Minutes / Level Spells -- Pushing the Party to Move too Fast?

[Sebastian]

Does anyone else have a problem with minutes/level spells? I find that they are problematic because they put the party on an aggressive clock and push them to move faster than is necessarily prudent. I don't really get what the design goal is behind them. Is it just to provide a little extra time to cast buffs prior to combat? Are they intended to last multiple combat sessions?

I've considered a couple different changes for them, the one I tend to like the best is having them go into a sleep mode. So, a minute per level spell actually lasts for 10 minutes/level (or an hour/level), but in a passive state where you don't get the benefits. In order to kick it into an active state, the character must spend a move action (or standard action). While in the active mode, the spell duration winds down as normal. Putting it back into a sleep mode reduces the active duration by 2 minutes.

The thing I like about this change is that it reduces the effects of the aggressive clock, but basically limits minutes/level spells to a certain number of encounters, which is what I think is their basic purpose.

[Lilith]

This is something I've seen happen before. Perhaps for spells that have a target of "personal" or for friendly targets, you could cast the spell, but have it "subdued" until activating it as a standard action for each original target.

Or something.

Something to ponder on.

[fray]

I usually play loose with those time limits... if it feels like it's been 90 minutes it the spell is out. I usually let the party know when it happens and it never happens in the middle of combat.

[Alex Draconis]

I hate minutes/level spells. Spells and magic items have been constantly nerfed since 2nd edition. Down down go the durations until you have once per encounter and once per day. I'm guessing by 5th edition D&D you'll have 1/week spells.

I want to see more 24 hour and 1hr/level durations.

[JoelF847]

I agree that this is a problem, but I think the OP's solution adds a bit too much bookeeping. I'd rather just have 1 min/level spells get either dropped to a flat 1 or 2 minute duration, or increased to 5 or 10 min per level, which could vary based on which spell it is.

[Eric Tillemans]

I believe the minutes/level spells were intended allow you to spell up before a battle you knew was comming or at the beginning of a battle that looked important enough to take an action to do so. I'm pretty sure the spells weren't meant to last longer than 1 encounter, but when you're talking say 10th level then 10 minutes starts look tempting enough to try and squeeze 2 or 3 ecounters out before the spell wears off.

In 3.0 a lot of the minute/level spells did have 10 minute/level durations. I believe they were shortened in 3.5 to prevent super buffing the party and having the party go on easy mode through the adventure, however, the minute/level duation is still a little bit too long to achieve that goal. Maybe a flat short duation would achieve that? Maybe 1 minute/spell level?

If you don't mind your players running around with the buffs for multiple encounters I'd say your solution is good.

Or you could change the durations back to 10 minutes/level.

[ChrisS]

I've been tempted to change the duration of spells to simply be how many encounters it should last. If the party takes a long time searching for secret doors, traps, etc, they waste an "encounter" of duration.
It makes the actual duration of spells a bit vague, but it is magic after all.