Substituting a spell

[Greenfield]

I mentioned at one point the Sandshaper spell, Sandstorm, from the book of the same name.

It is, in essence, Slay City. With a minimum caster level of 11th for a Wizard, it does a D3 of damage per round, in an area 880 feet across, for 11 hours. That's 600 dice per hour, times an hour per caster level. No SR, no DR. Aside from that, it levels buildings, uproots trees, destroys any non-fortified structure, and pick people up and hurls them for even more damage. And, as written, once a creature of Large or smaller is caught in its effect, there's really very little they can do except take it. You can't move in it, can't see or get your directions in it, can't speak or cast spells with verbal components, and risk getting buried in sand and suffocating.

My group voted, unequivocally, to pretend that that spell doesn't exist. (None of us wanted to see the Tarrasque cry.)

Now, since Sandshaper has a fixed spell list, can you good folks think of any other 6th level spell that could/should be put in its place?

Remember that the theme of the class is desert survivalist. The spell level is 6th.

 

[Sekhmet]

For one, the Tarrasque would be just fine.
Honestly, the spell isn't as bad as you make it out to be. The duration is only 10min/level, not hours/level. Also, (somehow) Fortitude negates. Even Tornado strength (available at level 12) can be safely shrugged off with a Fort save. There is no fear of being buried in sand or suffocating, nor is there any issue with speaking or verbal components. The spell is NOT the same as a natural sandstorm, per the rules laid out in this spell entry.

This spell is badly worded, is what it is.
Regardless, I'd recommend adding a "Summon Sand Elemental" type spell to replace it if you were interested in doing so. If you'd like, I can draw one up (although I'm sure one exists).

Ooh, or a Transmute Sand to X or Polymorph Sand type spell.

 

[Greenfield]

If I got the duration wrong, I'm sorry. So at 11th level its only 1100 dice instead of 6600 dice. That still puts the Tarrasque to shame.

The Fortitude Save is to avoid being blown away by hurricane force winds and taking the additional damage from that. The sand blast damage isn't avoidable except by taking cover in a fortified structure.

But thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Sekhmet]

Perhaps a Sandshape spell.
Change type to Elemental, get some DR, some AC, gain a ranged touch attack with a Fort save or be silenced/blinded, plus travel through sand at your move speed and the ability to seep through cracks on floor or walls or whatnot. Lasts minutes/level, range self, natural sand as a component.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I like the Sand Shaper, a great single level dip. Honestly, the abuse you can perform with the Awaken Sand spell is more dramatic in my opinion (create an army of Huge, intelligent, permenent constructs that serve you, can fit through the size of a key hole, fight like an ooze, and can suffocate opponents for 500 xp a pop? Yes Please! Who needs the Craft Construct Feat now?) then Sandstorm, but I hear ya.

Some suggestions for a 6th level spell to aid a Desert survivalist character:

Arcane Spells from Player's Handbook:
-Repulsion (Abjur.)
-Legend Lore (Div.)
-True Seeing (Div.)
-Heroism, Greater (Ench.)
-Mislead (Illus.)
-Permanent Image (Illus.)
-Programmed Image (Illus.)
-Shadow Walk (Illus.)
-Veil (Illus)
-Disinitgrate (Trans.)
-Move Earth (Trans.)
-Tenser's Transformation (Trans.)

Druid Spells from Player's Handbook:
-Find the Path
-Spellstaff
-Stone Tell

Arcane spells from Spell Compendium:
-Resistance, Superior (Conj.)
-Gem Jump (Conj.)
-Fires of Purity (Evoc.)
-Dream Casting (Illus.)
-Aura of Terror (Necr.)
-Fleshshiver (Necr.)
-Extract Water Elemental (Trans.)
-Stone Body (Trans.)

Druid Spells from Spell Compendium:
-Aspect of the Earth Hunter
-Enveloping Cocoon
-Miasma
-Phantasmal Disorientation
-Tortoise Shell

 

[Dandu]

I mentioned at one point the Sandshaper spell, Sandstorm, from the book of the same name.

It is, in essence, Slay City. With a minimum caster level of 11th for a Wizard, it does a D3 of damage per round, in an area 880 feet across, for 11 hours. That's 600 dice per hour, times an hour per caster level. No SR, no DR. Aside from that, it levels buildings, uproots trees, destroys any non-fortified structure, and pick people up and hurls them for even more damage.

With an 880 ft diameter, it's really more like Slay City Block.

Anything with DR 3 or higher, fast healing, or regeneration laughs this spell off. Anything that can teleport, go ethereal, or burrow is going to bypass the sandstorm. This spell is good for killing dirt farmers and wrecking lots of buildings, which are perfectly in line with what level 11 characters do for a living.

If we're going to go around killing peasants, the level 5 spell arcane spell Cloudkill can gas an a large area pretty quickly as well. Clerics and druids can go biblical on a city and summon swarms of locusts with Insect Plague.

If we're going to ruin structures, there's Transmute Rock to Mud; at level 11, you get twenty two 10 ft cubes, which is... (10^3)*22= 22000 cu. ft worth of structure.

Druids get Control Winds as a 5th level spell, which allows you to make a hurricane. Surely a 6th level spell should be better than a 5th?

Honestly, at level 11, your characters are B list members of the Justice League and should be expected to do very bad things to people.

I really think the brokenness of this spell is being blown out of proportion.

 

[Greenfield]

Sandstorm is sort of an enhancement to the 5th level Druid spell Control Winds, adding the sand blast damage, the visual obscurement, etc.

Trandmute Rock to Mud works perfectly to destroy any building made of stone that isn't worked, which translates to almost no buildings of any sort.

Cloudkill absolutely slaughters anything of 3 HD or less, and might kill things of 4 to 6 HD, and that has a movement rate slower than 10 feet per round. (Otherwise they just walk out of the way). But it's area is a massive 20 foot spread cylinder, 20 ft high, with a Medium range. Actually less destructive than a Fireball in many ways.

Summon Swarm doesn't live up to it's Biblical reputation either, doing a paltry 2 D6 of damage in a 10 foot area.

Insect Plague is even less Biblical, summoning one Locust Swarm (10 foot area) per three caster levels to a maximum of 6 Swarms that must be summoned adjacent/contiguous with one another, and that won't move after being summoned. At least Summon Swarm moves around a bit, instead of just sitting there like a lump.

And the last time I looked, DR didn't apply to spell damage.

So Fast Heal will help. Since spell damage isn't converted to non-lethal by Regenerating creatures, I'm not sure Regen will help all that much.

The ability to leave the area, such as by burrowing or teleporting is indeed a good protection. Teleport, however, has a Verbal component, which may be impossible to utter in the hurricane force winds the Sandstorm summons. I'd have to look at the spell again to be sure.

The spell is a pain to dig into though, since you have to apply wind effects which are referred to but not enumerated in the spell.

The sucky thing about the Sandstorm spell is the combination of it's range and its radius, and the rules for tornado type effects. The range, you see, is 40 feet per level. So is the radius, which means that the caster is always at the very edge of the effect. The rules for Hurricane effects, presuming that you choose rotation as the form, is that creatures near the edge may be sucked in. That would include the caster.

Hell, sometimes, if you want to smite a city, you gotta pay the price. <sigh>

<EDIT>Upon further review I stand corrected with regards to Regeneration. Regen does apply to all damage except for that done with the specific damage type (usually fire or acid). Mea culpa </EDIT>

 

[Greenfield]

As a small note, Awaken Sand is already on the Sandshaper spell list.

But thank you all for your input.

 

[Dandu]

Trandmute Rock to Mud works perfectly to destroy any building made of stone that isn't worked, which translates to almost no buildings of any sort.

Good catch. However, the spell does go on to specify:

Castles and large stone buildings are generally immune to the effect of the spell, since transmute rock to mud can’t affect worked stone and doesn’t reach deep enough to undermine such buildings’ foundations. However, small buildings or structures often rest upon foundations shallow enough to be damaged or even partially toppled by this spell.

Cloudkill absolutely slaughters anything of 3 HD or less, and might kill things of 4 to 6 HD, and that has a movement rate slower than 10 feet per round. (Otherwise they just walk out of the way). But it's area is a massive 20 foot spread cylinder, 20 ft high, with a Medium range. Actually less destructive than a Fireball in many ways.

You know, the thought occurs that if you cast it at night, people won't be moving as much.

Also, I think it's funny you should mention fireball. You are presumably ok with that spell, despite... you know...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIuHolZ1gGg[/ame]

Insect Plague is even less Biblical, summoning one Locust Swarm (10 foot area) per three caster levels to a maximum of 6 Swarms that must be summoned adjacent/contiguous with one another, and that won't move after being summoned. At least Summon Swarm moves around a bit, instead of just sitting there like a lump.

Ah, my mistake. I forgot that Insect Plague was not simply a beefed up Summon Swarm.

And the last time I looked, DR didn't apply to spell damage.

The damage is from a Conjuration spell. Some Conjuration spells do damage that bypasses DR (Melf's Acid Arrow, Melf's Unicorn Arrow, Orb of Force), but others are affected by DR (Cloud of Knives, Black Tentacles). I would personally argue that DR does apply in this instance as you're flinging ordinary sand at someone, not magical energy.

The ability to leave the area, such as by burrowing or teleporting is indeed a good protection. Teleport, however, has a Verbal component, which may be impossible to utter in the hurricane force winds the Sandstorm summons. I'd have to look at the spell again to be sure.

Casting spells in a hurricane is covered here. An arcane spellcaster will have ranks in Concentration. A monster with a teleporation SLA does not have to say anything, as

A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus or have an XP cost. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability’s use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.

The sucky thing about the Sandstorm spell is the combination of it's range and its radius, and the rules for tornado type effects. The range, you see, is 40 feet per level. So is the radius, which means that the caster is always at the very edge of the effect. The rules for Hurricane effects, presuming that you choose rotation as the form, is that creatures near the edge may be sucked in. That would include the caster.

Hell, sometimes, if you want to smite a city, you gotta pay the price. <sigh>

Let me remunerate my points:
1) This seems to be in line with the power level for 6th level spells.
2) You are going to slay a city block at most.
3) You are an 11th level caster. If you want a city block to die, it is going to die by virtue of the fact that you can set lots of things on FIRE!
4) Most level appropriate enemies, and quite a few of lower CR, are not going to be affected by your spell by virtue of (possibly) DR, fast healing, regeneration, etherealness, burrowing, teleporation, and probably things I haven't even considered.

 

[Wyvernhand]

I gotta agree with Dandu on this one. Its perfectly in line with the potency of other, similar spells such as Control Winds WRT destroying a large area.

Old Mrs Leery's cow (One dark night, when we were all in bed...) kicked over a lantern and set a fire which leveled what...1/3 of Chicago? Clearly Old Mrs Leery's cow is overpowered and should be subsituted with something more balanced. Like a goat. Or maybe a pig?

Heck, Joe the Fighter with a greatsword and enough time on his hands could slaughter a village and raze the buildings without casting a single spell. If he so desired.

Just saying. If you REALLY want to menace a large, densely populated area, there are plenty of ways to do it, most of which don't involve a 6th level spell with negligable consequences on an ACTUAL CR appropriate encounter. Its fine. If he actually uses it, I would be rather surprised.