Author Topic: The beginnings of a complete list of good/Great/AWESOME spells from all sources.  (Read 45675 times)

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nijineko

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hmmm. wonder if any moral extremist Powers would try to stick you for murder, if you put the coral where it couldn't survive. might be a fun plot twist.

Niice ... there's some heavy role-playing for the Stormwind Fallacy types that don't "get" C.O.

 :clap

if you really want to to go all out, all those summoned and "created" things might have to come from somewhere... imagine a fire elemental taking a wizard to task for 'wasting' fireballs where it did not create lasting flames, or some Power getting irked for killing summoneds and interfering with some plan involving those creatures, since they cannot return to the prime for 1-100 years, depending on where you draw from.

the logical possibilities of natural consequences are endless.
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Locnil

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What shenanigans does Mystic Shield require? IIRC it stops 6th level and below spells from affecting you, which is quite good, on its own.

Also, from Lost Empires of Faerun, there's a 2nd level spell that gives you a tentacle whip which lets you make 3 2d6 attacks every round. pretty good for a 2nd level spell.

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What shenanigans does Mystic Shield require? IIRC it stops 6th level and below spells from affecting you, which is quite good, on its own.
It's an 8th-level, short duration, single-target, defensive buff, which is not generally all that impressive.

If you are an Archmage with Arcane Reach and have some method of getting a free Persist on an 8th-level spell, however, then this becomes all-day immunity to all spells 6th-level and below, plus negating the magic of weapons used against you (so if you're incorporeal, the combination is an all-day immunity to weapon attacks).  That is ridiculously awesome.

Also, from Lost Empires of Faerun, there's a 2nd level spell that gives you a tentacle whip which lets you make 3 2d6 attacks every round. pretty good for a 2nd level spell.
It's only one attack made as a standard action, or 3 attacks if you use a full-round action, and they're standard attacks instead of touch attacks.  Both Decastave and Sand Scimitar are significantly better spells.  If you want some reach, then Mystic Lash next level is an order of magnitude better than all of the above.

nijineko

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can we get this list in an excel format someday? hmmmm, tell you what...

i have a java program designed to convert properly formatted txt files into csv for excel import. it was made for d&d psionics specifically, but i should be able to convert it to spells with a little effort. you get me a master list of all spells in the game in txt format, and i'll format and convert it to excel for you.
« Last Edit: October 22, 2011, 05:10:23 PM by nijineko »
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I don't know about a master list, but these guys have a very comprehensive list of spells, although it's formatted to be OGL-friendly (so full spell descriptions are omitted).

As for this list, I could probably write up a .csv file after I complete it.  I don't use excel, so that's probably the best I can do.

nijineko

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that might work too. my program (written for me by my friend, midnight) takes the standard text block format of power, and reformats it so that each characteristic is one column header, and all the powers are slotted appropriately under the right column.

i've already converted the comppsi, exph, athas.org, planewalker.com, and a number of powers scattered through other wotc books and other official sources into a master power list for my own use.

spells would be handy to have too.
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Ah, that I'm not sure I could manage.  I just want to give a brief review of the spells similarly to the GOD handbook.

JohnnyMayHymn

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that might work too. my program (written for me by my friend, midnight) takes the standard text block format of power, and reformats it so that each characteristic is one column header, and all the powers are slotted appropriately under the right column.

i've already converted the comppsi, exph, athas.org, planewalker.com, and a number of powers scattered through other wotc books and other official sources into a master power list for my own use.

spells would be handy to have too.
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jojolagger

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I'd like to see Fimbulwinter from frostburn in there.  By itself it's not that good, but with a little bit of boosting it become insane.

Empowered Extended Maximized Fimbulwinter. That's 7056 feet of snow by the end of it, with the snow piling up at 7 feet per day over 1008 day. Who doesn't want to drop 1.33 miles of snow on something?
(you can only get the full effect vs. hot climate areas if you cast during winter, fall or autumn, but the snowfall should stay at full the whole 1008 days.)
And those three meta-magics I want to apply all have an incredibly easy way to put them on a spell sans meta-magic cost.
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Kethrian

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Moonweb from Player's Guide to Faerun is a pretty wicked spell.  Create a wall that you can shoot (or cast) through, but your enemies can't?  Yes please!

nijineko

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spells would be handy to have too.
waay back!

Awesome, you rock! Do you happen to know how up to date those files are ?
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I'd like to see Fimbulwinter from frostburn in there.  By itself it's not that good, but with a little bit of boosting it become insane.

Empowered Extended Maximized Fimbulwinter. That's 7056 feet of snow by the end of it, with the snow piling up at 7 feet per day over 1008 day. Who doesn't want to drop 1.33 miles of snow on something?
(you can only get the full effect vs. hot climate areas if you cast during winter, fall or autumn, but the snowfall should stay at full the whole 1008 days.)
And those three meta-magics I want to apply all have an incredibly easy way to put them on a spell sans meta-magic cost.
As awesome as it sounds to drop over a mile deep of snow over an exceptionally large area, it takes three freakin' years for the spell to do that.  What's more, there's technically no benefit to dumping more than 5' of snow on an area.  A 20' tall giant, RAW, can just as easily walk through a mile deep snow drift as he can a 5' deep snowfield.

Moonweb from Player's Guide to Faerun is a pretty wicked spell.  Create a wall that you can shoot (or cast) through, but your enemies can't?  Yes please!
The shield is circular and only 10' high, so it's not unthinkable that something can just fly over it to shoot you.  The wall is only one 10' square, so it's only useful in narrow passages, but enemies on the other side can, in that case, just run away.  If you go through the shield to chase them, then they can pin you up against your own spell effect.

Wall of Force, on the other hand, is a lot more versatile.  You can't shoot through it, but you can trap creatures inside it and make a deathtrap around them using a spell like Scalding Mud.

jojolagger

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As awesome as it sounds to drop over a mile deep of snow over an exceptionally large area, it takes three freakin' years for the spell to do that.
True, but you have 7 feet in the first day, which should impede movement enough nobody gets out before being buried in it. And if you cast it during winter, they won't worry about the snowfall until it's to late.

What's more, there's technically no benefit to dumping more than 5' of snow on an area.  A 20' tall giant, RAW, can just as easily walk through a mile deep snow drift as he can a 5' deep snowfield.
True, but is is actually quite easy to extrapolate the table. Each size category is only a shift of one. Assuming you start at zero, the first two categories are steps up by 6 inches. the next two after that are up 12 inches. Then the one after that is 24 inches up. Every two categories, the amount it increases by doubles. to extend it, the categories become 1-6, 7-12, 13-24, 25-36, 37-60, 61-84 (total impediment for large), 85-132 (7-11 feet) (total impediment for huge), 133-180 (11-15 feet) (total for gargantuan), 181-276 (15-23 feet) (total for colossal).
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What's more, there's technically no benefit to dumping more than 5' of snow on an area.  A 20' tall giant, RAW, can just as easily walk through a mile deep snow drift as he can a 5' deep snowfield.
True, but is is actually quite easy to extrapolate the table. Each size category is only a shift of one. Assuming you start at zero, the first two categories are steps up by 6 inches. the next two after that are up 12 inches. Then the one after that is 24 inches up. Every two categories, the amount it increases by doubles. to extend it, the categories become 1-6, 7-12, 13-24, 25-36, 37-60, 61-84 (total impediment for large), 85-132 (7-11 feet) (total impediment for huge), 133-180 (11-15 feet) (total for gargantuan), 181-276 (15-23 feet) (total for colossal).
[/quote]In spite of how easy it may or may not be to extrapolate the table, at that point you're making Fimbulwinter awesome because of house rules, not because the spell itself is all that awesome.  For the vast majority of purposes, Control Weather does just as well as Fimbulwinter and comes two full levels earlier.

jojolagger

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In spite of how easy it may or may not be to extrapolate the table, at that point you're making Fimbulwinter awesome because of house rules, not because the spell itself is all that awesome.  For the vast majority of purposes, Control Weather does just as well as Fimbulwinter and comes two full levels earlier.
Amazing, how does Control Weather reduce all movement to a crawl for all except the largest creatures for 3 years?
Remember, even that 20 ft. giant will be paying 20ft of movement for 5 ft. Anyone smaller has a chance of being allowed to pay 20 ft for 5 ft of move, and loses DEX to AC.

Hell, you could have a wall composed of castings of fimbulwinter, and divert major trade routes, armies, or even cast it on a town and kill off at least 99.9% of the population.
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There is: Kill shit and loot the corpse!
When you use a tool the way it was designed for -- its intended function -- then it will work very well for you.

But it's not the tool's fault if you use it for something else and you fail utterly, such as trying to eat cereal with a butterknife, pounding nails with a screwdriver, blogging to voice your political opinions, and brushing your teeth with a hammer.
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Mooncrow

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In spite of how easy it may or may not be to extrapolate the table, at that point you're making Fimbulwinter awesome because of house rules, not because the spell itself is all that awesome.  For the vast majority of purposes, Control Weather does just as well as Fimbulwinter and comes two full levels earlier.
Amazing, how does Control Weather reduce all movement to a crawl for all except the largest creatures for 3 years?
Remember, even that 20 ft. giant will be paying 20ft of movement for 5 ft. Anyone smaller has a chance of being allowed to pay 20 ft for 5 ft of move, and loses DEX to AC.

Hell, you could have a wall composed of castings of fimbulwinter, and divert major trade routes, armies, or even cast it on a town and kill off at least 99.9% of the population.

How is that in any way relevant to most campaigns though?  What goal is it solving, or furthering?  It feels about as relevant as the old "destroy the planet" concepts we used to talk about in 2e.

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In spite of how easy it may or may not be to extrapolate the table, at that point you're making Fimbulwinter awesome because of house rules, not because the spell itself is all that awesome.  For the vast majority of purposes, Control Weather does just as well as Fimbulwinter and comes two full levels earlier.
Amazing, how does Control Weather reduce all movement to a crawl for all except the largest creatures for 3 years?
Remember, even that 20 ft. giant will be paying 20ft of movement for 5 ft. Anyone smaller has a chance of being allowed to pay 20 ft for 5 ft of move, and loses DEX to AC.

Hell, you could have a wall composed of castings of fimbulwinter, and divert major trade routes, armies, or even cast it on a town and kill off at least 99.9% of the population.
I don't appreciate the sarcasm.  If you like Fimbulwinter, then cool.  Go cast Fimbulwinter.  I really don't care.  I'm not going to put it on this list because, frankly, it's just not that useful of a thing to do at 17th level.  If you want to wreck the ecosystem in a large radius, Control Weather does that.  A 13th level Druid can cast a Maximized Control Weather and call down a 4-day storm that will do just as much damage as 3 years of winter.  Afterall, after 4 days or so everything's either going to have left or be dead.

Also, it's not the only destroy-the-world spell I'm not putting on the list.  I just went through FCI and passed over Despoil, which permanently makes a large area completely uninhabitable.  Permanently.  I'm also not putting Apocalypse from the Sky on the list, and I didn't put Locate City on it, either, in spite of the Locate City Bomb.  Unleashing total, wanton destruction on the world just isn't impressive.  Any idiot with the Death Devotion feat can do that.

Kethrian

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Moonweb from Player's Guide to Faerun is a pretty wicked spell.  Create a wall that you can shoot (or cast) through, but your enemies can't?  Yes please!
The shield is circular and only 10' high, so it's not unthinkable that something can just fly over it to shoot you.  The wall is only one 10' square, so it's only useful in narrow passages, but enemies on the other side can, in that case, just run away.  If you go through the shield to chase them, then they can pin you up against your own spell effect.

Wall of Force, on the other hand, is a lot more versatile.  You can't shoot through it, but you can trap creatures inside it and make a deathtrap around them using a spell like Scalding Mud.

If you can cast it more than once per day (Evangelist variant, etc), just drop a second overhead as a roof.  And as for enemies running away, there's plenty of magic that can prevent that.

Wall of Force has more trouble with fliers, because it can't be created horizontally.  Plus you need multiple castings to trap a foe, who would have to be under an existing ceiling already to prevent them from just jumping or flying free.  You'll need multiple spells per round to trap anything, because the enemy should easily be able to run away otherwise, which can be a waste of resources unless you have multiple casters with the spell.  And, once they're trapped, you don't have LoE to place spell effects inside.  Not nearly as versatile as many people would like to believe.

About the only advantage Wall of Force has, is that it's immune to Dispel Magic.  But, it is vulnerable to Disintegrate instead, unlike Moonweb, so it isn't much of an advantage.  I'd rather spend one or two spell slots to turn myself or an ally into an invulnerable turret.

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Like I said, you're hardly invulnerable.  Moonweb is a very small barrier.

Kethrian

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Yes, but it blocks LoE, preventing any attack from entering.  And it's small enough that only tiny and smaller enemies could teleport within to get at you.  While it may not be a perfect defense, it is still a potent one.