spells that lost popularity in 3.0/3.5

[Voadam]

Levitate, because drow don't get this as a SLA anymore.

 

[MerricB]

3.5 Haste got a pretty infamous nerfing if you ask me. Its progressed from being the absolute shiznite by doubling attacks to being a solid no-brainer pick for the partial actions to being a utility spell only picked when there are a lot of characters that really want to full attack. Lots of people don't even bother with it when it was almost always picked, or at the very least seriously considered, for well over 20 years.

Under certain interpretations of the 1e rules, haste was "everyone make a Sys Shock roll or die". I got 3 PCs that way one session. Heh.

Haste is still a must-have in 3.5e. Very much so, although the availability of Boots of Speed does work against it somewhat. (Also, check the number of melee characters in your group - a group of spellcasters doesn't need haste).

Fireball remains a very, very good spell. It's not great against 1 target, but is brilliant against multiple targets.

Faerie Fire is in 3.5e as well. PHB page 229. Druid 1.

It's funny how the game has changed with respect to spells. It used to be that almost every spell level had an instant win spell: sleep, web, and stinking cloud come to mind from my 1e days. Basically, you'd swap your instant win spell of level X for the instant win spell at level X+1 as you progressed.

Playing a magic user back in the day was much different than playing today's wizard. You'd stand at the back of the party, chucking darts and waiting for the one battle that you absolutely needed to win. Out would come your sleep spell, then the group would head back to the surface. It's crazy to compare playing my 1e MU to playing my 3e arcane casters.

It really is. One other thing: Wizards have gained power since 1e in a big way. They can actually *use* their big spells now.

In 1e, third-level and higher spells were very difficult to use.

Fireball? It incinerated the entire dungeon - including your PCs. No use. Almost wilderness only.
Lightning Bolt? Bounce. Crispy wizard (and party).
Haste? Entire party ages (and may die).
Ice Storm? At least you can cast it. For a flat 3d10 damage.
Cone of Cold? Aiming this thing was a problem in 1e. Standing in melee=bad, but cones require that sort of position to aim.

Cheers!

 

[Banshee16]

Sleep has largely been replaced by Color Spray for mook KOing action. Hold Person is one of the nerfed spells, but still sees some use - dropping from a max of 4 targets to only one guy (who now gets a save every round to escape) is a big hit.

So is the rather silly rule to allow a new save every round. And with saves like they are, there's every possibility that a character might be held for only one round, even by a lvl 20 caster. So, exchange 3rd level spell slot of your own to keep the other guy from acting for a single round. Not the best tradeoff.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Personally, I don't find Polymorph Other/Baleful Polymorph nearly as useful as it used to be. You can't turn someone into a cow, or a wolf, or a goblin, or any number of other things.

I've thought of restoring some aspects of Polymorph Other...allowing the opponent to be turned into anything, but keep the Baleful Polymorph mechanic of assuming the end form's personality and mental characteristics...which was in itself based on how 2nd Ed. Polymorph Other was written.

Banshee

 

[Darklone]

On the other hand, you couldn't really go into the cloud to slaughter the guys either, or screw up with the area since the effect was so nasty. When I messed up casting Sleep - note to self: don't assume that everything is 5 ft squares - we had some serious problems.

Stinking Cloud: Making the whole group not able to act besides moving for several rounds is an insta win spell in my book.

Last time my char got a little bit lucky and wasted the enemies henchmen alone, otherwise the group would have been surely dead. It was close enough anyhow.

 

[Li Shenron]

Faerie fire is one that isn't as useful as it used to be. I remember, back in 1E, it was a standard buff-like spell (since it gave an actual bonus to attack rolls, regardless of lighting conditions). Now, it's only useful in certain circumstances.

It's situational, but on the bright side it's the lowest level anti-invisibility spell.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't realize that sleep's casting time had changed in 3.5 to a full-round.

One of the worst-revised spell by 3.5

 

[Baumi]

I always found Lightning Bolt cool, but they nerfed it to much in 3.5 ... has to start at your position, no split to 10feet, smaller Range and lightning is no better than fire versus most Monsters.

 

[Psion]

I always found Lightning Bolt cool, but they nerfed it to much in 3.5 ... has to start at your position, no split to 10feet, smaller Range and lightning is no better than fire versus most Monsters.

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.

 

[Fishbone]

Just damaging spells in general have been weakened to the point that debuffs are a lot better. When you are facing multiple foes or one single bad guy who have hundreds of points of HP between them 10d6 damage isn't that good unless you devote a lot of feats or money into metamagicking into a totally different spell. And even then if the save is passed you could have blown the equivalent of a 3-7 level spell to make a guy with 150+ hit points take 45-resistances damage. Whoopity do da.