at least for him.Now take your 10th level Half Dragon fighter with his 30 Strength and magic weapons and all of his combat feats, and give him another +8 to hit and +10 to damage.  It changes nothing in that fight.  He's already a bad case of overkill, and all you've done is make sure his enemies are chopped into a smooth red salsa instead of a chunky red salsa.Give his 3rd level opponents a similar bump.  Suddenly they don't need a natural 20 to hit his AC 28.  They need a 13 or better, perhaps less when you count field advantages like flank and/or Aid Another on attacks.Commander Auras are wonderful.  If you happen to be in his command group, within 30 feet of him.If you're some poor clod schlepping along in formation, it means noting.  And large scale battles are one hell of a lot bigger than a 65 foot diameter circle.It's another neat power that's really well scaled to the adventuring party and has almost no impact in a true war.</blockquote>

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