Spells that are annoying to DMs

[Torment]

Any DMs here have a particular problem with a particular spell? Me, I can't stand entangle. Too much to keep track of, who made their save, who's moving half speed, who's trying to break free, who's just sitting there failing their save. Man... too... much!

 

[Shade]

Unseen servant. The spell creates too many "what if" scenarios, and can easily become overpowering.

 

[barghus]

Personally, I hate teleport and plane shifting spells. These were great in the days when you teleported to "town" from the dungeon to rest and refit for the next dungeon crawl, but they really are a problem in a story based game. I guess I'm a low magic guy by nature.

 

[Kyrail]

Web. Slows the game way down, trivializes encounters, and makes non-caster PCs bored.


Web is just a stupid spell in general. 1 Mage with a crossbow could kill an army of level 1 fighters with it.

 

[Thanee]

Find the Path

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nikroecyst]

Entangle, Detect Magic, and Identify, mostly due to the fact that they are used in my campaign WAY too much and takes a massive amount of time to cover and come to a conclusion. I understand that Identify is useful but I long for a day when you can identify with a skill or Spellcraft!

 

[DragonLancer]

Ray of Enfeeblement - ok, there goes my big bad who now can't hit a barn door with a twig. Anything that gives a touch attack (too many of these IMO) and can strip stats that easily is a pain in the ass.

 

[smootrk]

Many illusion spells fit this for me. I appreciate some ingenuity but sometimes the players are just expecting a lot more from the spells than I am prepared to grant. I tend to base things on the effective damage/effect that other spells of comparable levels can grant. Gets frustrating for me at times, and I imagine also for the creative player as well.

 

[jmucchiello]

Mordenkainen's Disjunction - so you've been playing your wizard from 1st to 17th level. You are intricately tied into several world spanning plots. You cast a spell and accidently catch an artifact in the AoE. You roll badly. You can't cast spells ever again. At a minimum, the artifact clause in MD should require that you are consciously trying to destroy said artifact when you cast the spell.

(Okay, it only happened once but I can't imagine complaining about entangle or web. I like a high magic game.)

 

[Voadam]

Mordenkainen's Disjunction - so you've been playing your wizard from 1st to 17th level. You are intricately tied into several world spanning plots. You cast a spell and accidently catch an artifact in the AoE. You roll badly. You can't cast spells ever again. At a minimum, the artifact clause in MD should require that you are consciously trying to destroy said artifact when you cast the spell.

(Okay, it only happened once but I can't imagine complaining about entangle or web. I like a high magic game.)

That's a plot device for why you can play your old character in a 1st level game. "And so though I destroyed the Tome of Xiphid, it cost me all my magical power. I've had to start all over."