I've posted some long descriptions of what I think would be interesting spell alterations in the <a href="http://www.nsrealm.com/boards/viewtopic ... 21">Cleric Restrictions</a> thread. Through my brainstorms and referencing through my own PnP notes and the actual 3e manuals I've put together some more changes to the (mostly) cleric spell set. I've taken my time to analyze the spell as it exists in NWN then in PnP and then what I think should be the new spell in NS. Here we go!
Note: A great website for referencing out-of-the-box NWN can be found <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights/">here</a>.
<b>Bane</b>
NWN: Out of the box Bane affects all enemies within a Colossal radius. They must make a Will save versus the standard DC or be at -1 AB and saves versus fear for 1 turn/level.
PnP: This spell is more or less identical except for the stacking problem that I detail somewhat in the Cleric Restrictions thread. The penalty the enemies receive is a "morale penalty" to AB and saves versus fear. I'm going to detail the spell "Doom" next and then detail the proposal for both spells.
<b>Doom</b>
NWN: One target must make a Will save versus the standard DC or be at -2 AB, damage, all saves, ability checks (I had no idea that this was a modifier within NWN, might be a typo if ability checks are also affected by skill check modifiers), and skill checks for 1 turn/level.
PnP: This spell is significantly different from the NWN one. A target that fails it's Will save suffers a -2 "morale penalty" to AB, skill checks, and all saves. In addition, Doom is a "Fear" spell as well as a "Mind-affecting" spell in PnP.
Both these spells are cleric-only and level 1. While Bane is the inverse of Bless, Doom can be seen as a double-strength Prayer effect on one enemy that allows a save. I propose that these two spells be changed in this way:
<b>Bane</b>: Change the descriptor to ONLY Fear. All enemies within a colossal radius from the target must make a Will save or suffer a -1 Morale penalty* to attack rolls and all saves for 1 turn/level.
<b>Doom</b>: Change the descriptor to ONLY Fear. One target must make a Will save or suffer a -2 Morale penalty* to attack rolls, damage, all saves, and skill checks for 1 turn/level.
* Morale penalties of the same kind do not stack, the highest one counts. A creature under effect by both Bane AND Doom would be at -2 to hit, not -3.
The next two spells I'd like to detail are Scare and Remove Fear. These spells balance each other out and, I feel, must be looked at if adjustments have been made to Bane and Doom.
<b>Scare</b>
NWN: In NWN one creature of 5 HD or less is affected if they fail a Will save. They then suffer the "fear" effect for 1d4 rounds in addition to suffering a -2 penalty to attack rolls, damage, and all saves.
PnP: This particular spell is actually a place where Bioware really screwed-up. "Scare" is actually a level 2 Bard/Wiz/Sorc spell that affects more than one target for 1 round/level. "Cause Fear" is the PnP analog to NWN's "Scare" affecting 1 target for 1d4 rounds which is also a level 1 cleric/bard/wiz/sorc spell. Confused? Well, it only gets more interesting with the next spell...
<b>Remove Fear</b>
NWN: This spell removes all Fear effects from a group of targets (1 per four caster levels within a Large radius from initial target) AND makes them immune to Fear effects for 10 turns.
PnP: This spell is significantly different. The target/s get ANOTHER save versus any Fear effect/s they are under with a +4 morale bonus. The targets are then receive a +4 morale bonus on saves versus fear for 10 turns.
Well, I have no idea how NWN stores spell effects and whether or not the PnP version of "Remove Fear" can even be done (each Fear effect would have to store its save DC after firing). It is my opinion that Bioware messed-up here and propose these changes to these two spells:
<b>Scare</b>
Remove the HD limit and come to a compromise between PnP's Scare and Cause Fear spells. One target must make a Will save or be affected by Fear for 1 round/level. There is a difference between NWN's and PnP's "frightened" status effect, but for the sake of uniformity make it a -2 Morale penalty* to attack rolls, damage, all saves, and skill checks. Change the descriptor to Fear only.
* Morale penalties of the same kind do not stack, a creature under effect of BOTH Doom and Scare would be -2 to attack rolls, damage, saves, and checks NOT -4.
<b>Remove Fear</b>
If the spell/effect DC can be stored after firing the ability allow the target/s another save versus those affects with a +4 Divine bonus* to the save versus fear. The target/s then receive a +4 Divine bonus* to saves versus fear for 1 turn/level. If the spell/effect DC can not be stored simply have Remove Fear remove all fear effects on the target/s with no further effect.
* Divine bonuses of the same kind do not stack, this bonus does NOT stack with the bonuses from the Resistance/Bless/Aid/Prayer/Battletide suite of spells I detailed in the Cleric Restrictions thread.
The next two spells I'd like to detail are Remove Curse and Poison.
Remove Curse takes the sting out of the perma-curse situation that exists in NS4. I really like having to actually worry about things like curse and level drain being nearly permanent so I propose the folllowing two changes:
Remove Curse allows one target to roll their save again versus the original curse effect once. Curse effects are not removed on death, but cannot lower any ability score below 1. And it would be great to figure out a way to carry Curse (and Level Drain) across servers...perhaps storing the effects in a token that gets processed on log-in?
Poison is a really evil spell in PnP for two reasons: it has the potential of killing most targets because it causes 1d10 Con damage first then 1d10 Con damage later AND the save DC is nonstandard: 10 + half caster level + Wis modifier. Having to make a touch attack to connect with this spell is part of the balancing act the makers of 3e were trying to make. In NWN the save is the standard one: 10 + spell level + Wis modifier (it's only a Cleric/Druid spell) and both poison damages are 1d6 strength NOT 1d10 constitution...and the caster still has to make a touch attack. I propose this change:
Poison no longer requires a touch attack, but the the Fort save is the standard one for all spells. The poison is now constitution damage: 1d8 intial, 1d8 secondary.
Phew...well, these are some changes that I think would deepen the gameplay and return some use and interest to some of the existing spells. Any thoughts out there? Are there any other spells that people think need tweaking or simply spells that are under/over-powered?