Slay Living or Finger of Death

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Note that Slay Living is 5th because it used to be the reverse of the Raise Dead spell, which was 5th.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Magic Jar vs. A mob of giants=Slay mob of giants.

DS

 

[Quartz]

Interesting. I'd forgotten that both Slay Living and Finger of Death were Death effects. Which means that you can't use Raise Dead to counter either. I'm not sure I agree with that for Slay Living.

 

[hanniball]

While I agree that Finger of Death is superior to Slay Living, I think it's important to note that Slay Living does not have a maximum on the damage it can deal. Finger of Death caps at 3D6+25.

Therefore, if one is able to generate an obscenely high or nigh-infinite caster level, Slay Living would be more useful. It would essentially be a die-or-die spell; either the save fails and they die, or they take infinite damage and die.

Either way...just my 2 cp

 

[jbstone]

Bands of Steel (from Complete Arcane) is almost a save or die spell at 3rd level. Fail save and be helpless to receive multiple coup-de-gras attempts. Entangled even if you make your save.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Bands of Steel (from Complete Arcane) is almost a save or die spell at 3rd level. Fail save and be helpless to receive multiple coup-de-gras attempts. Entangled even if you make your save.

I'm not convinced of that. The text of the spell says immobilized, not helpless. In most other contexts, I would take that to mean unable to move on the battlemap.

 

[Tiberius]

First of all, I've said it sometimes that CdG is a game design mistake in many cases.

Well, it's better than what I remember from previous editions. I seem to recall being able to automatically kill a helpless person, rather than them having a chance of survival through a saving throw.

 

[Quartz]

While I agree that Finger of Death is superior to Slay Living, I think it's important to note that Slay Living does not have a maximum on the damage it can deal. Finger of Death caps at 3D6+25.

Therefore, if one is able to generate an obscenely high or nigh-infinite caster level, Slay Living would be more useful. It would essentially be a die-or-die spell; either the save fails and they die, or they take infinite damage and die.

As a 5th level spell, doesn't Slay Living have a cap of 10D6 for a secondary effect?

 

[hanniball]

There is nothing in the spell description that states Slay Living has a maximum damage output of 10D6. In fact, the spell specifically states that it only deals 3D6 damage +1/caster level. I'm not sure where you got this interpretation from, but it would not be unreasonable to house-rule that it caps at a similar maximum to Finger of Death (+25 damage).