Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Peni Griffin" data-source="post: 3377994" data-attributes="member: 50322">Most of these things are stuff you can do right back, or plan on.  We have a DM who can ALWAYS think of a way to word the answer to a divination spell so as to render it completely useless.Where is the McGuffin?On the guy who stole it.Where is he?On his boat.Where's he going?Nowhere.At what harbor is his boat?I'm sorry, you are out of questions.Yeah, that can be annoying, but it means the DM isn't letting us use divination spells to avoid good solid detective work.One of the pleasures of playing a caster is finding ways to use spells to make your life easier.  One of the pleasures of DMing is watching them do it, and then hoisting them on their own petards later by using their own applications against them.  You have to admit, there's a rush to defeating a dragon with Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter despite his high saves.  That all-or-nothing factor - it probably won't work, but if it does, it'll be so awesome! - gives a fillip to combat that mere damage dealing can't match.Save-or-die does indeed suck dead bears.  It always has.  Poison used to work that way, too, back when I was starting out.  It was simple, though.The closest I've come to being annoyed at a spell my players used against me happened in CH 1 RHOD, twice.  The party includes a cleric of Moradin who can cast 4th level spells.  (Yes, I've beefed up the module to account for the higher level of the party.)  Spike Stones is a 4th level Druid and Earth domain spell that transforms rocky ground and stone floors into longswords, basically - a 20-foot square per level deals 1d8 points of damage for every 5 feet of movement within it, and movement is reduced to half speed.  If you fail your reflex save, you also sustain injuries to your feet and legs that slow your movement to 1/3.  It lasts an hour per level, can be dispelled but not disarmed, and only a rogue who is actively looking has a chance of spotting it - DC 29.  You can pin down a bunch of fighters with this really well, and because the people who can cast it are so few - how many clerics even have the Earth domain available to them?  How many druids do you ever use as enemies? - it takes planning to turn the tables and use it against them.This was frustrating, because the hobgoblins, minotaur, worg riders, and hellhounds that got hit by it could easily have killed themselves trying to get out of the AOE, had no way to see which way to jump to get out of it, and were caught without cover.  They had no defense.  This is realistic.  Since some survivors of Skull Gorge Bridge escaped and can report on the spell that made the ground hurt, the Horde may evolve a defense against it.  This is also realistic.Every challenge is an opportunity.</blockquote>

Verification