What Spells give the DM the most headache...

[JimAde]

Couldn't a Tiefling, Aasimar, or Genasi turn into a Ravid then?

Sure, if they have the Outsider type (don't remember for sure) and enough hit dice. The SRD has this under polymorph:

The assumed form can't have more Hit Dice than your caster level (or the subject's HD, whichever is lower), to a maximum of 15 HD at 15th level.

I'm not familiar with Ravids. Are they 15HD or less?

Alter Self has a similar restriction, but it tops out at 5 HD.

So that's that. It sounds like you can never polymorph into anything that has more hit dice than you! If something has the same or fewer hit dice and some cool abilities that polymorph grants, go for it.

Haven't read the Shapechange description...

 

[WizarDru]

The Ravid, a positive energy plane dragony-thing, is a 3 HD creature. According to the spell description for Alter Self, you change to a creature of the same type. A plane-touched could become a ravid, because the ravid is an Outsider (extraplanar) while the planetouched Outsider (native). The difference in subtype merely refers to the ability of the creature to be raised.

A little goofy? Perhaps.

 

[sumi]

Could I put another aspect to this by adding the problem of spell components. Gone are the masses of componets used in ad&d1, but there are still some major problems caused by party members wishing to cast spells which they have learnt from a scroll or book and then having to wait to get out of a dungeon to find the relevant component or the 100 gp pearl or 5,000 gp gem that never seems to be floating around everywhere. It makes the spell virtually useless, when it could assist the party. Therefore giving the DM the headache of putting components into the dungeon if the spells are to be used.

 

[Ace]

They shouldn't be annoying. Wish and Limited Wish have clearly defined limits, and Miracle is either "I want a free wish" or "do something random and take my XP." Some examples:


"Poof - a man walks up to you. 'Mr.PC, I'm here to inform you that one million gold coins were found in an account in your name in the royal vault. The King thanks you for your donation, as he had to use your gold to pay for the war.'"


Poof--a small, tiny 8-str dragon shows up.

If a GM pulled that sort of stuff with a non Demon/Djinn wish I would walk away from the table and not return

It is not the GM's job to hose the players ---

Besides do you really want "rule lawyer" wishes? "I wish for one million golf pieces to appear in a pile the end of which is extacly 7 feet away from me. These gold pieces are 98% gold 2% copper and not the property fo anyone or anything-- blah blah blah ..." Boring

My attitude is that as long as I don't think to much about the magic system its works fine-- Try to world build around it and thats when trouble starts

Magic items are the worst culprits-- spells are easy to limit but at will items amd wands and so on urgh

Cure Light wounds can take a 1st level commoner (hp7 with toughness) from near death (1HP) to hale in 6 seconds

A wand of cure light can patch up a lot of people and if you allow at will items -- Yowza No more injury or disease

 

[Creamsteak]

The only spells that I think can be problematic are high level divinations. Teleportation and such are no problems for me, but sometimes an unprepared bad getting properly divined can spoil some of my malicious fun. Of course, without the divinations, I doubt they'd be able to survive at high levels.

 

[fourthmensch]

Believe it or not, my problem with these high level spells (most of the usual suspects everyone has been mentioning: divinations, translocations, polymorphs, etc) is not that they, but that the PCs don't use them nearly enough. I've been really proud of them when they tried to scry on an unknown enemy (which repeatedly failed due to high will saves), or use divination to learn the powers of the BBEG, or used arcane eye to anticipate a dungeon's threats. I love it when they use these spells; I plan on them using these spells, and when they are successful, they are justifiably proud of their abilities and creativity.

None of these spells is foolproof, and they are successful less often than one might think. They still have no idea that the new thieves guild in town is run by an old enemy because of her high will save. Most divinations are only as good as the questions that are asked, and I love giving them exactly the information they need in the form of a cryptic response (legend lore is my favorite for this ). Even teleport has its pitfalls. None of us will forget the time the wizard teleported to a big city to do some grocery shopping, rolled a 98 and wound up 60 miles away from shore in the middle of the ocean.

As an aside, my group's druid always used to hijack the MM for his summon nature's ally spell, and that was pretty annoying. As a player, now, I have detailed stats for every creature that my cleric might summon in a small packet.

 

[Pants]

Y'know, I don't think I'd ever purposefully screw with a Wish, unless what the player asks is outside the boundaries of the spell. Once the player does that, he's entering the 'I will screw you to hell and back' area.

I love that the players have Teleport now. The Wizard usually only has a couple memorized a day, but it allows them to do intercontinental business - which happens a lot nowadays. Besides, once the players get into higher levels, random encounters seem like... a waste of time to me. At that point, an encounter should mean something. Even without Teleportation powers, the players really aren't going to run into a significant threat randomnly without seriously stretching logic... unless of course, they are in very dangerous territory.

Raise Deads and Ressurections are starting to annoy me, because they are quickly becoming my player's answers to everything. Ugh.

 

[Felon]

I find that "snare" spells--which mainly consists of entangle, web, plant growth--really drain the excitement from many fights, often pretty much stopping them before they begin, and there isn't anything that most opponents can do against them in terms of counter-tactics. The bad guys are often hosed right out of the starting gate if they don't beat the caster's initiative roll.

Entangle has a ridiculously large area of effect (16 squares in diameter) easily able to affect every opponent in a unit even they're a bit dispersed. Even those targets that make their save can only move at half speed, and since the AoE is so enormous, that likely means they wind up having to make a second save. Sure, it doesn't work on every battlefield, but that's hardly consolation when it does. Lats 1 min/level and can be dismissed at will by the caster.

Web has a smaller AoE, but its effects are even more severe and its applicability extends not just into the wild but into the dungeon as well. Targets that make their save arre still entangled and have to make Str checks just to move a couple of squares--maybe 3 or 4 if they roll well. Lasts 10 min/level and cn be dismissed at will.

Plant Growth is simply insane, and if you don't know what I'm talking about then you've never seen it come into play. If the opponents rely on ground movement (as many foes do) and are ineffectual at range (as many monsters are), they're quite likely finished. No save allowed, no spell resistance allowed, and here's the AoE, for those who aren't familiar with it: a 100-foot-radius circle, a 150-foot-radius semicircle, or a 200-foot-radius quarter circle. The caster can selectively designate areas that aren't affected (which is particularly convenient considering that a diameter of 40 squares almost fully covers most megamats, leaving PC's with no place to stand).

The big problem is that snare spells are effectively "rocks without paper", i.e. the designers didn't build in many good countermeasures against them. The one spell designed to defend against spells of this nature is freedomm of movement. It shouldn't take a 4th-level spell just to protect one creature against a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-level area-affecting snare. And there's not a lot of dimension-dooring or teleporting at that level either. To tell the truth, I'd rather see bad guys hit by fireballs every round and have to mark off some hits points than to have them bogged down for several rounds.

 

[BigTom]

There is nothing like having the party teleport past the ENTIRE ADVENTURE and go straight for the big bad guy.

Especially when you have prepared enough material for several sessions and they have successfully ignored all of it.

 

[Qualir]

There is nothing like having the party teleport past the ENTIRE ADVENTURE and go straight for the big bad guy.

Especially when you have prepared enough material for several sessions and they have successfully ignored all of it.

My game group actually did this once in the D&D team event at Gen Con. For some reason we didn't get to move on to the third round after this Of course we might never have tried it if the DM hadn't showed 1 1/2 hours late