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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 1327835" data-attributes="member: 3400">I like many of the changes to 3.5, but some of the spell changes, including ones here, make me scratch my head and wonder if there was just too much feature creep in the release. There's a lot of micromanaging of these rules.For the buff spells and sleep removing the variable effect, it renders the spell unchangeable by Empower spell since they are no longer variables. The buffs were particularly troubling considering they could also be Extended as well, leading to obnoxious buffing strategies that just couldn't be beat.I'm definitely a supporter of the "if there's a dominating strategy in a game, it must be weeded out" philosophy of game design. If there's a must-have and use as often as possible strategy that always works, it's a problem because it's really no longer much of a game. And so I generally support the nerfing of the buff spells (though maybe 10min/level would be acceptible). But with the reduced HD limit on sleep, removing Empower-ability, and the relatively low Will save DC of a 1st level spell (compared to 1st and 2nd edition NO save), the spell is certainly not a no-brainer anymore even without a full round casting time. I'm really not sure I see much point to that.There are other changes I don't understand either. Spider Climb now a 2nd level spell? Summon Nature's Ally including genies? And I don't really understand the duration change for invisibility. Ten minutes/level compared with ALL DAY for previous editions was probably a significant-enough correction. But 1 min/level? That may be a whole bunch of combat time at 10 rounds/minute, but if you are trying to send a low-level scout to check out the army encampment, it won't get him very far.I dunno. Many spell changes like this just look to me like someone let the project get a bit too broadly defined. I've blindsided my players with some of the changes (and really blindsided myself too). I'm in the process of house-ruling some features back like the standard action casting time of sleep and the invisibility duration of 10 min/level.</blockquote>

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