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Does anyone know where a list of the "game-changer" spells (fly, teleport, scrying, etc.) would be? Basically any spell that fundamentally changes the way combat works (like fly) or makes certain adventures unlikely to work (like a murder mystery when a character can use speak with dead).
If there is no such list, would people be willing to help me compile it? I am starting to create adventures and want to be aware of all the resources PC's have available to them.
1st- Color Spray. Already your ahead of the game. DCs above 15. 50% chance of wiping out everyone in a cone easy!
1st- Color Spray. Already your ahead of the game. DCs above 15. 50% chance of wiping out everyone in a cone easy!
I don't consider Color Spray a "game-changer." Granted it might be powerful at first level, but its power drops off rapidly, it has a short range (making it risky to cast since if it fails, you're within easy melee range), and at that low of a level, wizards and sorcerers have very few spells per day.
It seems like you took this opportunity to talk about a spell you thought was "broken." That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for spells that add an entire new dimension to combat or remove adventure possibilities. Spells like color spray or other save or suck/die spells are not what I'm talking about.
Was kidding actually. It is however one of those things you see a lot of wizards grab, because it happens to be your very first save or die.
Game Changer is hard to define is my problem. You already named a few of them. Dimensional Door, invisibility, and mirror images are all defensive choices. Invisibility in particular is one you see a lot of wizards use and is definitely a game changer for stealth.
Was kidding actually. It is however one of those things you see a lot of wizards grab, because it happens to be your very first save or die.
Game Changer is hard to define is my problem. You already named a few of them. Dimensional Door, invisibility, and mirror images are all defensive choices. Invisibility in particular is one you see a lot of wizards use and is definitely a game changer for stealth.
Ah, sorry! Humor is notoriously hard to notice in text-form.
Those are good spells that mostly fit what I think of a game-changer. Thanks! :)
It's cliche, but fireball is probably a significant AoE spell. I don't think there's much you can do before that to wipe out large crowds. Stone call is lvl 2, but never gets above 2d6 damage.
A few more come to mind, mostly in the higher level range.
Antimagic Field and Dispel Magic both start altering the tactical situation significantly - Antimagic Field much more so, obviously. I've known many a party that starts to rely on the tricks their magic gear lets them pull off, not to mention the poor spellcasters.
Time Stop. Duh.
Invisibility was mentioned, but obviously, Greater Invisibility is another order of magnitude. Before Greater Invis hits the field, Invisibility is a nasty trick, but Greater is something you must have a counter for (or the ability to get away) or you're basically screwed.
Contingency - sort of. The ability to have something bad in automatic reserve makes getting the drop on high level casters much trickier.
A few more are percolating at the edge of my brain, but I can't think of them at the moment. Do those fit what you're looking for so far?
Oh, here's one that we probably don't think of as a game changer.
Detect Magic. This is less about its presence than its absence. It's almost assumed that someone in the party is capable of finding and identifying the magic bits - standard adventures become very confused very fast if someone can't do this.
Besides the suggestion made above:
Heal
Freedom of Movement
Dominate Person (and to a lesser extent, Command Undead)
Raise Dead
Awaken
Commune
Scrying
All have pretty game-changing effects, and the presence of these spells can completely alter the way an encounter plays out.
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You have the likes of:
- Food creating powers (Create water, Create food and water, the druid one): Makes an important aspect of survival a moot point.
- Transport powers (teleport, communal flying powers like wind walk or eagle aerie): Introduces fast travel more or less. Makes the dangers/opportunities of travel more or less disappear.
- Shelter powers (Rope trick, and the various hut/mansion spells): Makes sleeping in dangerous locations unproblematic. Adds to the "Survival is unneccesary".
- The magic rogue powers (invisibility, knock, trapfinding spells): Significantly decreases the need for the rogue.
- Information gathering powers (scry/speaking spells/commune and the like): Changes the investigative scene significantly.
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Restoration and Death Ward: suddenly fights with drain-undead become something you can recover from or get through unscathed.
Wall of Stone, Force; the ability to radically alter a fight by cutting off half the enemy, or to escape effectively because the enemy first has to get through the wall.
Wish, Miracle: duh. But also because they trump some "can't be revived" effects.
Sending, Dream: long-distance communications unheard of in the actual middle ages. Personally I think long-distance communication has more impact than fireballs. It means that what's happening on the other side of the world is known and can influence decisions here.
Dominate Person, Magic Jar: suddenly a trusted authority switches sides.
Highly dependent on your game, but as a player I've accidentally circumvented major plot or dungeon obstacles using stone shape and detect thoughts.
No mention of Haste yet? That was the first one that popped into my head.
There is an obsure one called that allows you to cast it on one fellow PC per level. It instantly dresses them in their armor. This seems to be insanely overpowered as getting armor for a night attack is the best buff of all. The name of it escapes me......
Slow/Haste. At 3rd level the wizard has gained control of time and has the best buff in the world.
I want to say its something girlding but I can't find it for the life of me. I know the spell your talking about Gold. i wouldn't say its a gamechanging one but it is nifty.
Stone Shape, Passwall, Phase Door, and all of the teleporting spells make dungeon crawling much easier if you are still using the same tactics you threw at them back at level 1.
Stone Shape, Wall of stone, the various digging/excavating spells all allow for rapid construction.
Create water (even if only for a day) means an end to sanitation problems if put with the right infrastructure.
Speak with dead makes a lot of crime investigation easier.
Animate dead makes free workers.
Shrink item makes shipping dead easy.
The bringing back to life ones are pretty game changing though they won't de-age people.
Simulacrum is a pretty easy way to build a factory of wizards.
Comprehend language and its' ilk make communication possible and easy in a way that the world hasn't seen. Same with sending and other message spells.
Have to look at fabricate again, but it'd be one hell of an industrial revolution.
True Strike!
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To my mind, the big game changer is scribe scroll.
After a while, scrolls become cheap enough that piles of them are possible. This tends to make skill checks largely irrelevant at higher levels, and changes the tactical nature of the game. There's a off switch to most opponents, or at least their most powerful tactics can be neutralized.
I enjoy the move/ counter move game quite well, but it's a different thing than the gritty survivalism of the lower levels, and contributes to the idea that fighters and rogues are weak.
Because at these levels, they are.
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Quite frankly, a list of "game changer" spells is easy to assemble. Here's a short guide:
1. Look through the list for any spell that deals XdY damage.
2. Remove those spells.
3. Your list of "game changer" spells is now complete.
No, really. That may sound like a gross simplification, but its really not, if anything this list probably accidentally excludes a few game changers. Now, in fairness there's probably a few this list includes that will not do much to change the game, but even innocuous things like Feather Fall, Animate Rope,Comprehend Languages and Detect Undead, all completely change the game in some aspect. What!? You don't believe me? Fine, a few quick examples:
Feather Fall - Those rules for falling damage? You can cross them out.
Animate Rope - Debuff at the low, low cost of a rope and a touch attack. Saving throw what?
Comprehend Languages - What is a "Linguistics"? Do you eat it?
Detect Undead - No, I'm sure the mayor is a vampire. Can we skip to the part were we fight him?
Seriously, I could go on and on, but really the whole point of magic is to change the game, obviate portions of it and otherwise render the laws of the game world a crying disheveled wreck.
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Emblazon Crest is on that list Anzyr.
As I said, there are probably a few things that end up on this list that will not do much to change the game, but I'm willing to bet it is easier to use this list and take those few individual spells off then to attempt to assemble a list of broken spells by putting them on individually.
Detect Evil often allows you to know exactly who the bad guys are. Especially with the Paladin's 'at will' version.
Delay Poison allows you to get through a fight against poison-using enemies without having to worry about passing out in mid-battle.
A lot of the Communal spells are very powerful - in one action the entire group is virtually immune to fire (or whatever), making a dangerous environment safe.
Spells like Hide Campsite allow a group to rest with virtually no threat of ambush.
None of these are game changers. They've been in the game for as long as I can remember and they are part of how the game is played.
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The cleric combo Find the Path + Wind Walk. You get them both at 11/12th level, not exactly epic tier.
They cripple the out-of-combat usefulness of most rogues and rangers and they let you skip right to the end of several dungeons.
Wind Walk has also been used by our cleric to save the party from under a crumbling building. Actually I think our cleric used that combo more often than his healing spells.
You have to build yur adventures specifically to circumvent those spells, as well as most other divinations. Our GM had a sour taste in his mouth after the cleric bypassed an underground cave system designed to make the ranger's strong points shine.
And it's not really the cleric's fault for hogging the spotlight. The ranger himself said "ok, I'll roll Survival, but... can't Bastian just cast that spell like he did last session?".
Any divination spell that allows you to solve a mystery without actually solving it, e.g. True Seeing, Discern Location, Commune (I hate this one!)
"The spell, at best, provides information to aid character decisions. The entities contacted structure their answers to further their own purposes. "
Yes, no, or five words or less.
Its a good question Daethor.
not "good" spells or "powerful{" spells but spells that fundamentally change ... the way things work.
an example is that in the early game a bridge to an island is an easy way to set up an encounter.
after level 5 or so you have to design 2 or 3 encounters for the same effect (do they walk across the bridge or just fly across the water?
after level 9 that entire dynamic changes again as now they can just teleport
from a GMing perspective it forces you to either design multiple possible encounters or some sort of railroading device one of which can be a heavy time sink and the other can be annoying to players.
many spells have been listed some more relevant than others.
I would add Detect spells to the list... many players I know use detect magic as insta search, why spend a few mins searching a room and risking traps when you can just detect magic, why search for that hiding enemy when you can just detect evil, etc.
its not that it cant be overcome. its just that it changes the way things interact and puts strain on the game IMHO
but in a misguided egotistical effort to be different may I add a few other things....
Adamantium weapons: players always treat an adamantium anything but especially daggers as the ultimate lock pick, to cut through locks, doors, walls, etc.
Super high perception (or some other skills) tends to negate a lot of simple fun things forcing the DM to either cheat or create situations where ambush is possible.
in the same vein as fly, tunneling adds a dimension to the game that is not standard.
hope those help.
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Greater dispel magic. Strip ALL the buffs! It's way more effective than regular dispel magic.
Also I will echo upthread about movement and information spells. In the movement category: fly, teleport, gaseous form, wind walk, plane shift. In the information category: detect magic, detect thoughts, detect evil, speak with dead, discern location, commune, vision, find the path, true seeing.
Invisibility, for its non-tactical applications, and greater invisibility, for its tactical applications.
The polymorph line of spells are perhaps underutilized for the wide variety of utility options they afford. Same for conjuration (calling) spells such as the planar ally and planar binding lines.
Haste and other buffs are not really game changers. They improve capabilities, not create whole new capabilities.
I think we may need to narrow down the focus, here. Wall of Stone, imo, is an absolute game-changer in a lot of circumstances. In a confined area, you can turn a single challenging encounter into two throw-away fights. But, that's just a tactical thing. It doesn't actually "change the game" any more than a successful combat maneuver does.
Fly, on the other hand, actually changes the nature of combat, introduces new rules, etc.
Summon Spells are very powerful, and often as effective in ruining encounters. Trapped bridge? Send this dog across first. High AC critter? Summon a flock of Lantern Archons. Mind-control-y-type caster? Summon a swarm of something.
Does anyone know where a list of the "game-changer" spells (fly, teleport, scrying, etc.) would be? Basically any spell that fundamentally changes the way combat works (like fly) or makes certain adventures unlikely to work (like a murder mystery when a character can use speak with dead).
If there is no such list, would people be willing to help me compile it? I am starting to create adventures and want to be aware of all the resources PC's have available to them.
Cure Light Wounds is pretty important. I think most adventures assume the party has access to it, so if your party doesn't that is a game changer.
Thanks for the responses everyone. There have been some good suggestions, and the responses have helped me narrow down my question. I think blue_the_wolf said it best:
not "good" spells or "powerful" spells but spells that fundamentally change ... the way things work.
Maybe "game-changer" spells wasn't the best term. Maybe something like "design-altering" spells is more accurate.
In short, spells that change the way you have to design encounters/adventures or limit adventure options after they are introduced. Also, they should be at least fairly unique in the way they alter design.
Take for example wall spells; they were mentioned a few times. While I think these are powerful spells, I don't think you have to design encounters differently in any fundamental way after these spells are introduced. They are also not unique in the way they change encounters, many spells make getting to PCs more difficult.
Here are the spells mentioned in the thread so far that I consider "design-altering:"
wind walk/overland flight/teleport...basically any spell that allows you to travel great distances easily and quickly
fly
"detect" spells
true seeing
find the path
discern location
scrying
speak with dead
stone shape
passwall/phase door
invisibility/greater invisibility
commune
To a lesser extent:
food/water creation spells
rope trick/other shelter spells
comprehend languages
I haven't felt like a lot of combat spells are really design-altering. Anyone care to convince me that they are? How (if at all) should I design encounters differently given that someone might have time stop or greater dispel magic or dominate person or whatever? If I design all my encounters to prevent/negate the use/usefulness of these spells, that seems like bad design. Any other thoughts?
None of these are game changers. They've been in the game for as long as I can remember and they are part of how the game is played.
Good point, Morain. I hope my above post clears up what I meant. I was really asking for spells that adventure writers should be particularly aware of when designing adventures/encounters.
None of these are game changers. They've been in the game for as long as I can remember and they are part of how the game is played.
"a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way "
He had it right the first time.
Not all of these spells are available from level 1. Before they are available the landscape of the game is significantly different.
Simple example: Teleport.
Look at Book 2 of the Serpent's Skull AP. It's basically "Get from Point A to Point B, which is really far away: The Adventure". It's made for level 4-ish characters, who don't have access to spells like Teleport.
Add in a Wizard capable of casting Teleport.
"Okay we need to get here, and it'll take quite a while..."
"Stand back, I got this."
*End of Book 2, Proceed to Book 3*
The game was significantly changed by the newly introduced element (Teleport) from "Multiple weeks (and sessions) of travel, with encounters along the way" to "A flick of the wrist, and here we are".
I've always played it that Teleport can only take you to places you've been to before. Are people doing some kind of scrying to get around this?
I haven't felt like a lot of combat spells are really design-altering. Anyone care to convince me that they are? How (if at all) should I design encounters differently given that someone might have time stop or greater dispel magic or dominate person or whatever? If I design all my encounters to prevent/negate the use/usefulness of these spells, that seems like bad design. Any other thoughts?
Like I said upthread, this is exactly the situation. For the most part, damage dealing spells stay within the realm of doing what literally anyone in else in the game can do; damage. A list of game changing spells is basically going to consist of literally all of the non-damaging spells save a precious few. Because outside of doing damage, spells are written to change the rules of the game, even if its just something simple like the fall rules or getting around the Linguistics skill. So basically.... your game-changing spell list is the whole spell list sans damage spells.
How should you design encounters? Simple, make sure your npcs are playing the magic game and using the spells available to them to combat the PCs. Undead armies, summons, scry and die, keeping clones in case of death, using astral projection to safely attack the party, etc. are all tools that are often ignored, even though they should be fundamental assumptions. This of course will exacerbate the underlying the linear fighter / quadratic wizards paradigm that can often go unseen because a lot of DMs either do not know about or cannot play the magic game, but fixing that is going to require a different game, so I would not worry about it.
That being said, I'll agree with Morain. Just because some DMs can't play the magic game, doesn't mean that the "game-changing" spells are not part of the game.
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These are not game-changing, but they certainly can completely shut down entire groups of bad guys (or lock down the one BBEG)
Any of the pit spells.
Glitterdust.
Cacophonous Call (2nd level spell that gives nauseated condition that works on will save? Yesplz)
Terrible Remorse and it's big brother Jolting Portent
Stinking Cloud
I reiterate Freedom of Movement. No other single spell in the game completely stops so many special attacks by monsters. Grappling, swallow whole,paralysis, slow effects, and impeding terrain are all mitigated by one spell with a long duration. The thing that sets it apart from other protection spells like Pro. Evil and Deathward is that you aren't just getting a bonus and you don't ever have to worry about a higher level monster just breaking through with sheer power, you're just immune. That planet-sized Elder-deity that's trying to Swallow you whole? You're immune, whether you're 7th level or 20th level.
Control Weather, because why not completely setup battlefield conditions before a fight, including visibility, penalty or even existence of ranged weapons, and the viability of flight? If a party has access to this and sets up their tactics to the magical weather, it can be used to devastating effect.
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"design-altering" spells
In that category, throw in:
gaseous form
blink
etherealness
ethereal jaunt
All of which let you ignore/bypass walls. Same with anything that grants you burrow, earth glide, and the like.
spider climb
levitate
Can accomplish many of the same circumventions as fly.
Astral projection fundamentally changes entire adventures since the party can avoid a huge amount of risk by astral projecting.
Plane shift is in the same category as teleport depending on the campaign.
To find 'game changer' spells, I think about novels I have read and what spell could have shortcut it to a pamphlet.
Invisibility, silence, seek thoughts, detect evil, invisibility, see invisibility, fly, dimension door, teleport, alot of the polymorph spells, raise dead, remove curse, detect magic, cure disease, remove blindness/deafness, heal, tongues, speak with dead, etc...
Any of those can eliminate alot of the classic 'reasons' for an adventure.
The storm washed away the bridge over the chasm. meh so what? fly ...
We have the Rod of Zephous but how do we use it? Detect magic ...
We need to figure out a way to find who he's working with and where they took the princess. see thoughts ...
The king has the plague/curse/etc. remove X...
Only of course if such conditions are adventure hooks, they should be written in a way that they can´t just be bypassed like that.
Color spray does change the game, regardless of what the op believes, as a GM you have to redesign encounters to account for Color Spray, regardless of whether it falls off quickly, at low levels the spell dictates how you design encounters.
however the biggest game changing spell is haste, has always been since 2nd edition. it's ability to expand exponentailly the ability of martial classes cannot be underestimated. it can transform characters who were not really optimized into walking killing machine, a single spell with the ability to greatly increase the killing power of multiple creatures.
that the witch patrons that grant haste are considered the best, merely because they grant that spell, is all ones needs to know. designing an encounter where one assumes pc's have haste versus not having it, is a night and day proposition.