Splatbooks to Beware of?

[Thanee]

With Persistent (or Quicken) you do not lose the first action in the encounters where it counts, tho.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rystil Arden]

I think the problem with this kind of stuff is usually an imbalance within the party than anything else. An optimized Incantatrix in a standard party will often outshine and I agree that if that is the case then something is wrong. An Incantatrix in a party with a shock trooper/combat brute/leap attack frenzied berserker, a rashemi elemental summoning exalted druid and a divine metamagic focused cleric probably won't stand out at all. As long as the DM is happy to throw EL4+ encounters at the party most of the time and either drop the xp awarded or accept faster progression then it works ok. That being said, I guess most people don't play in that kind of group and therefore the strongest build often gets seen as abusive

As an aside although divine metamagic persistant seems pretty abusive, a hard undead encounter or anything with dispel magic can upset this character - most spell battles open up with a few dispel magics thrown either way in our campaign. Besides a mid level cleric without this feat (and its two pre reqs) can reproduce this effect by simply casting divine power multiple times a day anyway. So for an average of 4 encounters in a day it costs you either 4 4th level spells or 3 feats, 7 turning attempts and 1 4th level spell if you use the divine metamagic persistant spell approach

Funny you mention an Incantatrix in a party with a Frenzied Berserker...I have that in my campaign. There is also the nonoptimised Azer cleric, who at low levels was slain by the enemies in every fight and at high levels became the only one to survive unless the incantatrix killed him by mistake (a more common occurrence than you might expect when you're throwing around twinned-maximised-lightning-meteor-swarms inside of a room whose spherical walls were covered with water (Gaussian sphere). Since the campaign started at level 1 in 3.0, and I disallow everything abusive that was scrapped after 3.0 and some things that I find abusive that were added in 3.5 (Divine Metamagic, Two-handed Power Attack = double), it turns out all right...except that the Frenzied Berserker's player is a random-number-generator fiend who can always roll 20s when it really counts

 

[Rystil Arden]

With Persistent (or Quicken) you do not lose the first action in the encounters where it counts, tho.

Bye
Thanee

Precisely so. Not to mention the sheer inferiority complex of the fighter or barbarian standing next to the Persistently-Divine-Power-Righteous-Might cleric.

 

[Prism]

Divine spell power is one that I believe can be abused but often slips under the radar (enough that on eof my characters has taken it ;-) )

With an average turning roll you can boost a spell by up to 4 caster levels without any pre planning. At low to mid levels this works well for spikes (another spell to watch out for btw), giving +10 weapon damage at 6th level, and dispel magic. Its good for boosting SR checks and damage rolls too, when needed
At higher levels holy word can be great at 4 levels higher (5 if you take the good domain). It paralyses with no save anything non good up to your own hit dice within 40'. Anything up to 4 levels above you is blinded. Even the SR check is 5 levels higher

 

[Rystil Arden]

Divine spell power is one that I believe can be abused but often slips under the radar (enough that on eof my characters has taken it ;-) )

With an average turning roll you can boost a spell by up to 4 caster levels without any pre planning. At low to mid levels this works well for spikes (another spell to watch out for btw), giving +10 weapon damage at 6th level, and dispel magic. Its good for boosting SR checks and damage rolls too, when needed
At higher levels holy word can be great at 4 levels higher (5 if you take the good domain). It paralyses with no save anything non good up to your own hit dice within 40'. Anything up to 4 levels above you is blinded. Even the SR check is 5 levels higher

Oh it didn't slip under my radar. But Darkness already mentioned it (I think) with the "Cleric Plus." Divine Spell Power is often used in conjunction with Karma Prayer Beads, Good domain, Ring of Caster Level (the one from CA), Ioun Stone of caster level, to get +11 to Caster level. Now you can instakill things that are higher level than you are with no save. Yay!

 

[Testament]

*Cleric Plus (Radiant Servant of Pelor) from Complete Divine is just insane. It's all of a cleric's abilities, only better!

*Quill Blast = the ultimate saving throw destruction. Every quill that hits (and that's 2d6 on a large creature) does d6 and imposes a cumulative -1 to saves.

*Divine Metamagic has been well and truly covered here.

*Hulking Hurler can be broken without even trying, easy to deal with rules-wise though.

*The tactical feats are just FINE. They gave fighters their dignity back.

*Thought Bottles need to be banned. It's a frickin' "save game" feature!

*All the Orb spells, other than acid, are in the wrong school. They're evocations, as is Blast of Flame.

*I personally hate the Sudden Metamagics, YMMV though.

*Devoted Tracker needs to be watched. Halfling Outriders with it and a Dire Weasel are near unstoppable killing machines.

*Wraithstrike is a very twinkable spell. Watch out.

 

[Carpe DM]

There are also a lot of spells that are just plain silly. As a LN GM (tm) I just devise ways that the world deals with the existence of the spells but you may wish to ban 'em.

The two biggest offenders are spikes and frigid touch (I think that's the term) from Frostburn. The latter is 3d6 dex damage, no save, from a 3d level spell. I mean. What were they thinking?

 

[Thanee]

What were they thinking?

I asked myself that a lot when browsing through the Frostburn book.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pinotage]

Wraithstrike is a very twinkable spell. Watch out.

MInd if I ask in what way?

Pinotage

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

MInd if I ask in what way?

Pinotage

Swift action, all attacks in a round are incorporeal touch attacks?