Spell Pass Preview - Chaaannggeee!

[hityawithastick]

We're wizards (and sorcerers... I guess). We have somewhere between 15 and 30 spells at our fingertips. But OH NOES now we might need to use more than three of them!

[rest]

Still bitter about the wail cooldown change. UNLESS you'll be lowering the cool down on implosion to 30 seconds. Then I can deal with it.

[rfachini]

You may have this in the works already, but I'd really appreciate a pass on summons to make them more effective. (Create Undead as more than just an asteroid shield, anyone? ) Maybe even increasing summons with caster level so Summon Monster I wouldn't be completely pointless to use at level 8? Finally, (and this is getting ahead of myself and may be off-topic)-- addressing familiars (they could be an AP summon like rogue's mithral defenders, for example).

[Missing_Minds]

I'm not sure what this post is based on but spell damage dice is not changing.

Does this show you how bad displaying that notation is yet?

[Saravis]

Are the mechanics of frost lance going to undergo any changes? With the upcoming Savants; fireball, lightning, and acid blast are all capable of being improved by the +3 increase in max lvl. Frost Lance, on the other hand, would not. Please adjust this spell so that its capable of being improved by the max lvl increase.

-thanks

[Requiro]

Torc.

I repeat my question and bring some more.

- Are there any changes in Pale Master and Archmage PrE with new Arcane Casting system?
- Are there any changes in Create Undead, Slow, Symbols spells?
- Are spell clickies on weapons will be change as well?
- Are Bard spell will be change as well?
- Are feats: Spell Focus: Conjuration will improve Summon Monster spell (like improve CR)?
- Are there any new spells? Specially level 9 and 5. If yes please be inspired by DnD not by any others "sources"

[Torc]

Seconded.

Also, are there plans in place to work on the frankly sad number of divine spells in the game, especially versus arcane? Taking out spells common to both classes, arcanes have 142 and divines have only half that--76 (assuming my math is correct at this late hour). I feel like I have absolutely no options on my divines. I do hope you go through the arcane and divine spells differently, as the play styles of the classes do differ.

Also: if Implosion Aura's cooldown was among those doubled, I'm gonna be one sad little cleric. Implosion's cooldown already feels far too long for what the spell actually does.

Here are some sample changes to the divine side of things…

Nimbus of light: reduced to 4 SP.
Command: reduced to 6 SP.
Cure Light Wounds: reduced to 8 SP.
Cure Moderate Wounds: reduced to 12 SP.
Bestow Curse: reduced to 10 SP
Searing Light: reduced to 8 SP.

Contagion: Cost reduced to 8 SP. Diseases provided by this spell that do ability damage now do it at a rate of X stat damage every 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds. Slimy Doom now does 6d6 acid damage every 6 seconds. As before two saves apply, one against damage, if successful save again to end the effect.

Glyph of Warding: reduced to 6 SP. 15 second cool down.
Divine Power: Now uses a faster cast animation. Cost unchanged.
Holy Smite: reduced to 15 SP.
Implosion: Cost & cool down unchanged, but now does 4 – 6 pts of untyped damage per caster level on a successful save to the target. Failed save results in death (still!).

and some Bard love...

Shout: Cost reduced to 6 SP, uses faster casting animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

Great Shout: Cost reduced to 15 SP, uses faster cast animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

[Chidane]

How will heighten work now?

[Trillea]

How will heighten work now?

Eladrin said heighten is unchanged - adds 5 sp per spell level. This should be changed ASAP IMO.

[Trillea]

Here are some sample changes to the divine side of things…
<snip cleric spell changes that make sense>

My sorc feels like she just got hit by a Shin Shoryuken.

[KreepyKritter]

Here are some sample changes to the divine side of things…

Nimbus of light: reduced to 4 SP.
Command: reduced to 6 SP.
Cure Light Wounds: reduced to 8 SP.
Cure Moderate Wounds: reduced to 12 SP.
Bestow Curse: reduced to 10 SP
Searing Light: reduced to 8 SP.

Contagion: Cost reduced to 8 SP. Diseases provided by this spell that do ability damage now do it at a rate of X stat damage every 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds. Slimy Doom now does 6d6 acid damage every 6 seconds. As before two saves apply, one against damage, if successful save again to end the effect.

Glyph of Warding: reduced to 6 SP. 15 second cool down.
Divine Power: Now uses a faster cast animation. Cost unchanged.
Holy Smite: reduced to 15 SP.
Implosion: Cost & cool down unchanged, but now does 4 – 6 pts of untyped damage per caster level on a successful save to the target. Failed save results in death (still!).

and some Bard love...

Shout: Cost reduced to 6 SP, uses faster casting animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

Great Shout: Cost reduced to 15 SP, uses faster cast animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

Okay, so healing at low levels just got easier... Now show me how you made Snare and Spike Growth not suck.

Now that you've made my wife's cleric happy, make my ranger happy.

[Gratch]

Torc,

Thank for the divine info. Hoping you start pushing some more druid/cleric shared spells soon... and then... druid spells with druids... also soon.

Since Tolero sits next to you. Tell her to go flip the off/on switch on Ghallanda... it's down as of this posting.

[voodoogroves]

With the SP reductions is the intent to see casters casting more AP/item boosted, non-metamagic'd DPS spells? A small drop in SP cost for the spell but a large SP-tax for metamagic is pretty significant.

Focus on Contagion and similar spells is probably misdirected; few targets have the HP for long-term stat damage to matter versus just beating them down - and the ones that have the HP likely have immunity to the stat damage.

Will shout and greater shout have CL-based, uncapped damage? If not, that's not really much bard love as they won't hit the DCs to matter and the damage won't scale with caster level. I'm curious how many bards actually prep shout/greater.

With rays getting free enlarges, will that also apply to AM / PM SLAs? Searing Light (spell and capstone)?

[Zachski]

My sorc feels like she just got hit by a Shin Shoryuken.

Even though it's basically the same changes?

no it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for the caster or the melee. And you don't think casters don't already have to mix it up for different mobs. When was the last time you saw a firewall on harry without laughing.

You misunderstood.

I said that the comparison doesn't make sense. Especially since Melees are already doing more changing than that. And especially since you expect to be able to do what you think Melees are doing - one button success.

You picked a spell-casting class, it SHOULD be more complex than melee. The fact that it currently isn't means that something got borked along the way.

[Riggs]

Re OP

Very nice.

[Alexander_Illusioni]

Here are some sample changes to the divine side of things…

Nimbus of light: reduced to 4 SP.
Command: reduced to 6 SP.
Cure Light Wounds: reduced to 8 SP.
Cure Moderate Wounds: reduced to 12 SP.
Bestow Curse: reduced to 10 SP
Searing Light: reduced to 8 SP.

Contagion: Cost reduced to 8 SP. Diseases provided by this spell that do ability damage now do it at a rate of X stat damage every 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds. Slimy Doom now does 6d6 acid damage every 6 seconds. As before two saves apply, one against damage, if successful save again to end the effect.

Glyph of Warding: reduced to 6 SP. 15 second cool down.
Divine Power: Now uses a faster cast animation. Cost unchanged.
Holy Smite: reduced to 15 SP.
Implosion: Cost & cool down unchanged, but now does 4 – 6 pts of untyped damage per caster level on a successful save to the target. Failed save results in death (still!).

and some Bard love...

Shout: Cost reduced to 6 SP, uses faster casting animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

Great Shout: Cost reduced to 15 SP, uses faster cast animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

You left out an important one.....any changes to blade barrier (cool downs, damage)?

[Trillea]

Even though it's basically the same changes?

True, on second look I notice a DISTINCT lack of detail on how blade barrier (closest divine DPS spell to wall of fire) is affected.

[Siskel]

So am I understanding Power Word Kill correctly? Get six arcanes with the spell and round up as many targets and possible. Arcane One casts the spell. Rotate who gets aggro and who casts the spell. Not too bad with 6 arcanes. This will work in epic?

[Zachski]

So am I understanding Power Word Kill correctly? Get six arcanes with the spell and round up as many targets and possible. Arcane One casts the spell. Rotate who gets aggro and who casts the spell. Not too bad with 6 arcanes. This will work in epic?

Truth be told, 6 Arcanes taking turn Wailing would probably be a bit more efficient.

[Siskel]

Truth be told, 6 Arcanes taking turn Wailing would probably be a bit more efficient.

No save on PWK.