Defensive arcane spell options

[nooblord]

Mage Armor
Given that AC does not work on the d20 system in this game vs PnP, should the defensive mage spells translate as well? Would it be possible to adjust the mage armor spell to be a competitive option for spell casters?

Just a couple standalone suggestions i thought up
- change the bonus type to insight armor
- add level scaling up to a cap
- Specialize the spell to provide bonus AC or bonus PRR against incorporeal creatures

Transmutation stat spells
These are cool thematically but not terribly useful. For example, I struggle to find a situation where AOE bear's endurance would benefit my group at the level i can select this spell. My question is: should these spells continue to exist as PnP flavor or offer a richer game mechanic? Unfortunately i cant think of a way to adjust these spells without shifting too far from their original 3.5 implementation.

Dispel Magic and their equivalents
It feels frustrating as an instakill dc caster when you cannot dispel things like deathward off a drow priestess. Is there a spell option that allows for unraveling protective spells cast by the enemy (i see her cast it as soon as the mob is aggroed). Even looking at the DDO wiki for Mordenkainen's Disjunction says "This spell serves little actual purpose in Player versus Monster combat" which feels absolutely awful.

Fear
I really like the idea of fear as a spell. Unfortunately, after several annoyed melees vehemently told me to stop casting it (ever), i never slotted the spell for group play. Can the mechanics change to have monsters occasionally cower over running forever in random directions? A simple QoL change to make the spell a competitive cc option for necro specced casters.


What do you think?

[slarden]

Displacement is highly useful, but the absolute best defense is cc. Party members rarely dislike cc.

[nooblord]

Displacement is highly useful, but the absolute best defense is cc. Party members rarely dislike cc.

Sure is, no argument there...

[CeltEireson]

Displacement is highly useful, but the absolute best defense is cc. Party members rarely dislike cc.

Alas cc doesn't work on bosses who also sometimes have true seeing which makes displacement/blur of no use. Which is fine in a group, not so good if youre soloing - would be nice for casters to have some new spells to help survivability, or least something for those that don't go the warforged / undead route who have very good / reasonable to good self healing. A better, higher level version of stoneskin that offered a lot higher DR and some additional PRR (that scaled with caster level) would be nice, wouldn't even mind if it only lasted a handful of blows before it expired.

[Arch-Necromancer]

Mage Armor
Given that AC does not work on the d20 system in this game vs PnP, should the defensive mage spells translate as well? Would it be possible to adjust the mage armor spell to be a competitive option for spell casters?

Just a couple standalone suggestions i thought up
- change the bonus type to insight armor
- add level scaling up to a cap
- Specialize the spell to provide bonus AC or bonus PRR against incorporeal creatures

What do you think?

I had an idea to make Mage Armor to give the same bonus to armor like wearing light (leather) armor (with AC bonus you get by wearing light armor of the same level).

And in addition to that it would also give PRR and MRR bonus like light armor (BAB bonus).

Then improved Mage Armor from Eldritch Knight would give bonus like wearing medium (hide) armor, with 1.5*BAB bonus to PRR and MRR.

Spells would scale up to celestial leather armor (not including it), but with Epic Mage Amor feat it would scale to celestial leather too.

Spells caster level scale would need to take into account both AC raise from armor types (leather, skirmish, feycraft, spiritcraft, and with Epic feat celestial), and AC raise from enhancement bonus.


Shield spell could be made to work in the same way. Buckler bonus for shield, light shield bonus for improved shield.


This way wizards would finally wear robes instead of armor because they would armor themselves with these spells.