What spells do you not allow?

[frankthedm]

I cut a lot of spells, boosted others, tweeked a ton.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Some of the Power Word spells in Races of the Dragon are too good. I don't like the Orb spells, although it hasn't come up yet. There's probably a few others I'd cut.

I haven't gotten the Spell Compendium yet, but I cannot imagine why I'd allow arcane spells to be shared between schools; it seems like an attempt to simply get around specialization requirements.

 

[Talmun]

BoED isn't 3.5, right? So do you allow it? <snip>

Speaking of BoED:

There’s a spell in there called “Amber Sarcophagus” Touch Attack seals the target in amber (suspended animation) for days, no size limit and no save. I don’t have the book here at work but I think it’s a mid level spell, around 4th level.

I added a size limit (Large or smaller) and a save.


There was a spell from a Dragon issue a few years ago...elemental based spells. One was "Blood to Water". IIRC, 3rd level, multiple targets, no save, something on the order of 2d6 Con damage...I banned that one outright.

 

[Nyaricus]

I banned polymorph because it is simply to difficult to deal with.

Note that in the Players Handbook II there have been some extensive changes to polymorph. The Web Enhancement outlines the changes here - I think that's the complete change, in any case. I know there was a bunch of stuff about it, in any case.

BTW, how do you now handle a druids Wildshape ability? I should also mention that in the PHBII there is a Druid varient that looses Wildshape and the Animal Companion for an Animal Change ability at first level which just gives traight bonuses instead of the exact attributes of a creature (ala polymorph. Just some food for thought.

cheers,
--N

 

[Greg K]

I ban a lot of spells for flavor reasons including some from the core rules. I still recall looking through BoED and thinking most of the spells were not appropriate for my campaign.

 

[VirgilCaine]

(I am moving towards a list of critters that you could turn into, along the lines of Summon Monster X).

I'd use CR. Say, Caster level-2.

 

[Li Shenron]

I play mostly 3.0, all spells from PHB, MotP, DotF, T&B, S&S and MotW are basically allowed. Sometimes we have a problem with one spell that seems too good, but rather than banning it I prefer to either tweak 1 parameter or otherwise introduce a penalty. And then it depends on how much a player takes advantage of such spell, so the next campaign does not necessarily adopt the same nerf again.

I don't have a list of banned things from books other than those, instead they are allowed on a case-by-case basis.

 

[delericho]

I allow anything from the PHB or Spell Compendium, and almost anything from the Complete Book of Eldritch Might (anything related to the Dragon Magic feat or bloodlines isn't allowed, as I don't use those options, everything else is fair game).

Anything from any other book is banned.

I don't use the Polymorph errata (or the errata in general, or the FAQ), so Polymorph operates as written. However, we have a table convention that in order to use it you have to have the resultant stats worked out in advance. So far, no-one has used it.

 

[paradox42]

I don't ban anything outright, but I reserve the right to disallow anything from a book besides the PHB- so far though, I've allowed every spell players have asked about. I do occasionally nerf spells that are just too good; the prime example is the Orb spells. Orb of Acid, I allow to retain the "no Spell Resistance" bit; the rest of them, especially Orb of Force, most definitely allow SR in my game!

Personally I've never encountered a problem with the Polymorph spells, so never felt the need to change them or adopt the PHB2 rules. Sure, it was annoying when the Sorceress Polymorphed the tank into a Firbolg so he could get increased STR and CON, but that's quite a bit more tame than when he got the magic item that lets him use Giant Size 3 times/day, which is what he uses now. Size Colossal as a Fighter? Talk about your powergaming...

 

[greywulf]

I ban Raise Dead and the like. Dead is dead, other than through some monumental Legend-making Divine event. Yes, I'm an evil GM

Other than that, anything goes. I'm slowly tricking in spells from the Spell Compendium in the form of lost scrolls of lore, non-human spellbooks, strange religions and the like. That's keeping the control firmly on my side of the table, where it belongs.