spells that lost popularity in 3.0/3.5

[Li Shenron]

It also doesn't bounce back at you when it hits a stone wall. And fireballs also don't get funneled back at you if you cast them in a confined space!

If you never played with these rules, you might think they have been nerfed. But really, I thought that the relaxing of these rules made it more convenient to use these spells.

Hang on a second... LB doesn't bounce in 3.0 either, and Fireball is a spread in 3.5 too.

He's talking about 3.0 -> 3.5, while the original thread was about older editions -> 3.X right?

 

[Psion]

Hang on a second... LB doesn't bounce in 3.0 either, and Fireball is a spread in 3.5 too.

He's talking about 3.0 -> 3.5, while the original thread was about older editions -> 3.X right?

Sorry, I was hung up on the OP's question. Wasn't really considering any 3.5 changes. (Though I must admit, lightning bolt WAS very versatile in 3.0.)

 

[lukelightning]

Stoneskin is not as good as it should be; the DR should be higher, like 15.

 

[lukelightning]

I disagree about Stinking Cloud. Caused a near TPK more than once (last time we only survived because my char wasn't close enough to the rest of the group... )

That nearly happend to us, and to make matters worse, it was one of our fellow party members who cast it!. It was positioned in a terrible place and split the party into 4 parts...and that was when the player said "oh, darn, it's not dismissable."

 

[Vuron]

Stoneskin is not as good as it should be; the DR should be higher, like 15.

While Stoneskin isn't the end all be all of defensive spells it's still pretty damn good. Further considering it's the same asthe DR of a Stone Golem (10/Adamantine) it's pretty much in keeping with theme of the spell. Iron Body gets you the equivalent to the Iron Golem (15/Adamantine)

 

[Kurotowa]

Stoneskin is not as good as it should be; the DR should be higher, like 15.

Have you ever had a vampire lord shrug off your dearly aquired Greater Arrow of Undead Slaying because the arrow didn't overcome the DR of his Stoneskin? I have. No, I don't think that Stoneskin's even close to underpowered. Weaker than the wildly overpowered 2e version, sure. But it's still one of the best defensive spells in the book.

 

[TerraDave]

Current events in my campaing

It's still good. You just have to set things up so that someone is ready to the coup de grace immediately following the cleric so they never get the extra saves. Not wicked awesome like it was before, but decent.

Especially when that person is a PC, and the one doing a mercy blow is a mook who wouldn't be too usefull otherwise.

 

[lukelightning]

Have you ever had a vampire lord shrug off your dearly aquired Greater Arrow of Undead Slaying because the arrow didn't overcome the DR of his Stoneskin?

You don't need to penetrate DR to deliver effects like this, other than poisons.

 

[pogre]

Just to echo others, Hold Person and Sleep are the two my players pine for on a regular basis.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

As others have mentioned its due to a paradigm shift in magic between the editions. In 1e, magic was rare but completely deadly, if I a mage wanted to blow his spells, you were toast. In 3e, magic is more common but less powerful.

The big shift in the paradigm is in the save department. I have seen 9th-10th level PCs in 1e/2e who could make any save on a natural 3 or 2.

In 3e, low level characters/monster make their save more often, and high level characters/monsters less often. The save curve has flattened out quite a bit across levels.

Once you get past the low levels, PCs fail more saves than they used to. So the fundamental shift in the spell mechanics such that you are not quite so totally hosed for one bad roll.

This makes a lot of sense design-wise if you want a game that can support 3-4 PC parties.