D&D 3E/3.5 Which 3.5 spells aren't improvements

[Elder-Basilisk]

3.5 shield is only useful if you've got a 1st level slot and nothing to do with it and the time to cast it before combat. Otherwise, it's useless.

For a wizard using mage armor, odds are he won't make his AC good enough that opponents will regularly miss him. So he's better off using the action to take foes out. Maybe it's worthwhile at first level. Not past that.

For a fighter/wizard, he can get similar results by using a real shield. He certainly doesn't have enough time to cast buffs in combat. (Given how few of them now last more than 1 min/level, this means that he'll be pretty useless unless either his side is starting the combat or he only uses one or two buff spells per combat).

That covers about all of the people who could cast shield.

It would have been better if they'd either left it alone or made it +4 shield bonus (+1/6 levels) like Shield of Faith.

 

[Falling Icicle]

3.5 shield is only useful if you've got a 1st level slot and nothing to do with it and the time to cast it before combat. Otherwise, it's useless.

Not if you Quicken it.

 

[Thanee]

At 7th level a wizard can get AC 28 with mage armor, shield and polymorph, that's not bad at all.

Bye
Thanee

 

[jessemock]

Can only be small or smaller afaik, and he gets a bonus on his save when the new form couldn't survive here. And when he fails the save, he must make a will save or become a rabbit/mouse/whatever in spirit as well as in shape.

AKA: Baleful Sucks.

And the point was that Baleful does not allow the options that PolyOther did.

 

[Galfridus]

Scorching Ray isn't abusive, but it can be abused with metamagic.

At 11th level you get 3 rays -- add Maximize spell and you have a 5th level spell which can do 72 points of damage. If Twin Spell or Energy Substitution is available, you can have a 6th level spell doing 24d6 to one target.

The 3.0 -> 3.5 spell change that bugs me the most is identify. Sure, it only takes an hour to cast, but now it's a single item only -- which means 100gp to identify any item, even a 1st level scroll or potion. Yuck. And still no mid-level that improves upon it until Analyze Dweomer.

 

[Falling Icicle]

AKA: Baleful Sucks.

I disagree. If you are going to use Polymorphing as a weapon, most of the time you are not going to want to turn them into something big and powerful.

Believe me, the ability to turn a mighty enemy into a harmless critter and strip away its mind is very powerful and very cruel.

My DM watched in horror a couple sessions ago as I turned an evil, beefed up, Elder Air elemental into a puny squirrel. What was going to be a tremendous challenge was reduced to harmlessness with one 5th level spell. And since it kept its mind, we got to torture it by burying it alive (what could be a worse punishment for an air elemental?).

And I really like how I can use Polymorph on other people now without it being permanent. This spell has seen alot of great use in our party.

 

[Falling Icicle]

The 3.0 -> 3.5 spell change that bugs me the most is identify. Sure, it only takes an hour to cast, but now it's a single item only -- which means 100gp to identify any item, even a 1st level scroll or potion. Yuck. And still no mid-level that improves upon it until Analyze Dweomer.

Identify has been significantly improved in 3.5, to our immense joy. It always identified only a single item, but now it identifies all of the item's properties instead of just one property. And it takes 1/8 the time to cast.

In fact, I can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier. Of all the spell revisions in 3.5, this is by far my favorite.

You only need Analyze Dweomer if you want to identify several items at once or if you want to analyze the magical aura of a spell effect in complete detail.

[EDIT] P.S. Identify has never been needed to identify a scroll or potion. Scrolls can be identified with a simple spellcraft check or read magic spell, and potions can be identified with alchemy.

 

[Spatula]

It always identified only a single item

Identify
Targets: Up to 1 touched object per level

3.0 PHB, pg 216

 

[Shadowdweller]

Now in 3.5e you just cast the shield spell and it gives you +4 shield bonus against all comers. Much more useful, can't be bypassed and no pesky positioning on battlemaps to contend with.

On the other hand, since Shield now provides a shield bonus it no longer has any effect against touch attacks. Which is another pretty big nerf.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

AKA: Baleful Sucks.

I couldn't disagree more. It's almost a save-or-die spell, as it incapacitates the enemy, AND it provides tremendous amounts of humiliation. Turn the wizard with the cat familiar into a mouse