Zaister wrote:
Interesting fact: the spell cold ice blast form the very same book goes directly against this design principle. Functionally, the spell is identical to a quickened cone of cold, in fact it is even better as it has no components whatsoever. And it's outrageously "cheap", being a 6th-level spell only, when the quickened cone of cold would be 9th level. And on top of that, it's available to clerics. For the first time I'm wondering, what were they thinking?
Yeah, that has been discussed at length on boards. Some people think Cone of Cold is outrageously bad anyway so its not a big deal, others don't like as it goes against design principles. Sean Reynolds said that they will be looking at that spell because most likely it's not written as it should be.
Mastering magic is imo the best chapter of Ultimate Magic which is not that great book really. I am under the impression that Designing Spells under chapter 2 was written by someone who doesn't have the best grasp on spells.
Some controversial and/or redundant suggestions include:
*It doesn't really matter what school spell belongs too. Even citing that conjurations should deal the same damage as evocations. Very simplistic approach, which I don't like at all.
*Saying that Burning Hands is better than Sleep because it affects more squares.
*Glorification of Magic Missile as the best 1st level spell. The game has changed a lot since magic missile was staple fire and forget spell.
*Claiming that fireball deals large amounts of damage and that gaining that spell changes paradigm of the game.
*Referencing traditional kill spells like they didn't get changed. According to UM, Finger of Death, Slay Living and Disintegrate kill creatures outright.
