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

[Stalker0]

I like the spider climb change, I think WOTC made a conscious effort to make skills useful again compared to magic. With spider climb you never need real climb.

They change invis to make hide better why hide when your invis?

I agree though teh buffs should be like 10 min/lvl, they are pretty weak right now.

 

[Darklone]

If you want effective bards able to buff themselves for combat, you need the good old True Strike, Magic Weapon, later Greater Magic Weapon, Keen Edge and some other goodies I'm not sure about right now such as Displacement and sooo... Blur? I think the last two are still on the list... but the typical archer buffs need wands and UMD now... not very stylish.

 

[Darklone]

Ah well... and I don't like the silly good hope spell ... it's not that much better (if at all) than your typical bards song Inspire Courage ability. Pretty silly, if you ask me. Heroism is ok though.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Psion, I think you might want to check over the spells I did before using 'em. I got a lot of input pointing out a couple errors I made, but I lost the .txt file that had those comments. I know the major problem was allowing the spells to work on undead, but I don't remember exactly, unfortunately. I got too busy IRL before I updated the spells...

As for changes: I decided, across the board, that EVERY spell with a duration of 1 minute/level goes up to 10 minutes/level. Granted, some of them always were 1 minute/level and should stay there, but I don't want to bother making up a list of the few spells that shouldn't change. So I overcompensate, but I get all the buffs, fly, invisibility, etc., in one fell swoop.

One thing I can't believe that they *didn't* clean up is cloudkill. Here we are, 3.5, and they still have poison doing hp damage instead of Con damage. Not that it matters that much, since I've never seen anyone use the spell...

 

[Darklone]

Ack. Bulls Strength and other goodies are missing. Ok, they were nerfed (thanks for spelling), but my bard would have taken them nonetheless.

 

[Darklone]

Eeks. Forgot that: See invisibility, the ex level 2 spell with which my bard saved our old party three times is now a weirdo level 3 spell. Ack.

 

[Psion]

Psion, I think you might want to check over the spells I did before using 'em. I got a lot of input pointing out a couple errors I made, but I lost the .txt file that had those comments.

Hey CZ, fancy seeing you here.

In the thread I yanked those from, you mentioned you edited them from HeavyG's input. Were there changes after that.

Whatever the case, speaking of undead, I'm not sure I understand "the vamprie can become a human but not a zombie" bit. Got any light to shed on that?

As for changes: I decided, across the board, that EVERY spell with a duration of 1 minute/level goes up to 10 minutes/level. Granted, some of them always were 1 minute/level and should stay there, but I don't want to bother making up a list of the few spells that shouldn't change. So I overcompensate, but I get all the buffs, fly, invisibility, etc., in one fell swoop.

As mentioned, I already do that for Buffs (and reintroduce radomizing), but that sounds like a nice quick fix, thanks.

One thing I can't believe that they *didn't* clean up is cloudkill. Here we are, 3.5, and they still have poison doing hp damage instead of Con damage. Not that it matters that much, since I've never seen anyone use the spell...

Hmmm... well, that does make sense, but it would make the spell more useful across levels. But then, it's level dependant upon effects, so that might work out.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Hey CZ, fancy seeing you here.

Sleep brought me here. I still can't believe how useless that spell is!

In the thread I yanked those from, you mentioned you edited them from HeavyG's input. Were there changes after that.

Whatever the case, speaking of undead, I'm not sure I understand "the vamprie can become a human but not a zombie" bit. Got any light to shed on that?

That would be the unfixed error part. I tried to expand the spell so that the undead could be polymorphed. It doesn't work right. I think the way to get it to work right is to just remove all reference to being able to polymorph undead. Now that you mention it, though, I think the other changes were all introduced before something shiney distracted me.

As mentioned, I already do that for Buffs (and reintroduce radomizing), but that sounds like a nice quick fix, thanks.

It's quick and dirty, but it works for my current campaign.

Hmmm... well, that does make sense, but it would make the spell more useful across levels. But then, it's level dependant upon effects, so that might work out.

I just think that, stylisticly, if you're going to change how poison works, you should be consistant. And they are, except for this last, lone hold-out.

 

[Stalker0]

One thing I can't believe that they *didn't* clean up is cloudkill. Here we are, 3.5, and they still have poison doing hp damage instead of Con damage. Not that it matters that much, since I've never seen anyone use the spell...

Huh... cloudkill does 1d4 con damage a round now, half if you save (depending on hd). I love the change, now cloudkill is still scary to higher level character, and much more effective over all. I actually got my party to use it.

 

[Psion]

That would be the unfixed error part. I tried to expand the spell so that the undead could be polymorphed. It doesn't work right. I think the way to get it to work right is to just remove all reference to being able to polymorph undead.

Okay, but I'm not exactly clear on why a vampire turning into a zombie is problematic...