Underpowered Spells

[heirodule]

Re: Re: gust o' wind

I almost never prepare Gust of Wind, since many of the spell's effects can be duplicated by an Air Elemental's whirlwind form. Even a small elemental's whirlwind that moves 100 feet per round with perfect maneuverability would scatter a fog bank pretty quickly. Summon Monster 3 is the same level spell as gust of wind, and much more universally useful.

You'd have to speak Auran for that to work

 

[hong]

Re: Re: Underpowered Spells

I think this spell should have some sort of a bonus to the Search ability. Otherwise it seems an elegant way to capture the old "Find Traps" spell.

You could use a Spellcraft check in place of the Search check.

 

[Number47]

...Hmmm. A wizard with Magic jar could do some amazing buff spells on another party member by temporarily possessing them; when the wizard switches back into his body, the iron body and all the other "self only" spells would stay on the possessed body. Interesting tactic.

Gotcha! Self-only spells follow the caster, actually, even if he changes bodies. It was in a sage advice or FAQ. So, no, Magic Jar is not a workaround for self-only spells.

 

[heirodule]

I think Foresight suffers from the same general problem all precognition type spells have - they require the DM to see the future. Foresight needs to be much more specific about what its benifits are in game terms. For instance, it is not unreasonable from the description to assume that cast on self, the character gains Uncanny Dodge or its strong equivalent. But to what degree do they gain such power? It is not spelled out, and I suspect that if it was, it would raise the hue and cry of taking class abilities and giving them to Wizards.

I think it would be good (but possibly overpowered) to remove the "do over" aspect from the Wish spell (which lets you undo a single misfortune) and make Foresight a 1 mintue vision of a possible future, with an XP penalty. So you would cast it, play out 10 rounds of whatever, and then if you so choose, that "never happened" and you go on from there. The advantage here is the DM doesn't have to guess what the future of going through the door will turn out like, its already decided. The mage now knows how it "would play out" and can decide to go back home if he foresees certain doom.

Ventriloquism has always seemed like a spell with limited utility to me.

Especially compared to Ghost Sound. As written I don't see why ghost sound can't do exactly what ventriloquism does already. In Chainmail, the Ghost Sound ability is explicitly rendered on the battlefield as an "interfere with the models orders" effect. I'd liek to try that in D&D, but I doubt most DMs would be so generous.

 

[Tiberius]

Regenerate is a useless spell since now in 3E is pretty impossible to lose a limb without dying, at least in combat.

Both the Regenerate spell and the "immune to magical aging" class abilities of druids and monks seem to be solutions in search of a problem. Therefore I ruled that Raise Dead will not reattach severed limbs and brought back the Sword of Sharpness as a +4-equivalent ability available to slashing weapons only.

Does anyone know of any WotC-designed monsters or spells (other than the Ghost Dragon from Monsters of Faerun) that causes magical aging?

-Tiberius

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Re: gust o' wind

You know, I lead the rallying cry against Gust of Wind a year ago on the boards as a useless 3rd level spell (it should be first, I said!).

But last gaming session, I wished I had it. We were on a mountain top, and heard motion below us somewhere. A thick fog had blanketed the area and we weren't sure what to do. Vision was limited to 10 feet in front of you. The fighters charged in ... only to meet a medusa (who promptly turned one to stone).

My 8th level Wiz wasn't sure what to do. He flew above, but saw nothing. Finally, I had to land and make a saving throw before killing the thing with Phantasmal Killer.

Gust of Wind would have saved a lot of time and a lot of people trouble. Was there any 1st-4th level spell that could have cleared away the fog?

Sure it can be useful, all spells can be useful. The question isn't can it be useful in the right circumstances so that you'd use any slot no matter the level for it, the question is in play day in and day out what level is the spell worth. Because if I'm trying to run away and speed is what I need I'd be happy with expeditious retreat even if it was 3rd level, since I could even outpace someone flying with a fly spell. I might even be happy with it being 4th if D-Door wouldn't provide an adequete escape spell. Does that mean expeditious retreat should now be a 3rd level spell because the one time I was playing and I really needed to run away fast I would of been happy to have it in one of my 3rd elvel slots as long as I had it.

 

[shurai]

Foresight is very powerful if the DM interprets it correctly. Don't forget that the character is never surprised or flat-footed. Also, this is the Divination school we're talking about. To a general-purpose mage or sorcerer, it's not very good, but to a diviner who can't, for example, use Mage Armor or whatever on himself, it's pretty good.

Also, the save and AC bonuses are type Insight, which is hard to come by in a magic item or other effect, so it can be worth having.

But you're all correct, even given that, it is a bit weak. I could easily see the spell being much lower level than it is.

I guess the designers of the game felt that not all schools of magic were equal, and also that not all spells are equal to begin with.

-S

 

[Cloudgatherer]

I'm sorry, but Foresight *rules*. I ended up rescuing my party due to this spell, able to avoid traps and encounters. The game bonuses are fairly weak, but considering it prevents you from "doing something stupid" in the eyes of the DM, it *definitely* has it's 9th level value.

 

[incognito]

1: Mount, arguably Ventriliquism
2: Tasha's, Leomunds Trap
3: Gust of Winds, Illusory Script,
4: Fire Trap, Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer
5: Dismissal, Nightmare
6: Guards and Wards, Control Water
7: Reverse Gravity, Statue
8: Sunburst
9: None - DM needs to be very helpfull with Foresight is all.

Dismissal: the "come kill me later with friends" spell

 

[mmadsen]

For clerics, Find Traps is very underpowered. It should be an orison instead of a 2nd level spell.

On the other hand, do you want Clerics to become the premier trap-finders in your game world?

On the wizard side of things, I think Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer is also pretty worthless.

In a game system with spell slots of specific levels, it fills an important niche. Should it grant more lower-level spells?