For me, I don’t play a combat-heavy game. Most sessions have 1-2 combats. We do a LOT of RP in my regular game.

Just because the combat math actually works doesn’t mean that you can’t RP. In fact, quite the opposite: you can keep combat where it belongs, and explore everything else without the constraints that combat (as a component) requires.

Those uses of Detect Evil and Detect Magic aren’t creative use of spells as much as they are players trying to abuse the rules. On average.

If you’re playing a combat-heavy campaign, then you want spells that reflect that. If it’s more focused on role-playing, then you want charms and illusions which enhance your ability to interact with NPCs.

Generally I think Illusion is the best school by far.
Just read how many Illusion spells save effects read “Will save, if intereacted with”.

If you think hard enough, you can almost always cast an Illusion of something that no one will interact with.

An image of a hole for instance. Ok so you could pick up a stick and poke at it and then realise that it is fake. Seriously though, if you see a wall in front of you do you walk up and touch it *just* to be sure that it is really there?
How about a sleeping Dragon? Would you poke it to see if its real?
How about a patroling group of heavily armed fighters? Would you attack first just to be sure?

High level Illusion spells are beyond nasty – one that allows you to make a group of beings appear however you want. What say you make all the fighters look like mages and vica versa?
Do then all casters throw fort save based spells at the ‘mages’ and will save based spells at the ‘fighters’? Do enemy fighters gang up on your ‘mages’?

More often than not our party doesn’t contain a fighter…We can create endless amounts of mooks to fight for us anyway – Golemns/Undead/Simulacrums (personal favourite)/Awakened Animals or Plants/Brainwashed former foes/’Ally’ spells etc.

I am with JollyBlue on this. I think it would be better if we had less spells but the power to combine spells ourselves. Eg, I cast Fireball melded with an Illusion spell (Major Image). After the debris a deep hole can be seen torn open in the earth – the hole is illusionary, but it is unlikely that anyone will jump in to find out. Or perhaps I cast Cone of Cold with Obscuring Mist, Summon with an Illusion. … Etc. It would be harder to police but something could be worked out (I don’t know if any of you have read The Blackwood Company and it’s spellcasting method?).

I’ve played D&D once. I sat in as an NPC guardsman at some gate with my then roommate. We were incompetent by design and successfully annoyed the PC’s, much to the delight of the DM.

Instead, i skipped the whole step of being ticked at someone else’s system and started making my own from scratch.

As a result, i find this discussion rather helpful and wanted to thank for bringing it up.

Something JollyBlue said that I have to disagree with to some extent because of a D&D experience some friends of mine had.

“It should be cool; more than that, it should be uniquely cool. Any spell that lets a wizard fulfill the role of a rogue, for example, violates this rule. What you said about light spells vs. carrying a lantern also applies.”

Three players and the DM, and somehow, none of them picked a fighter class. It was one Druid, one Ranger (halfling at that), and one Mage of some sort. Now, this may likely be a gaming oddity for a party to build like that, i certainly wouldn’t pick that, but i would imagine that any magic abilities enabling the spell caster to essentially double task as another class temporarily would be a must.

Bringing some comments made between Bob and the unnamed Bob basher/4E hater, i think a combat instance where Decipher text would be useful against an enemy with unknown runes that protect and enhace the wearer would be an interesting encounter possibility. The mage would have to decipher the runes to cast the appropriate disarming… thing… And there ends my D&D savvy.

Now, more directly a response to the point of this blog: Ever play Quest for Glory? In it there is a spell, possibly similar to charm, that would cause violent critters to cease their violence and pursuit. There were also certain areas, and an entire town (except the back alley) that had this spell cast on it to prevent violence in town.

Which leads me to a theory i’ve been thinking of for a while where excessive magic has lasting effects on the local environment. Example: A bunch of fire mages cast all their flame spells in a frozen wasteland and turn it into a tropical paradise. Holy clerics cast blessings over a cemetery preventing any undead that might rise from it or enter it to be instantly crumbled.

This kind of playing may not be in the rules, but some innovative house rules could turn monster bashing favorites into more than just artillery.

Hope you enjoyed those thoughts.

Prestidigitation.

Why? The “random low-level magical effect” clause. I think there should be fewer abilities/spells, and the ones that remain should be more versatile. Especially since so many abilities/spells are clones of each other with slight tweaks. “But wait, this fire spell turns their shoes green!” or “Hey, this ability lets me roll 2d6 damage instead of 3d4!”

That said:

1. It should be cool; more than that, it should be uniquely cool. Any spell that lets a wizard fulfill the role of a rogue, for example, violates this rule. What you said about light spells vs. carrying a lantern also applies.

2. It should be useful. Whether in or out of combat, is choosing this a/s worth the cost of not taking a different one?

3. It should be versatile. Cone of Cold is great, if all you’re doing is getting into fights, but there’s only one way to use it. For the same spell slot, I could take Telekinesis and use it in a hundred different ways.

@ Donny – Well, for purposes of this post, let’s say “utility” – in other words, what works?

Kudos to you for remiding folks of that.

That said, maybe it would be easier to identify what isn’t a useful spell. The lsit would be narrowed down much quicker. Also are we talking mechanically or flavor-wise?

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Illusions are excellent in that they can be used to accomplish almost anything, given sufficient creativity and sufficiently broad illusion magic.

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