Underpowered Spells

[Tzarevitch]

Foresight gets my vote. A 9th level spell that gives you a +2 to Reflex saves and AC. Give me a break: the 4th level Divine Agility gives you rogue Reflex saves, Spring Attack and 18 Dex.

Other than that, there are a fair few.
The lowdown (one from each level):

1st:
Detect Undead (ooh, look- a skeleton!). Sure, you can use it to detect vampires, liches and the like, but it's a pale shadow on Detect Evil.

2nd:
Tasha's: Rather sad as the only Enchantment available; compared to Glitterdust or the clerical Hold Person, it's pretty weak.

3rd:
None: all of them have their uses, even the infamous Gust of Wind (which can get rid of cloud spells).

4th:
Shout: A puny amount of damage as a 4th level spell, and the deafness is no big deal either (compared to e.g. Confusion or even 2nd level Glitterdust).

5th:
False Vision: Probably coming high in the 'least known spell' category, it's fairly puny. The 1min/level duration means that unless you know that the evil wizard will scry on you at 10:30am, you can't really use it at all.

6th:
Analyse Dweomer: Of course it's useful, but should it really be at higher level than teleport, raise dead and permanency?

7th:
Insanity: Please name me *one* instance where you wouldn't be better serviced with Feeblemind, Hold Monster or Dominate Person...

8th:
Iron Body: Have you ever seen it used? Me neither.

9th:
The infamous Foresight, the world's most underpowered spell for its level.TM

I used to use Iron Body all the time in 2e. I had a dwarf sha'ir/priest in 2nd edition who used to use it for its damage and ability to resist damage.

Foresight isn't too bad. It will allow you to make it through a trap-infested area and it prevents you from being flanked. I do agree that the spell is too high level for what it does. 7th might be more appropriate.

Analyze dwoemer is also a bit too high in my opinion. I'd say that 4th lvl is more apropriate.

I do agree with you on all the others.

Tzarevitch

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I agree on Find Traps (Do any clerics have a search score high enough to find any traps worth looking for? Even if they take 20? I thought not). It's been weakened to the point of uselessness. I can't imagine any clerics I've seen played taking it--even as a 0-level spell.

Gust of wind is another one--it's a useful counterspell to fog type spells but I can't think of any wizards who I've ever seen prepare it or buy a scroll of it.

Blur is probably my other prime example of a spell that's useless for its level. Its abject inferiority to shield and mage armor (it doesn't even eliminate the percentage of attacks that mage armor eliminates if your opponent needs only a 2 to hit and doesn't last any longer than shield) merely cements its position as the 2nd level spell that no wizard in his right mind would use.

Illusionary wall is probably not too weak for a 4th level spell but it requires a certain campaign style. It's excellent for covering pit traps and disguising ambuscades in hallways etc. In other words, it's a spell that the people who create a dungeon find very useful but those who explore the dungeon don't use.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Note that detect evil _always_ detects undead, regardless of what their alignment actually is.

Right on, Hung! Its a very nice spell to have handy at all times!

 

[Taren Seeker]

Right on, Hung! Its a very nice spell to have handy at all times!

Do you know something about Hong that we don't???

 

[Eraslin]

Blur is probably my other prime example of a spell that's useless for its level. Its abject inferiority to shield and mage armor (it doesn't even eliminate the percentage of attacks that mage armor eliminates if your opponent needs only a 2 to hit and doesn't last any longer than shield) merely cements its position as the 2nd level spell that no wizard in his right mind would use.

I am actually playing a transmutation specialist in our game, and this spell has proven quite useful. I'll usually throw a shield up on myself, and cast the blur on the main tank (blur's range is touch). It's use is not as a self-buff, but as a buff for other members of the party; unfortunately, shield and mage armor are both self-target spells. Any spell which has a chance to force an energy draining touch, which has already beaten the characters AC, to miss is good in my books.

-Eraslin

 

[Breakdaddy]

Do you know something about Hong that we don't???

Muahahhahahahahahahaaha!

 

[shurai]

Blur and Mage Armor do subtly different things. The probabilities are more complicated than you might think:

If a goblin needs a 14 on the d20 roll to hit you, and then you cast Mage Armor on yourself, the goblin then needs an 18 instead. That's a 15% chance of being hit, down from 35%.

Blur is different. 20% of the attacks never even get rolled, they just go away thanks to the concealment chance. Of the remaining 80% of attacks, the goblin has the same chance of hitting you as before, 35%. But to get the total chance of being hit, we have to multiply the two together, getting a 28% chance of being hit. In this case, Mage Armor is better.

But Blur can be useful in cases where Mage Armor isn't. For instance, if you're an Illusionist, you may not be able to conjure Mage Armor in the first place. If you need to help out your friend the fighter, a +4 armor bonus probably won't help him. Shield is range: Personal, but both Mage Armor and Blur are Touch spells.

I've more to add later.

-S

 

[Thanee]

Thanee...

I understand your point, not a useless spell at all. Now compare it to True Resurrection, Wish, Miracle, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Gate, Time Stop...see why it gets the vote for most underpowered 9th level spell now?

Dunno, it can be a lot better than some of these spells, given the right circumstances.

But I absolutely agree, that those (especially the horribly overpowered True Resurrection) are quite tough competition!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Flat percentage chances to avoid attacks are extremely valuable at high levels, where AC means nothing anymore... A 50% Displacement or even a 20% Blur can really make a difference!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

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.

Hehe, our wizard often thought about this... buffing the fighters with those insane personal spells (shield, tenser's, etc)...

We still do not know, whether we would let the spells stay with the body or with the soul...

Bye
Thanee