Examining potential spells

[Doxmaster]

Since we are a scholarly sort, let’s look at various spells from all class lists and books and judge them. Once we have determined which ones are overpowered/useless/perfect/too perfect/impossible to include in this game, we should suggest the acceptable spell be implemented.

If your spell has wierd mechanics, describe how you think it should work.

If you don't have an idea for a new spell, critique a suggested one. Reverse this if necessary or, if possible, do both!

I will start this off-
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Resist energy, Mass:
4th level wizard & cleric spell
As resist energy, but one additional ally is affected by the spell per caster level.
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An easy-to-hand-out buff that most people would probably use; saves time more than anything else.

[RhapsodieInBlue]

ANARCHIC STORM
Conjuration (Creation) [Chaotic,
Water]
Level: Cleric 3
Components: V, S, M, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Area: Cylinder (20-ft. radius, 20 ft.
high)
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
You call upon the powers of chaos, and a
heavy rain begins to fall around you, its
drops a rainbow of soft radiances. Above
you, a multicolored lightning bolt flashes.
The downpour created by this spell
falls in a fixed area once created. The
storm reduces hearing and visibility,
resulting in a –4 penalty on Listen,
Spot, and Search checks. It also applies
a –4 penalty on ranged attacks made
into, out of, or through the storm.
Finally, it automatically extinguishes
any unprotected flames and has a 50%
chance to extinguish protected flames
(such as those of lanterns).
The rain damages lawful creatures,
dealing 2d6 points of damage per round
(lawful outsiders take double damage).
In addition, each round, a bolt of lightning
strikes a randomly selected lawful
outsider within the spell’s area, dealing
5d6 points of electricity damage. After
the spell’s duration expires, the water
disappears.
Material Component: A flask of anarchic
water.

More alignment based spells, please.

[Archer001]

Summon undead Levels 1-9
Summons a zombie of appropriate size and power for the minimum caster level of each spell. Undead are harmed by positive energy and healed by negative. Locks out your summoned monster slot while active.

[Heronous]

Divine:

lvl 2
Align Weapon: Weapon becomes good, evil, lawful, or chaotic.

lvl 3
Magic Vestment: Armor or shield gains +1 enhancement per four levels.
Water Walk: Subject treads on water as if solid.

lvl 4
Magic Weapon, Greater: +1 bonus/four levels (max +5).

lvl 5
Disrupting Weapon: Melee weapon destroys undead.

lvl 7
Ethereal Jaunt: You become ethereal for 1 round/level.
Regenerate: Subject’s severed limbs grow back, cures 4d8 damage +1/level (max +35). (Maybe something like a passive regeneration effect)


Arcane:

lvl 1
Magic Weapon: Weapon gains +1 bonus

lvl 2
Levitate: Subject moves up and down at your direction.

lvl3
Vampiric Touch: Touch deals 1d6/two levels damage; caster gains damage as hp.
Keen Edge: Doubles normal weapon’s threat range.
Magic Weapon, Greater: +1/four levels (max +5).

Just a few I like and think could work out very well in DDO.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Since Master's Touch has been changed now to effect the weapon rather than just the caster, i think that could pave the way for the other weapon-boosting spells to be entered into the game - it'd also help to make battlemage type characters a lot more viable... which would probably cue an influx of warforged arcanes who "dont do damage spells" but are almost completely melee-based instead

Regenerate is pretty much already in the game, as Regrowth (from the lammania cakes) - making it castable could be nice.. and with the metamagics, enhancements etc. it'd probably be equivalent to the RS aura but for a single target.

Ethereal Jaunt is similar to the existing Shadow Walk spell, except its a 50% incorporal miss chance not displacement so it could probably be implemented without any real difficulty.

I'd like to see Improved Invisibilty, Prismatic Wall, Mordenkainens Sword, Black Blade of Disaster & the Bigby's line

[Doxmaster]

*To RhapsodieInBlue-(Anarchic Storm): clean the PnP description up a bit to make it more DDO friendly.
*To: Archer001-(Summon undead): Only goes up to level 5, judging of off heroes of horror. Here is a list of undead on the summon list a analysis of them:

Summon Undead
1st Level
Human warrior skeleton-Nice basic undead creature. Very similar to the (free)Pale master Summon.

Kobold zombie- Would work if the Devs wanted the Pale Master summon to be unique.

2nd Level
Owlbear skeleton-Owlbears don’t exist in game.

Bugbear zombie-A lot stronger than the scorpion, but still reasonably powered; with toned down strength and its normal durability it could work.

3rd Level
Ghoul-Weaker than a hellhound outright. A pair of ghouls would be of the same power level, so that could be an option.

Troll skeleton-Roughly the same melee power level as the hellhound, but has a higher to hit and is more durable.
Ogre zombie-Too strong/durable compared to the hellhound.

4th Level
Allip- Basically a wraith that does Wisdom damage on its attacks and can cast a weak hypnotism. The spider has a web ability and a poison ability to my memory, so this is a balanced monster.

Ghast- paralysis attacks and has a “Sinking cloud” aura. The paralysis attacks are roughly the same as the spider’s web, but allow people to crit enemies; slightly more powerful, but the difference is small. Balanced compared to the spider.

Wyvern zombie-This would be ridiculous. Too strong, too durable…etc. this would be a horribly unbalanced summon.

5th Level
Mummy- AoE despair, mummy rot when it melees and good durability; this is a bit too strong to be the Equivalent of the summon (medium) earth Elemental we have as the summon monster (level 5) spell.

Shadow-A bit weaker than the Earth elemental, but its durability (it is incorporeal) balances that. Its strength draining ability makes it roughly as strong as the earthe elemental, but that would be balanced by it going fully incorporeal half the time (as Shadows tend to do already)

Vampire spawn-A lot stronger than the earth elemental; fast healing, DR/silver, gaseous form(it heals while it is untouchable) and the ability to bestow 1 negative level per attack (DC 14) make it too strong compared to the earth elemental.

Wight- Slightly weaker than the elemental and a lot weaker than the vampire. Its 1 negative level per attack ability would make it somewhat useful; a valid option when compared to the Earth Elemental.

*To:Heronous-Several spells:
Align weapon would be a useful spell at low levels, when people are just starting to find better ones, so this could work.

Magic vestment: Fairly balanced spell, whether it stacks or overlaps.

Water walk: might be stepping on Monk toes a bit. There would also be a lot of coding, since the Devs still need to finish making every area Monk water-running compatible.

Magic weapon, greater: pretty balanced, whether it stacks or overlaps.

Disrupting weapon: Alright.

Ethereal jaunt: A cleric equivalent of displace. If it is balanced as a 3rd level wizard spell, it is balanced as a 7th level cleric spell; might want to boost the duration though.

Regenerate: a passive regeneration spell would be rather useful. We should figure something out for this one.

Magic weapon: balanced.

Levitate; no practical use in game. We can’t get flight mechanics because that would mean rebuilding all of the game’s zones, so this is right out.

Vampiric touch: decent; this spell is definitely worth the effort to carefully figure out so it could be considered.

Keen edge: Crit would make some weapons a crit factory. Unbalanced.

Magic Weapon, greater: Still balanced.

*FuzzyDuck81(several spells:
Improved Invisibility: Rogues. Enough said, I think.

Prismatic wall: Too overpowered. Think of a firewall, being used normally, except it can either damage the monster, kill it, charm it, turn it to stone, or banish it. It would simply be ridiculous.

Mordenkainen’s sword: too powerful, whether it acts on its own (is a summoned monster) or the caster receives it.

Black blade of disaster: Either a weapon or a monster with disintegrate as a normal attack? Insanely overpowered.

Bigby line: Half of the bigby spells are defensive and the other half would be…odd or OP. Clenched fist would basically be a summoned monster that randomly stuns enemies, for example.

Keep the spells coming. We have a few good ones so far.

[Doxmaster]

A few more-
*Backbiter- level 2 wizard spell. necromancy school.
Causes the target enemy to damage itself everytime it attacks.

*The various shadow evocations, if the evocation spells are limited; the enemy getting to make a will ANd reflex save vs the damage balances this out, I think.

*Counterspelling: this is a mechanic, but being being able to toggle preventing a spell from being cast by nearby enemies. It would give dispel and Greater dispell...and even mordenkainen's disjunction, a use.

Possible implementations: every 6 seconds, when the target enemy caster tries to cast a spell, you automatically try to dispell it. Has a small spellcasting penalty to prevent overuse (increased sp cost for spells, 5 or 10% arcane spell failure rate, etc.)

*Fire in the blood: cleric spell. Spell level 5
For 1 minute per caster level, any enemy that melees the cleric takes 1d6 damage. Iccreases to 2d6 damage at level 20.
(weakened from PnP, but still useful.

Elemental orbs- fort save vs elemental damage instead of reflex save.

*bestow curse, greater- spell level 7: greater penalties that bestow curse.

-With spell changes just around the corner, we should work doubly hard to locate balanced new spells to suggest. Keep on hunting!

[googatron]

A few more-
*Backbiter- level 2 wizard spell. necromancy school.
Causes the target enemy to damage itself everytime it attacks.

Would like to see some more necro spells, that do indirect damage- I like this, necro isnt ment to be an immitation evocation school, might need to be ballanced somewhat.


*Counterspelling: this is a mechanic, but being being able to toggle preventing a spell from being cast by nearby enemies. It would give dispel and Greater dispell...and even mordenkainen's disjunction, a use.

A spell casters "defencive casting mode", instead of making it a PnP look alike which would be slightly Overpowered, how about making CS a toggled ability that allows you to make a save for spells targeted against nearby allies, if the save the spell is failed it goes through as usual and your ally gets to save... some downside like, longer cast times or higher SP usage would be a good idea


*Fire in the blood: cleric spell. Spell level 5
For 1 minute per caster level, any enemy that melees the cleric takes 1d6 damage. Iccreases to 2d6 damage at level 20.
(weakened from PnP, but still useful.

this would be amazingly usefull if it could be cast on other players, it would make intimitanks more viable and it would help keeping hold of monsters when intimidate fails to land or up against immune mobs.

Good stuff, + Rep

[SomCrea]

A few ideas I thought up from playing pnp recently. I've only played a high level arcane at this point, but I tried to find stuff for divine casters too.

Both:

Spell Vulnerability- cleric/FvS/wiz/sorc 3, bard 4 - touch spell, reduce enemy SR by 1/2 your level for 30 sec, will negates, SR no
Energy Vulnerability-cleric/FvS/wiz/sorc 5, bard 6 - Abjuration, touch either removes an enemy's immunity to an element or gives them vulnerability, no effect on those already vulnerable. will negates, SR yes
Energy Immunity- cleric/FvS/wiz/sorc 6 - immunity to energy type, duration as Fire Shield

Divine:
3rd
Holy/Unholy/Anarctic/Axiomatic Storm - deals 2d6 holy/unholy/chaos/order damage per tick(doubled v evil outsiders), radius as Ice Storm, lasts as long a fire wall

5th
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful - +3 moral bonus to rolls and the attack speed boost of haste, doesn't stack with haste but has the same duration, mass spell

6th
Bolt of Glory - ray attack deals 1d8/level holy damage to evil outsiders and undead, others take 1/2 damage, max=15d8

8th
Heat Drain- burst as positive burst, but instead deals 1d6/level cold damage to all foes and heals you for 1/4 the number of damage done
Fire Storm- hits every creature in a haste burst centered on you for 1d6/level fire damage

9th
Storm of Vengeance - fog cloud as acid fog plus, 1 bolt of lightning to a random enemy for 10d6 reflex 1/2 every 2 ticks, and 5d6 bludgeon every 3 ticks
Undeath's Eternal Foe- death ward+ immunity to neg levels, ability drain, ability damage, poison, disease, paralysis, and fear effects, lasts 6 seconds per level, mass buff range as haste

Arcane:

2nd
Blades of Fire- equipped weapon deals +1d8 fire damage, 1 min/level

3rd
Keen Edge- equipped weapon is now keen/impact, 1 min/level

4th
Earth Lock- Abjuration, as the Earth Ele ability, reflex save per tick or held + ongoing damage, flying/earth enemies immune

6th
Freezing Fog- Conjuration, solid fog+grease(neither affect your party)+2d6 cold damage/tick to those in it, duration as firewall
Brilliant Blade- equipped weapon ignores enemy AC from armor/shields/natural armor, lasts 6 seconds/level

8th
Protection from Spells- Abjuration, +8 resistance bonus to saves against spells/spell like abilities, fire shield duration
Temporal Stasis- Transmutation, fort save or die
Lightning Ring- Evocation, enemies adjacent to the caster take 5d6 electricity damage/tick and shoot either forward or the current target a lightning bolt dealing 10d6 electric damage, both effects are reflex half, lasts 3sec/level.

9th
Imprisonment- Abjuration, touched creature makes a will save or dies
Undermaster- Transmutation, every tick cast flesh to stone on either the targeted creature of the nearest one, lasts 3 sec/level

[Doxmaster]

Lv8 Iron body (make yourself into an iron golem for a while, 50% spell failure, 100% fort etc)

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/ironBody.htm



Lv7 Reverse Gravity (make things fall upwards for a while , then they'll fall down)
lv7 Control weather (not only sorjek can get the environmental fun) and druids MUST get this one anyway.


Lv5 : Transmute Stone to mud: (slay living for stone golems, gargoyles, stonelike creatures or petrified creatures ) or can be cast at stone floor to make SLOWING movement area.
lv5: Telekinesis: not only beholders should get the PUSH spell.

Another few we should discuss.

[donfilibuster]

I'll go with mirror image, blink, invis sphere, repulsion and spell turning.

[LunaCee]

Lance of Disruption (Evocation) Sor/Wiz 3

This spell creates a lance of force, extending from the caster to a specified point 60ft in the distance. Any creatures in the lance's path take 5d4 points of bludgeoning damage, +3 points of damage per level of the caster (maximum of +45). Victims can roll a Reflex save for half damage.

Basically with loaded dice probably 55-65 damage at level 15 without potency, 82-97 with potency, 206-243 with maximize and empower on top of potency. Only can get critical casts through arcane lore, and even then would only be in the ~365 range at most barring usage of an eardwellar and even then its ~487 at its best on a critical cast. Very good for a third level spell, but there are definitely better uses of SP out there.

So basically: A lightning bolt delivery style that does at 15th level 82-97 physical damage for 20 SP or 206-243 physical damage for 45-60 SP depending on how many ranks of improved empower & maximize you take. With a reflex save for half damage.

At 5th level which is the earliest you can cast it... more like 37-52 for base cost and 93-131 with meta-magic on. Or a mere 25-35 without potency & meta-magic... (Blech would be the only word for it.)

[Doxmaster]

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Donfilibuster:
Mirror image would be a bit odd. Describe how you see it working please.

Blink needs a bit of work. Here is a summarized version of it:

Caster level 3. Self only.
For 6 seconds per caster level you become incorporeal, giving enemies a 50% miss chance when they try to attack you (etherealness). If the enemy is capable of striking ethereal targets, the miss chance is only 20% (concealment). There is a 50% chance spells targeted against you do not hit and a 20% chance your spells will not actually be cast.

We’ll have to work something out for that spell.
Invisibility sphere could be nice, but it too needs a bit of work.
Repulsion is straight up overpowered.
Spell turning would be nice.
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SomCrea
Spell vulnerability- well…it a single target touch spell, so it would only be good for bosses. Trash mobs will be dying/dead shortly after the spell is cast; perhaps if it were mass and at range it would be pretty good.
Energy vulnerability: same as above.
Energy immunity- overpowered, compared to resist energy, which is a single spell level below it. Perhaps it could be “lesser energy immunity” and only be a 50% resistance to energy type. That brings for the question ‘should it be applied before or after other resistances and protections’, but I’ll let you argue that.
Storm- why is it doubled verses only evil outsiders? Also, this should probably be 4 different spells and not 1 spell with 4 options since it would be a perfect weapon everywhere. If not 4 different spells, 2 with one being unholy/holy and the other being axiomatic/anarchic with an option to choose which.
Bolt of glory-sounds good.
Heat drain- the problem with is you are doing a pretty good amount of damage to a lot of targets and then healing for the sum of all the damage you just did. 14d6 damage/healing may not seem like much, but if you hit two targets that is 28d6. Five targets and you just healed for 70d6. Play around with it a bit to make it more balanced.
Firestorm- is already in the game.
Storm of vengeance- where did you get the bludgeoning part? I was with you until that. Also, you might want to make it something like Chain Lightning every few rounds, or something to that effect.
Undeath’s eternal foe- seems balanced, if not a little weak.
Blade’s of fire- sounds good.
Keen edge-Suggested already. Sounds good.
Earth lock-It could probably work.
Freezing fog: It would be nice if all things like that didn’t affect allies, but I assume if we get this spell, the grease minor effect would indeed impede allies.
Brilliant blade: seems OP.
Protection from spells- so long as it costs a separate component, this would probably be fine.
Temporal stasis- a touch ranged flesh to stone. Sounds alright.
Imprisonment- pretty good, though it should really be a ‘save or stop existing’ effect. The difference is subtle; removing a target from combat without killing them but with no way for them to come back. De-spawning the monster, basically. Of course, this needs review, as it would be very nice in specific quests where you aren’t allowed to kill a target…
Undermaster- Instead of that, it could grant spell like abilities for a short time. A flesh to stone one, earth lock and stone to flesh possibly.
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Chaosprism
Iron body- It might work, but the duration needs to be edited. Free 15/ Dr for 16 minutes? That is quite OP.
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Reverse gravity- It would be interesting CC, but annoying. Perhaps just making monsters float, unable to do anything, would be better.
Control weather- it would be a fun spell to have, but I don’t see many practical uses for it.
Stone to mud- I admit, this WOULD be a very nice spell. It would be a movement hinderinf effect with no save for most enemies and an Earth elemental/Stone fleshed monster killer.
Telekinesis- Flinging monsters? This could be a rather nice CC spell for targets you don’t want to kill.

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Keep the new spells coming! Also, make sure your opinion is heard in regards to suggested spells; maybe we aren’t envisioning their use like you are.

[Jaid314]

mirror image should be extremely easy to code. you cast the spell, you get X mirror images. every time you're attacked, roll a d(x+1) and if it comes up as the max roll, you get hit, otherwise the attack misses entirely and x is reduced by 1.