Wings of cover from Races of the Dragon

[Mortagon]

Is it just me or is this (sorcerer only) spell vastly overpowered for a 2nd level spell?

As an immediate action it allows the caster to gain total cover against any melee or ranged attack, psionic power or spell, thus totally negating the effect, Furthermore if the caster is dragonblooded he may extend the effect to one adjacent ally for every three caster levels. All this for a 2nd level spell.

Also I wonder if the spell would work against spell-like and supernatural abilities. As written I don't think it should, but the intention of the spell would seem to work against such effects.

I recently got into quite a heated debate about this when the sorcerer one of my players played were affected by a sea hags Evil eye ability and he argued that he could use wings of cover to protect himself against this supernatural ability. I disallowed it since a strict reading of the spell excludes spell-like and supernatural abilities as far as I interpret it. This lead to my player leaving the session quite angry (although the evil eye ability only dazed him as he made the secondary save against dying).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

First off, no, it's not just you. This is one of the MOST powerful spells in the entire game, in my not-so-humble opinion. It certainly goes a long way toward evening the sorc w/ wizard, though, eh?

It blocks line of effect, so I don't see how an ability being Su should matter. Certainly not Sp, which for the most part interact with things the same way spells do.

As for what to do with it, I don't know. Could ban it. My group has fond memories of using it to utterly screw over the bad guys, so I didn't want to scrap it. I altered it to give a chance of blocking line of sight/effect, I think it's still quite strong. Here is my houserule:

"Wings of Cover grants a +8 cover bonus to AC and +4 cover bonus to reflex saves against one attack. Any targeted or area attack/spell/ability that does not need to hit AC or give a reflex save instead has a 50% chance of being stopped by the wings blocking line of sight and effect. Any ability that does not require line of sight/effect to function is unaffected by the use of this spell."

Note the text follows order of application. A touch spell would not be subject to the 50% chance, but instead the cover AC. A purely targeted spell would. I'm not even going to pretend this makes perfect sense within the rules in how it functions, but at least it's more balanced.

 

[Mortagon]

The problem is that the spell SPECIFICALLY mentions what kind of attacks it works against.

Your evoked wings grant cover against a specific attack. If your foe is about to attack you with a melee, ranged, spell, or psionic attack

As written I don't think the spell would work against supernatural and spell like abilities nor extraordinary abilities for that matter.

I still think the spell is poorly written and maybe a tad bit powerful for a 2nd level spell.

 

[Dragonwriter]

The idea behind the spell seems to be using the "Wings" to block an attack. A spell-like should be affected, just like a spell. A Su might not be. Frankly, I'd have to say it changes for any given circumstance...

Stream's HR seems pretty good and looks like it would make the spell a bit more balanced. If you have a problem with the power of the spell at the current level, you can bump the level by 1 or 2.