Why is Aid a 2nd level spell?

[Thanee]

I have even chosen Aid as one of the few 2nd level spells for my Favored Soul, because it is quite useful!

Bye
Thanee

 

[sfedi]

I house ruled it to provide a +2 Morale/vs Fear Bonus instead of +1.

 

[trentonjoe]

When playing games with a small party I frequently give out a weapon that cast cast aid 3/day or something similiar. I find it help the lesser melee types quite a bit.

I had one guy use a +1 dagger of aid from 2nd level all the way to 8th.

 

[UltimaGabe]

I have honestly never seen it cast. I gave my players a few potions of Aid and they sold them.

A Bless spell is only 1st level and give the whole party, potentially a great number of people, the +1 morale bonus to hit. And any PC I know would much rather be hit with a Cure Serious spell if he was injured than get a few of those annoying temporary hit points that can kill him when they wear off if he's not careful.

It has some minor use as a buffing spell, but it seems to me that it would be better if it were first level. It does what Bless does but only for one person and it does what CLW does, but with the more dangerous and annoying temporary hp.

Bless is a 2nd-level spell because it's too powerful to be a 1st-level spell. It does all that Cure Light Wounds does, and then some (it's got a higher cap, AND you can cast it on someone with full hit points). And to top it all off, it gives the target a +1 to attacks.

True, as others have said, it's not as powerful as many other 2nd-level spells, but then again, there aren't too many good 2nd-level Cleric spells to begin with. But, the fact is, it's too powerful for a 1st-level spell.

 

[Li Shenron]

Aid has a very different use compared to Cure Wounds! You don't cast Aid to heal your wounds, you cast Aid just BEFORE combat to give you a "hp buffer".

In one way, Aid is better because once hurt you may be dead before you have to get a Cure Wounds.

In another way, Cure Wounds is better because Aid cannot heal at all.

I however agree that it is quite low for a 2nd level spell, perhaps it would have fit better as a 1st level spell if it just gave temporary Hp and not the bonus. With the +1 morale bonus it's about... a 1.5 level spell

[By the way... do the temp hp last for the duration of the spell, or is the duration for the bonus only and temp hp last 1 hour?]

I gave my players a few potions of Aid and they sold them.

That is kind of sad. Potions are supposed to be useful, and I think that in-character reasoning should have suggested them to USE the potions to protect themselves.

One character may think a potion isn't going to help him much, but if it was always unworthy of use, why would other people want to buy it as well? IOW, if you wanted them to use the potions, you shouldn't have allowed them to sell them.

 

[KarinsDad]

The primary use that I have seen for Aid is to free up the Cleric in combat to do other things.

Our group used to use it a lot up to about 7th level. Then, it kind of pettered out.

But until then, the Cleric casting two Aids, especially on the lower HP PCs, kept the Cleric from casting Cures during combat too often.

Just a style difference I think.

 

[Gaiden]

I have seen Aid come up quite a bit in a RttToEE game I am in. However, it was quite indirect with casting summon monster to get lantern archon(s). They can cast aid at will and if you summon them up for their continual MCaE they also can cast aid at least once before they are killed. They are very easy to kill but if for example you use a 5th level spell and manage to roll 6 on the d6 you get 3 to position above your allies for the save boosts from MCaE, each can cast aid, and if all else fails they can be used to attack. For a possible net of 6 helpful spells from one 5th level, the return is not too bad. When I only had SMIV's available, I summoned one a combat for just this purpose. We are now at 12th level and regrettably the L.A.'s simply don't have the hit points. Any AoE spell will wipe them out. However, now we have switched over to potions of aid. The characters who sold them are crazy. The +1 to attack and a few HP's are a great buff and in potion form you don't have to worry about using up precious 2nd level spell slots which I would argue are one of the most crucial levels of cleric spells with the ability buffs, silence, spiritual weapon, resist energy, and a host of other very useful spells.

If you don't know about the battle ahead of time, save the potion until you do.

 

[irdeggman]

I've used Aid many times with my cleric PC. Mostly to help the lower level wizard in the party so that he could survive any arrows headed his way.

Now I might rather use it for my own PC since his hit points are sorry. He is a fighter2/cleric5 with something like 38 hit points max d10 at first level then ended up rolling 3 -1s and 2- 2s with a +2 due to Con. Good thing he has some real good armor, but regardless he is pretty useless in combat except as a support role.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Our cleric cast Aid before our last fight. Its basically just more buffs to add to our bull's strengths, shields of faith, etc.

 

[Zephyrus]

You could say that Aid is 2nd level because effectively you could say that the character is gaining an extra HD (potentially you could even argue 2 HD in the case of D4 HD classes). Tac onto that the +Level which will be at least +3. A 3rd level Cleric casting it on themselve could almost be considered 4HD (even better cause the BAB from 3rd to 4th with the Avg. BAB is doesnt change). Thought of in terms of a extra HD its power as a 2nd level spell seems more recognizable (at least to me).

As someone said earlier. put it on your wizard or sorcerer and it could right well save them from getting killed, expecialy at low levels. Wizards and Sorcerers are usually under 20 HP on the high end at 3rd level (heck, pending their CON score they might have 15). Where-as the rest of the party will concievably have as much as twice as many. The benefit of having an extra 7-8 HP can be the ability to survive an extra attack allowing them to step back and blast whoever just hit them or at least flee.