What spells do you ban?

[Sylrae]

All cure spells and inflict spells are combined and made empathic. For example, a cure light wounds will not cure any damage unless the caster or a convenient scapegoat incurs the damage to be healed. A single die roll determines the amount inflicted upon the scapegoat or cleric and the amount healed.

Nifty Idea, but I think these are ok. (In my games nobody ever plays the cleric, and everyone uses items for all their healing. I make healing items a bit cheaper since I've only ever once seen a nonevil cleric in my games.)
Oh. Paladin is a prestige class which mirrors the blackguard as opposed to a base class.

Resurrection is 8th level and requires someone to give up their life willingly or unwilingly.
Raise Dead is 7th level and likewise requires a victim or volunteer.
Restoration, Regenerate, etc. follow the same rules.

THESE, I LIKE! I think I'm going to try this in my next campaign.

Greater Teleport and Teleport Object are 8th and Teleport is 7th level. Dimension Door is 6th level. Transport via Plants is 7th level.

Why the spell level adjusts? Just don't like transportation spells?

Wizards cannot learn evocation spells.

you just killed 1/3 of all wizards. because as we all know, there are only 3 types of REAL wizards. Evocationists, Transmogrificationists, and Necromancers/Conjurers (theyre pretty much the same except WHAT they summon. Anything else is just a worthless parlour trick. This is why harry potter was a stupid concept and he doesn't even qualify as a wizard.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Oh. Paladin is a prestige class which mirrors the blackguard as opposed to a base class.

Same here.

Why the spell level adjusts? Just don't like transportation spells?

Oh I like them just fine. I just find the effect to be quite fantastic and therefore should be higher level.

you just killed 1/3 of all wizards. because as we all know, there are only 3 types of REAL wizards. Evocationists, Transmogrificationists, and Necromancers/Conjurers (theyre pretty much the same except WHAT they summon. Anything else is just a worthless parlour trick. This is why harry potter was a stupid concept and he doesn't even qualify as a wizard.

I believe that evocation magic is a manifestation of personal power rather than external power. I have no prohibitions on sorcerers casting evocation magic. I even allow sorcerers to specialise. And since the Warlock is not in the SRD (thus not OGC), my warlocks are Half-Fiend/Half-whatever or tiefling sorcerers who specialise in evocation. Gnome sorcerers specialise in illusion. Elf and Half-Elf sorcerers specialise in enchantment.

Also the arcane version of Summon Monster is changed to Summon Fiendish Monster — all monsters are fiendish. This is strictly for flavor reason. In Grymwurld™ summoned celestial monsters are only available to good-aligned divine spellcasters. And in most societies, it is illegal to summon evil creatures. Of course that doesn't stop very many spellcasters…!

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Resurrection, True Resurrection, and Reincarnation. They're not banned, but very restricted. They require either a person willingly trade places with the deceased or be sacrificed. Another way would be undertake a quest and perform some heroic deed in the name of the decedent's primary deity.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

This is why harry potter was a stupid concept

just had to do this as a standalone quote.

stoppus badguyus!

 

[Nifft]

I only ban the three mental stat boosters -- IMHO magic should be about using your mental stat of choice to (temporarily) boost your physical stats, but not using a stat to boost itself.

I nerf magic missile such that it caps at 5th level (not at 5 missiles), and boost some higher level Evocations (e.g. cone of cold) to deal d8s rather than d6s.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Sylrae]

Scorching Ray.

it gets too scary.

you can metamagic it with a split ray and a clone spell (I think thats the one), and have scorching rays that do like 40d8 hit dice as a 5th level spell. (Dont remember the exact numbers and im too tired to look but thats the general idea)

 

[Drowbane]

Power word: Pain, shivering touch & wraith strike to name a few. I'm sure a glance through the SC would reveal a dozen more.

Feats: Arcane Thesis. Banned or nerfed to "only" +2 CL and -1 to the first metamagic applied.

edit: someone mentioned magic missile up above and I gotta ask... why?

 

[nobodez]

Ban? I don't ban spells. But that's because, of my gaming groups, I've read the books the most, and know the most tricks. If a players delves enough into the books to find a really interesting combo (Aspect of the Earth Hunter, Rapid Burrowing, and Bite of the Werebear for instance), then I let them have it. They still stay mostly out of the PHB anyway (except fro the Orb spells, but I like them, so that's not a problem).

As for what I'd ban in your style of game, well, I'd change all the language/transportation/resurrection spells into rituals (using the rules from Unearthed Arcana/d20 Modern's Urban Arcana for Incantations), leaving only Revivify, Last Breath, and Revenance on the normal class lists (since the first two are basically CPR spells, and the third is an artificial ventilator until you can get the CPR).

Restrictions? Well, I'd restrict wizards/clerics/druids to a set list of spells that they get to choose from. It's a bit of work, but grab the number of spells for the PHB on each class's spell list, then separate them into Buffs, Debuffs, Damage, Control, and Misc. Then, have the player, when building their character, build a new class spell list fitting spells of each level into those slots. This requires some work, but then you know what kind of spells the characters can and will pick from. Also, this allows your NPCs, if they can do some pre-encounter research, to find the weaknesses in the character's spell lists, and attack those weaknesses.

 

[Nifft]

edit: someone mentioned magic missile up above and I gotta ask... why?

Two people did. Who are you asking?

-- N

 

[Sylrae]

I'ma gonna say.. (he looka like a man)

Both of you. I'm curious as to both.

Why?
Because I'm crazier than foaming at the mouth guy