When 3.5 was converted to pathfinder, why were certain mass spell, like darkvison mass, resist and resist engery mass changed to comunual spells? Comunual spells are not worth casting ever. You use a higher level spell slot to split the same duration among multiple people.compared to mass spells they are worthless.
Paizo can't copy all the spells from 3.5 D&D. Only those spells that appeared in the 3.5 Player's Handbook were declared Open Content, and so those are the only ones that could be copied directly. All other spells in all other books could not be used. That is why certain spells were changed for Pathfinder - it allowed them to have a similiar spell without breaking copyright.
Communal spells are totally worth casting.
I've cast communal resist energy a lot of time in combats. I'm sorry you think they're bad. They were purposefully reduced in efficiency because they were too good before.
Besides, spending 1 3rd spell slot to buff my whole party at once for combat is great compared to spending 4+ 2nd level spell slots.
So...I'm sorry you have a different opinion.
I long ago house ruled 'mass' and 'communal' as metamagic feats. Very common in my games for casters to have a rod of communal metamagic and use it to split buffs over the whole party. All depends on how long you want the effect to be active for.
What level modifier did you give them?
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Communal Spell: +1 level
Mass Spell: +4 levels
That matches up with most of the existing examples. Sometimes a class with limited spell levels will get a 'mass' version at only 3 levels higher and I let the player just use the published spell as is.
Both options get used frequently as the lower level allows a lot of spells to be applied communally to the whole group and mass comes in to play when you really need as much duration as you can get.
The only problem of communal spells is that a lot of them have a range of touch.
"Gather round, everyone..."
You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finish casting the spell.
Should be enough for your average party.
Communal spells are totally worth casting.
I've cast communal resist energy a lot of time in combats. I'm sorry you think they're bad.
+1
Yeah seriously, communal Resist Energy is one of my favorite buff spells. Communal Align Weapon is a MUST HAVE in any demon/devil-heavy game (like, say, most of the games I run).
Typically, most buff spells that can be made communal are only useful for a single encounter anyway, so most of the duration of those spells would be wasted anyway once the encounter they were cast for ends.
I mean, how often do you need to resist fire for more than twelve minutes in a row? Twelve minutes gets you through any encounter or dangerous terrain feature. I've had parties complete entire dungeons in twelve in-game minutes.
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Should edit the OP. Title is Criminal, not Communal. Confusing. Please fix.
Now, now. As a GM I am very interested in these Mass Criminal spells. So what do they do, steal coins from the pockets of everyone in a 30' radius? Ooo, or perhaps they untie the shoelaces of CL people within Long range? No wait, I have it this time - a curse that causes one red sock to appear in every batch of white clothing the subject puts in the dryer! Mwahahaha!
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Should edit the OP. Title is Criminal, not Communal. Confusing. Please fix.Now, now. As a GM I am very interested in these Mass Criminal spells. So what do they do, steal coins from the pockets of everyone in a 30' radius? Ooo, or perhaps they untie the shoelaces of CL people within Long range? No wait, I have it this time - a curse that causes one red sock to appear in every batch of white clothing the subject puts in the dryer! Mwahahaha!
I know, sounds petty, but google search will find this thread under mass criminal pathfinder, instead of mass communal. So we'll likely need an entirely new thread to answer that question. Maybe still petty.
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The only problem of communal spells is that a lot of them have a range of touch."Gather round, everyone..."
You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finish casting the spell.Should be enough for your average party.
Fine off combat, less fine in combat, especially when you have some guy whose fist action is always "I move toward the enemy" or "I move to flank the enemy". Those two generally are out of the area of haste and good hope, and that is way larger than "get here, around me".
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I know, sounds petty, but google search will find this thread under mass criminal pathfinder, instead of mass communal. So we'll likely need an entirely new thread to answer that question. Maybe still petty.Should edit the OP. Title is Criminal, not Communal. Confusing. Please fix.Now, now. As a GM I am very interested in these Mass Criminal spells. So what do they do, steal coins from the pockets of everyone in a 30' radius? Ooo, or perhaps they untie the shoelaces of CL people within Long range? No wait, I have it this time - a curse that causes one red sock to appear in every batch of white clothing the subject puts in the dryer! Mwahahaha!
You know, you take a mass to atone for your criminal spells.
