Hi
apologies if this has been gone through before but i couldn't see anything on the spells forum
now i generally like the idea of at will cantrips so this is no criticism of the concept but i'm well into my second playtest and the players are starting to get the hang of the new rules and are generating new tactics thanks to 'at will' cantrips
specific issues
detect poison - or how to avoid dangerous traps and detect nasty monsters.... druid now habitually scans for poison in any room, any dodgy path, even an unidentified monster. although not game breaking it does make traps especially much easier to find, especially combined with
detect magic - possibly most abused spell. walk into room and automatically detect magic. finds treasure, many traps, lots of illusions etc. combined with detect poison it will find most nasty surprises. although i'm aware you can block with magic aura, or lead it will be a little strange if every dungeon radiates magic, or is set in ye olde abandoned lead mine....
my suggestion is to restrict the range to touch for all 0-level detects (or 1' say) this would allow for finding stuff, but remove the scan first mentality thats developing in the party as you'd have to put yourself in harms way to detect effectively. so clearing the room and then searching would be as likely to set off traps as to find them, and also put secret compartments beyond the range of detections.
thoughts?
also
Stabilize - if its at will you can cast it on enemies as they fall and hit the deck. this tends to keep alive most enemies. obvously this is a reasonable tactic for bar room brawls where you don't want a murder charge but my group is now habitually saving the most senior person and then interrogating them for all they know before killing them
I'm not sure how to stop this - making it Touch would probably reduce the opportunity, but would also make saving party members more dangerous. another idea would be that it only stabilised for 5 rounds (or a finite number), enough time to get a potion down a neck, but not enough to keep all and sundry alive in a fight.
I didn't use this rule. I kept 0 level spells as spells, not spell like abilities.
I think it can be troublesome to have infinite create water, mending, detect magic.
Since I didn't have problems with 0 level spells, and they are equally beneficial to single class characters than multiclass prestige class, I don't see why this change is needed.
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I didn't use this rule. I kept 0 level spells as spells, not spell like abilities.
I think it can be troublesome to have infinite create water, mending, detect magic.
Since I didn't have problems with 0 level spells, and they are equally beneficial to single class characters than multiclass prestige class, I don't see why this change is needed.
The change was so that wizards always had a 'magical' solution to the problem rather than being forced to whip out the crossbow at low-levels. Some people like that, some people don't.
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The change was so that wizards always had a 'magical' solution to the problem rather than being forced to whip out the crossbow at low-levels. Some people like that, some people don't.I didn't use this rule. I kept 0 level spells as spells, not spell like abilities.
I think it can be troublesome to have infinite create water, mending, detect magic.
Since I didn't have problems with 0 level spells, and they are equally beneficial to single class characters than multiclass prestige class, I don't see why this change is needed.
I like the intent, but I think that some of these should be 0th level for certain specialists and 1st for others. Therefore if you want to be able to check for magic at will then you have to be a diviner.
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Going back to the old 3.5 rules are fine too, but I think the intent is to make these 0 level utility spells available all the time to prevent the 15 minute adventuring day.
Maybe limiting their use to level + (spellcasting ability score) times per day might be fair. It'd still give excellent access to the spells and prevent making their use part of the adventuring party SOP manual.
I would steer away from changing the spells themselves with respect to level/range, as this would require opening up a new round of design.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I don't think these are as much of a problem as some are making them out to be. Most detect spells require concentration, which means they take a standard action to maintain. This means that the caster only has their move action left, which cuts the party's speed in half (assuming that the rest of the party slows down so they don't leave the caster behind.)
Detect poison doesn't require concentration, but only affects a specific creature, object or 5' cube per casting. Casting this on every 5' cube while travelling will limit the party's movement even more, not to mention give hidden enemies lots of time to react to the crawling, detecting party.
As for stabilization, I'm not sure what the problem is if the party wants to take prisoners. If they want to actually interrogate a prisoner, they still need to bring them to positive hp, which will use up healing beyond the stablize.
I direct discussion toward This thread.
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I love the unlimited 0-level spells! they really turned wizards and clerics into the "magical folks" they should always have been! I think this was long due! this should have been like so ever since the beginning of 3rd edition (or even before).
Now, when you walk into a village, the local wizard or cleric is really someone that can always shake his fingers and make magic out of thin air. In most urban areas, prestidigitation is great (i.e. think Powerpoint on crack...) In rural areas, the cleric and his create water spell is now a true, valuable resource, especially in arid areas. With these 0 level spells at will, temples and mage towers can now really come alive and be major resource centers.
There. I'm happy.
I can finally say that D&D wizards can at least do what those damn Hogwart's kids can do...
Man I hate Harry Potter.