Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7206286" data-attributes="member: 58172">I had just been looking at 2nd-level spells and miswrote ‘2nd’, but I meant 1st-level spell slot. I corrected the post. Sleep is a decent 1st-level spell that is strictly better than Color Spray. Even on its own, the worth of preparing and spending a slot for Color Spray seems doubtful.The thing is, outside of combat, it is usually skill checks that overcome most challenges. If a spell is redundant with a skill check, it remains unimpressive.Create Food and Water might make a Not Bad spell − at 1st-level − to choose for the limited prepared/known spells. But as a 3rd-level spell it seems inflated. The Wisdom (Survival) skill checks take care of most nourishment needs when civilization is absent. Food rations are cheap and convenient (costing sp!). It is hard to justify preparing Create Food and Water as one of the few prepared spells to embark on an adventure.Both Dispel Magic and Remove Curse are 3rd-level spells. Dispel Magic automatically dispels all magical effects of 3rd level or lower, including to dispel Bestow Curse automatically. So by itself, Dispel Magic already seems to do everything that Remove Curse can do, and does much more. Possibly, Dispel Magic is unable to suppress the effect of a cursed item, if the creation of a magic item is interpreted as not involving ‘spells’, but cursed items are highly situational anyway. It seems unreasonable for a character to prepare Remove Curse ‘just in case’ they come across a cursed magic item or an enemy who happens to cast Bestow Curse. Remove Curse is a Least Useful spell.The Speak with Dead spell explicitly states that the dead are permitted to tell false information − and especially, the defeated foes will intentionally lie.Even the true information from a nonhostile dead person is ‘brief’ and ‘cryptic’. The spell description itself undermines its own usefulness, at any level.Speak with Dead also appears on the Bard spell list. The Bard is strongly advised to not waste the small number of known spells on this spell, unless the player understands exactly what its limitations are and comes up with a good plan to work around them. Similarly, in the majority of situations, a Wizard does well to not prepare this spell in advance.Most intelligent creatures speak Common, especially the ones players run into at lower levels. In unusual situations where Common was unknown, it is possible to cast the 1st-level Comprehend Languages, twice if necessary, one for each listener. It seems unwise to prepare Tongues ahead of time, ‘just in case’. On the other, if a player knows they are going into a situation where noone speaks Common, they would actually be in one of the rare situations where the Least Useful spell was useful.If Tongues was a 2nd-level spell, even then, it would be Less Useful, because the chance of running into an intelligent creature that couldnt speak Common is less likely.Better yet, make Tongues a 1st-level spell and get rid of Comprehend Languages. Even at 1st-level, Comprehend Languages is Less Useful, and a 1st-level Tongues would probably be Less Useful too.Even when encountering someone that does not speak Common, players can attempt Intelligence checks and Wisdom (Insight) checks, to try communicate.For players who like Plant Growth, its main value is as a barrier for ‘crowd control’ to keep hostiles at bay. It creates a difficult terrain that drastically reduces speed, while also allowing unlimited ‘sculpting’, such as to cover a smaller area or to make paths for allies. The spell synergizes with ranged attacks. That said, it must be outdoors, where plants are, with hostiles arriving from the distance.Probably the comparison between Plant Growth and Wind Wall as barrier spells for ‘crowd control’, needs to be better understood. Plant Growth seems to be viewed favorably while Wind Wall is viewed as meh.For now, Plant Growth ‘rises’ to Less Useful just ‘below’ Wind Wall. But keep scrutinizing them to help the rankings stabilize.3rd level is a weird mix of great spells and subpar spells, with not much in between.Some of the subpar spells might work better as a lower level spell, such as Daylight, Water Breathing, Create Food and Water, Tongues, Phantom Steed, etcetera.Other subpar spells might need rethinking. For example, Remove Curse might merge with Bestow Curse for a single spell with several options.</blockquote>

Verification