Timestop: What exactly can you do?

[maddman75]

It would seem to make Time Stop less broken if you interpret it this way. I don't see anything in the spell description that would make a fireball 'hang' there until the duration ended.

Why shouldn't spell effects move at the same scale as the caster? Thus, a fireball flashes in and out of existance much too quickly to harm anyone.

There are still nasty tactics - acid fog + wall of force, delayed blast fireball, and lots of others. Ninth level spells are nice that way.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

#1: Take a look at the psionic power Temporal Acceleration. It's Time Stop, but written to be useful.

#2: Hanging spells until the TS ends was the designers' intention - it worked that way in 2e too. It may not be balanced, but that was the designers' intention.

In the ELH, it is suggested limiting the power of time stop to exclude using "targeting" spells during a time stop. So fireball would be ok, but hold monster would not be.

Proof

I'm not going to say it's balanced, because I don't think it is. However, the RAW say that you can use TS to attack.

#3: The Wall of Force/Acid Fog combo works perfectly with Haste. Wall of Force doesn't allow a saving throw at all.

 

[Dinkeldog]

The Wall of Force/Acid Fog combo doesn't work in my campaign. You need to be able to see where you're creating the wall, and the concealment from the fog blocks that. Haste won't get around that. Time Stop will.

 

[Taren Seeker]

The Wall of Force/Acid Fog combo doesn't work in my campaign. You need to be able to see where you're creating the wall, and the concealment from the fog blocks that. Haste won't get around that. Time Stop will.

Blindsight within 30' or True Sight should take care of that limitation. True Sight might be a little more rare, but most casters I see have Blindsight running anyways.

At least Acid Fog/Cloud Kill is affected by SR so some creatures have a chance of surviving.