What spells do you get tired of seeing wizard players take? Cliche's, etc.

[Sound of Azure]

Ray of Exhaustion always makes me tired.....

 

[Nightfall]

SoA,

Try a little sleep spell then.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I dislike the idea that you've got to take Spell Thematics to give a special look to your spells. I think every caster's spells should look a bit different from every other caster's casting of the same spell. As an example, look at the Patronus spell from Harry Potter. It's different for each caster. I like the idea that your personality affects the visual results of your magic.

They way I work it is if the spell is yours, you get to determine its particulars. If you're a wizard and when you hit 3rd you pick Web as one of the spells you get and you want it to manifest as a gravitic field rather than spiderwebs, be my guest. While there exists a stable of kind of generic spells, almost every caster out there puts their own personal spin on their magics. A particular trademark is one of the ways you get well known in the magical community, after all. Look at Bigby. Everyone knows Bigby. He's the hand guy. Loves hands, that Bigby.

While I applaud this kind of creativity, I'm curious as to how you balance that spell versus the original that can be nullified by lighting it on fire.

And I mean that in a general sense- how do you balance thematically/visually/materially altered spells if not with taking a feat?

 

[Napftor]

Wait for it...

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[lukelightning]

I like enervation, but it is such a pain to keep track of negative levels.

What's so hard about "-1 to all checks for every negative level, and lose your highest level spells"?

 

[lukelightning]

While I applaud this kind of creativity, I'm curious as to how you balance that spell versus the original that can be nullified by lighting it on fire.

Easy! Flammable gravity!

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

No offense, but isnt that just min-maxing then? If they were 'essential' shouldn't they be "class skills?"

jh

I'd say its more metagaming to have your intelligent wizard memorize a crap spell like acid arrow. Really the spells I see the most are nondamaging ones. At low levels, spells like Slow, Glitterdust, and Color Spray are much more effective in combat (and evocation tends to scale poorly w monster HP anyways).

Smart people use good tools to get the job done. Man, I'm sick of seeing SWAT team members use protective armor and sniper rifles. Why arent they more creative and go into situations with a pot on their head armed with two daggers? If you want to play some guuy that goes into battle armed with a club and scale mail at 20, feel free, but it doesnt change the fact that he's a moron.

 

[Sejs]

While I applaud this kind of creativity, I'm curious as to how you balance that spell versus the original that can be nullified by lighting it on fire.

And I mean that in a general sense- how do you balance thematically/visually/materially altered spells if not with taking a feat?

Heh, well to be honest the gravity field example was just off the top of my head, but generally speaking brainstorm with the player (or by myself if it's an npc) to come up with an equivalent factor. Maybe electricity disrupts the field, say. Granted, the process requires some extra work, but I feel its worth it.

In the case of Spell Thematics the change is entirely illusory, so you end up with interesting things like Luke pointed out, flammable gravity.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Man, I'm sick of seeing SWAT team members use protective armor and sniper rifles.

As opposed to the non-protective armor?

 

[Nightfall]

Napftor,

Hey that's my ability you're stealing from!

*thinks maybe he needs to start putting more ranks into Pimp my stuff*