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DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

Started by Anastasia, April 12, 2018, 12:35:58 PM

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Anastasia

Today's Spell Booster entry is one I previewed. It's what you'd expect it would be.

Voidcall
Evocation [Evil]
Level: Corrupt 14
Components: V, S, Corrupt
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft 2/levels)
Target: One living creature/level; no two of which can be more than 120ft apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

With a mournful call and longing incantation, you bring Shar's song to the targets to unravel them to nothingness. The targets take 1d10 points of vile damage per caster level (maximum 40d10) and is afflicted by the Song of Ending disease. A successful Fortitude save halves the damage and prevents being afflicted with the Song of Ending disease.

Corruption Cost

1d8 points of Constitution damage. Sharrans only take 1d4 points of Constitution damage instead.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

10/9/18: Added 1 new spell from B6: 7: Syllen's Switch.
10/9/18: Added 9 spells from Imix: 9: Disintegrating Burst 10: Corruptor's Touch, Titan's Surge 11: Imix's Desiccating Aura, Imix's Wreath 12: Disintegrating Blast, Mass Titan's Surge 13: Imix's Touch 14: Imix's Burning Scream
10/9/18: Added 2 spells from Donald: 8: Dispelling Slap, Sonic Handshake.
10/10/18: Added 1 spell from Alyssa: 12: Visions of the Past.
10/10/18: Added 1 domain from Beezlebub: Perfection.
10/10/18: Added 1 spell from Moore: 10: Antimagic Sound.
10/10/18: Added 1 spell from Naeys: 12: Naeys' Mind Theater.
10/11/18: Adeed 1 spell from the Spell Booster: 13: Kascha's Curse.
10/12/18: Added 1 spell from the Spell Booster: 13: Malcanthet's Kiss.
10/12/18: Added 1 spell from B6: 9: Vampiric Assault.
10/13/18: Added 1 spell from the Spell Booster: 14: Voidcall.

The Spell Collection's been busy lately. I've posted a bunch of new spells, and that's where I could use some help. I'm looking at these spells and could use suggestions for other classes that could get access to them. For example, think a sor/wiz spell should reasonably be a cleric spell as well? Say so. I might say no, but the reward is DM gratitude and possibly getting spells more readily available.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Quote from: Iron Dragoon on October 11, 2018, 09:15:48 PM
Battlemage's Touch
Transmutation/Divination
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 minute/level

You gain supernatural accuracy with your spells. For the duration of the spell, you can use your Caster Level plus your primary casting stat in place of the normal Ranged Touch Attack.

Let's look at how this spell works on a practical level in B6. I'm going with people who can cast a 6th level sor/wiz spell. This only accounts for BAB+Dex and base CL+Casting Ability. CL boosters, bonuses to ranged attack rolls and anything else is being ignored for now.

Alicia: Ranged attack of +41, spell would give her +45.
Marie: Ranged attack of +42, spell would give her +46.
Emily: Ranged attack of +34, spell would give her +41.
Seira: Ranged attack of +40, spell would give her +46.
Amaryl: Ranged attack of +41, spell would give her +26 (she's way behind in sorc CL since she started late).
Kascha: Ranged attack of +39, spell would give her +42.
Elle: Ranged attack of +28, spell would give her +46.

Let's get an average. I'm discarding Amaryl as an outlier, as she's both specialized in ranged attacks as it is and only a partial caster. That really skews her numbers out of line.

Average gain: 4+4+7+6+3+18=+7 gain on average. Even that's a bit inflated, since Elle's one of the few characters who completely disregards BAB and doesn't have a class that raises it high anyway. If we disregard that, the average is a bit below +5.

So in light of that is this spell ruinous? Nah. Ranged touch is going to hit in most instances in the campaign as it is. If a ranged touch of around +40 misses an attack roll, odds are a bonus of +5 or so won't change that, as it's something specialized in that sort of defense.

Now I generally balance spells against non gestalt (as that's what normal spells are balanced on), so that is a strike against it. So let's narrow the language a bit, bring it closer to the stated intent. Also it really doesn't need to be a dual school spell, this strikes me as a straight up transmutation. I don't see any divination in the spell. Iddy, what was your logic there?

Battlemage's Touch
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 minute/level

You gain supernatural accuracy with your spells. For the duration of the spell, you can use your caster level plus your Intelligence modifier (if a wizard) or your Charisma modifier (if a sorcerer) in place of your base attack bonus and Dexterity modifier when you make ranged touch attack rolls with a spell you cast.

Looking at it, my take is this: A bit dicey from a design perspective, as that sort of spell could be turned into something much more objectionable with some tweaking, but as is it's ultimately not going to break anything. We'll give it a try, see how it works out and if it's broken we'll deal.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Nephrite

We had talked a bit about a good version of Gathgorian's Fireball, here's my take:

Xandra's Holy Explosion
Evocation [Good, Fire, Lawful]
Level: Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S, Archon
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400ft + 40ft/level)
Area: 40ft spread
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes


This spell creates a sudden explosion of holy and fire energy at a target location, dealing 1d6 damage per caster level (up to 30d6 damage), half of this damage is fire and half is divine in nature. In addition, this spellis difficult to resist; it ignores fire resistance for any evil creature who is damaged by it. In addition, evil characters suffer -3 to their saving throw.


I figured a higher damage cap was okay since it's split damage, but I guess in theory it just hits harder on evil targets than GF does, so YMMV on whether that's okay.

Iron Dragoon

Quote from: Anastasia on October 13, 2018, 08:46:14 AM
Now I generally balance spells against non gestalt (as that's what normal spells are balanced on), so that is a strike against it. So let's narrow the language a bit, bring it closer to the stated intent. Also it really doesn't need to be a dual school spell, this strikes me as a straight up transmutation. I don't see any divination in the spell. Iddy, what was your logic there?

Dual school was because I was half looking at True Strike, which is divination. I sorta put it in just as a catch-all and figured it'd be adjusted out to whichever school was most suitable after.
This is not the greatest post in the world, no... this is just a tribute.

Iron Dragoon

More skillpoint refinement:

Profession: Cartographer reduced from 30 to 0. Craft: Tailoring +15, Diplomacy +1, Disable Device +1, Knowledge: Engineering +7, Knowledge: History +6
This is not the greatest post in the world, no... this is just a tribute.

Anastasia

Sunday Spell Booster? Sure!

This one is a specialist's tool. A lot of epic magic falls into that niche, due to spellcasters who make it that far often having specialized interests and needs. In this case, this spell comes from the Mercane Consortium. They relentlessly innovate spells to aid in their businesses and this is one such spell. One that notably leaked and spread, though it's hardly the most specialized and powerful tool they have.

It's true purpose is to provide mercane who have cut corners on mercantile knowledge to more than catch up. While the vast majority of mercane will take max ranks in Appraise, the exceptions are often powerful mercane specialized in magic or other obscure studies. The mercane certainly recognize specialists are needed, ones that don't have anything to do with buying or selling. There's no reason they can't have a patch in a pinch, however.

Mercane's Insight
Divination
Level: Brd 12, Sor/Wiz 13
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 hour/level

By invoking the name of the legendary founder of the Mercane and channeling knowledge from across the planes, you become a dynamo of mercantile knowledge. You gain a +40 competence bonus to Appraise checks. Appraising an item's value is a free action on your turn, you may appraise as many objects as you care to and can see on your turn. If an object you appraise is magical, you understand it as if you cast identify on the item.

Material Component

A platinum piece worth 10 gold.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Quote from: Iron Dragoon on October 13, 2018, 05:57:37 PM
More skillpoint refinement:

Profession: Cartographer reduced from 30 to 0. Craft: Tailoring +15, Diplomacy +1, Disable Device +1, Knowledge: Engineering +7, Knowledge: History +6

So noted.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Quote from: Iron Dragoon on October 13, 2018, 05:02:06 PM
Quote from: Anastasia on October 13, 2018, 08:46:14 AM
Now I generally balance spells against non gestalt (as that's what normal spells are balanced on), so that is a strike against it. So let's narrow the language a bit, bring it closer to the stated intent. Also it really doesn't need to be a dual school spell, this strikes me as a straight up transmutation. I don't see any divination in the spell. Iddy, what was your logic there?

Dual school was because I was half looking at True Strike, which is divination. I sorta put it in just as a catch-all and figured it'd be adjusted out to whichever school was most suitable after.

Fair. I'm gonna add it to the Spell Collection, we'll see how it works out. It's on probation for now for the reasons discussed. We'll see how it works out in actual play.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Quote from: Nephrite on October 13, 2018, 01:06:48 PM
We had talked a bit about a good version of Gathgorian's Fireball, here's my take:

Xandra's Holy Explosion
Evocation [Good, Fire, Lawful]
Level: Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S, Archon
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400ft + 40ft/level)
Area: 40ft spread
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell creates a sudden explosion of holy and fire energy at a target location, dealing 1d6 damage per caster level (up to 30d6 damage), half of this damage is fire and half is divine in nature. In addition, this spell is difficult to resist; it ignores fire resistance for any evil creature who is damaged by it. In addition, evil characters suffer -3 to their saving throw.

I figured a higher damage cap was okay since it's split damage, but I guess in theory it just hits harder on evil targets than GF does, so YMMV on whether that's okay.

Eeeeeeh. Lemme write this out so I can analyze it.

Gathgorian's Fireball is an okay 10th level spell, mostly because it ignores fire resistance and immunity chaotic or good creatures. What does your spell trade?

+ 30d6 max damage, up from 25d6.
+ Half fire and half divine.

- Only bypasses fire resistance and only for evil creatures.

So more baseline damage plus making it half divine damage in exchange for less resistance penetration, no immunity penetration and less broad range save penalty/fire defenses bypassing. However, I don't feel less resistance and no immunity penetration really matters here. With the spell dealing half divine damage, it's suddenly off brand. Rather than being flames aimed at evil, they're flames that work on basically anything. Let's call it a wash there for the sake of argument.

So you have +5d6 max damage in exchange for...not a lot, really.

More than that, I feel the spell suffers from a certain degree of design incoherence. It gets off brand quickly with divine damage. Rather than it being a powerful anti evil fireball, it becomes a broad tool to damage anything. Inefficiently if you run into fire immunity granted, but still worth noting. There's a reason flame strike's a classic. The thing is you have divine damage, then resistance bypassing and finally a saving throw penalty. This isn't that different than Gathgorian's fireball, but together I feel it makes a less elegant package. The changes altogether add a bit too much to the formula of the spell.

So let's back to the beginning of this and work our way forward. You want an anti evil fireball at heart, or did you want a closer patterning based specifically on Gathgorian's Fireball?
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Nephrite

More or less just looking for an anti-evil evocation Sorc/Wiz spell. It doesn't really have to ignore fire resistance (but spells that do purely divine damage seem... limited? Maybe I'm wrong there?)

I don't mind the damage being reduced, or even the actual area. It'd be okay as a smaller explosion too, since Sunlance has a pretty big area, for whatever it's worth.

Anastasia

In that case, it may be more productive to make a sanctified spell. Rain of Embers provides a strong example, it's a sanctified 7 spell in the BoED.

To be clear, Xandra can access sanctified magic, any caster who can cast a spell of the proper level can access a sanctified spell. Wizards have to memorize it and know it, a cleric has to request it in prayer as normal, a favored soul has to choose it as a spell known and so on. In Xandra's case, she'd have access to it since she has her entire spell list available. Note that a houserule in Balmuria Houserules notes that spontaneous spellcasters aren't banned from them, they can select them normally.

Two notes about the upcoming spell I'm suggesting. 1. Xandra isn't the type to put her name on a spell. Personal choice. 2. She's going with light instead of fire because she has another spell for her in the Spell Booster that has the same theme. She's building around this, so it makes sense to build in tandem with it. Same with the star theme. Stars are more associated with the eladrin but it doesn't mean the archons can't peacefully contest that.

Star Explosion
Evocation [Good, Light]
Level: Sanctified 10
Components: V, S, Sacrifice
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400ft + 40ft/level)
Area: 60ft radius spread
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

A burst of radiant stars deals 1d6 points of damage per caster level (maximum 25d6). Creatures vulnerable to bright light (including sunlight) take 25d10 points of damage instead.

Sacrifice

1d2 points of Strength damage.

Any opinion on it?
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Nephrite

That's good! She would definitely use that.

What I'm looking for is an anti-evil spell, but I wonder if Burst of Glory already kind of treads on that idea too much? What do you think?

Anastasia

Quote from: Nephrite on October 14, 2018, 10:27:21 PM
That's good! She would definitely use that.

What I'm looking for is an anti-evil spell, but I wonder if Burst of Glory already kind of treads on that idea too much? What do you think?

Well, to be clear here, for Xandra or Moore?
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Nephrite

Xandra. Moore has Cleric casting so one day will get it.

There really aren't a lot of anti-evil sorc/wiz spells, but Sanctified casting would absolutely fit that bill, I think.