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<blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 5729433" data-attributes="member: 259">If you were to make a list of spells never ever cast, Hallucinatory&nbsp; Terrain is at the top of the list (here's where I have my secret list of&nbsp; people that are guaranteed to pop in telling about the awesome time&nbsp; they cast that spell in a campaign--yeah, yeah, with the exception of your game,&nbsp; it's never ever cast).&nbsp; 4th level spell that takes 10 minutes to cast&nbsp; and has no real in-game effect--it's kind of awesome for a villain to&nbsp; cast, but it should be retitled &quot;Set Mood For Battle.&quot;&nbsp; Not something&nbsp; that I've ever seen a PC handle.Here's a rewrite of it with lower area-of-effect, lower duration, lower&nbsp; range, shorter casting time, and specific effects.&nbsp; In short, it forces&nbsp; characters to guess whether the terrain they're going into is safe or&nbsp; not, and if they guess wrong, they suffer penalties (either&nbsp; unnecessarily reduced movement speed, or reflex saves to avoid&nbsp; penalties).&nbsp; It's a weird battlefield control spell.Concerns:1) Level:&nbsp; I put it at level 3 because it seems in-line with other&nbsp; battlefield control (compare to Web at level 2 or Spike Stones at level&nbsp; 4).&nbsp; It's significantly more useful than Hallucinatory Terrain, but I&nbsp; don't see that as a problem, since Hallucinatory Terrain is so freakin'&nbsp; useless. I almost wonder if 2nd level would be appropriate:&nbsp; it seems weak compared to Stinking Cloud, and maybe about equal to Web, or maybe even a little weaker.2) No Will Save/Disbelief:&nbsp; Hallucinatory Terrain supplies one;&nbsp; Invisibility, another glamer, doesn't.&nbsp; A reflex save seemed more&nbsp; interesting with the spell (and makes the illusion school less of a&nbsp; one-trick pony).&nbsp; The idea is that even if you know the spell is there,&nbsp; you still are confused by its effects.&nbsp; It also means that the caster&nbsp; has to be careful moving in the area-of-effect.3) Too complicated:&nbsp; there are basically seven different scenarios with&nbsp; the spell (safe terrain moved through, difficult terrain moved through&nbsp; at 3 different speeds, dangerous terrain moved through at 3 different&nbsp; speeds).&nbsp; Hopefully the different scenarios are intuitive, but it still&nbsp; becomes pretty complicated.&nbsp; Too much so?&nbsp; I hope not; compare to spells&nbsp; like grease or web, with similar complications.4) Way too complicated:&nbsp; It's not too bad if the PCs cast it, but if an&nbsp; NPC cast it, it requires two different battlemaps:&nbsp; one with the spell&nbsp; cast on it for the PCs to look at, and another for the GM to look at&nbsp; with the actual terrain.&nbsp; This one could be resolved by allowing only&nbsp; one change (i.e., either make everything look safe, or make everything&nbsp; look hampered), and then you'd make a much easier battlemap.&nbsp; But&nbsp; allowing complex changes would be a lot more fun.What do folks think?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pielorinho, post: 5729433, member: 259"] If you were to make a list of spells never ever cast, Hallucinatory Terrain is at the top of the list (here's where I have my secret list of people that are guaranteed to pop in telling about the awesome time they cast that spell in a campaign--yeah, yeah, [I]with the exception of your game[/I], it's never ever cast). 4th level spell that takes 10 minutes to cast and has no real in-game effect--it's kind of awesome for a villain to cast, but it should be retitled "Set Mood For Battle." Not something that I've ever seen a PC handle. Here's a rewrite of it with lower area-of-effect, lower duration, lower range, shorter casting time, and specific effects. In short, it forces characters to guess whether the terrain they're going into is safe or not, and if they guess wrong, they suffer penalties (either unnecessarily reduced movement speed, or reflex saves to avoid penalties). It's a weird battlefield control spell. Concerns: 1) Level: I put it at level 3 because it seems in-line with other battlefield control (compare to Web at level 2 or Spike Stones at level 4). It's significantly more useful than Hallucinatory Terrain, but I don't see that as a problem, since Hallucinatory Terrain is so freakin' useless. I almost wonder if 2nd level would be appropriate: it seems weak compared to Stinking Cloud, and maybe about equal to Web, or maybe even a little weaker. 2) No Will Save/Disbelief: Hallucinatory Terrain supplies one; Invisibility, another glamer, doesn't. A reflex save seemed more interesting with the spell (and makes the illusion school less of a one-trick pony). The idea is that even if you know the spell is there, you still are confused by its effects. It also means that the caster has to be careful moving in the area-of-effect. 3) Too complicated: there are basically seven different scenarios with the spell (safe terrain moved through, difficult terrain moved through at 3 different speeds, dangerous terrain moved through at 3 different speeds). Hopefully the different scenarios are intuitive, but it still becomes pretty complicated. Too much so? I hope not; compare to spells like grease or web, with similar complications. 4) Way too complicated: It's not too bad if the PCs cast it, but if an NPC cast it, it requires two different battlemaps: one with the spell cast on it for the PCs to look at, and another for the GM to look at with the actual terrain. This one could be resolved by allowing only one change (i.e., either make everything look safe, or make everything look hampered), and then you'd make a much easier battlemap. But allowing complex changes would be a lot more fun. What do folks think? [/QUOTE]

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