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Vapourware List of actually useful D&D spells in CRPGs

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
I find that most of the spells included in D&D CRPGs are bloat. Especially with the way spell memorization works and the lack of in-game information about enemies in areas you visit once.

There's a bit of an expectation at this point that Grease and Web are useful. But is a buff that gives +1 damage really worth adding? Does it serve a point outside of a minor character-building skill-test?

Interested in other's thoughts on which spells are actually useful in a D&D CRPG, given the constraints of the genre.
 
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
4,189
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In
Haste is probably one of the most useful buffs in RTWp games. Not only it's useful in combat it also makes exploration less bothersome.
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
I find that most of the spells included in D&D CRPGs are bloat. Especially with the way spell memorization works and the lack of in-game information about enemies in areas you visit once.

There's a bit of an expectation at this point that Grease and Web are useful. But is a buff that gives +1 damage really worth adding? Does it serve a point outside of a minor character-building skill-test?

Interested in other's thoughts on which spells are actually useful in a D&D CRPG, given the constraints of the genre.

This is generally the line of thinking that the mentally overloaded fall into. In well-designed systems everything has a use and the problem of matching use to challenge is an enjoyably non-trivial one.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Most of them are, more than are typically actually implemented anyways.
Something that really irked me in PFK was the lack of Alarm, which would have obviously been very useful when camping.

Strangely enough, DDO probably has the widest array of pnp spells actually implemented.
 

Cross

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Messages
2,983
This is much more of an issue in non-D&D RPGs. Because it uses a Vancian system, unlike say an MP system where all spells draw from the same resource pool, lower level spells in D&D don't compete with higher level spells so they always have some use.

Obviously, spells that scale with level will remain more useful than spells with fixed effects. Non-damaging spells (status-affecting, summoning, etc.) tend to be far more useful than spells that deal damage.
 

Melcar

Arcane
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
35,215
Location
Merida, again
It all comes down to how they are implemented inside the game, encounter designs, etc. There is no reason a particular game can't have encounters/quests that make certain spells useful for specific situations (and render others useless for those situations). We have examples of such designs in many games, but unfortunately they are usually limited in instances within a game and the rest are covered by thrash mob combat that always give preference to certain crowd control spells/abilities.
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
It all comes down to how they are implemented inside the game, encounter designs, etc. There is no reason a particular game can't have encounters/quests that make certain spells useful for specific situations (and render others useless for those situations). We have examples of such designs in many games, but unfortunately they are usually limited in instances within a game and the rest are covered by thrash mob combat that always give preference to certain crowd control spells/abilities.

Even there people get in ruts and turn manageable fights into fights that suck too much attention and energy trying to master them with outleveled spells under the erroneous "most spells are trash" theory.
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
Let me give a couple examples.

Here's of course a total waste of space spell, right?

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/g/grace/

Why would anyone ever use this? Read the fine print. Swift Action. That means if attack 1 of 4 just took half your life you don't have to wait around for 2 of 4 to see what it does. Total lifesaver. Worth a Slot? Probably not until late unless you've got some extra casts like in Wrath. Worth a Scroll on your belt? Absolutely.

Here's another one:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/searing-light

Why not just cast a Fireball? That doesn't even need an attack roll. And Scorching Ray leaves this in the dust right?

Notice what's missing?

Hard to Evade something that doesn't even have a Reflex Save. What save does it have then? No save? That can't be right. Anyone ever cast this one? Works like a charm against a certain Lich in Wrath.

A big part of the fun of these games is figuring out what the designer was thinking when they included them then getting duly rewarded for the effort. You should try it. It's fun.
 

Daemongar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
4,706
Location
Wisconsin
Codex Year of the Donut
Ah, there are no bad spells, just bad implementations. Any spell can be useful, but the initial implementations of D&D made it so you just took the same spells in perpetuity. Yes, at 3rd level, I memorize fireball, haste, and maybe dispel magic. Then I never change those spells. They are useful in dungeon, forest, or city. Should i cast a know alignment on the bartender? No. it probably won't do anything. That spell will only work on one guy in some place where it starts or ends a quest. Memorize it there.

The lack of dynamic environments makes non-damage/non-healing spells work only where the programmers decide and it would be a lot of work. Everyone can understand playing a cleric, walking through town and there are diseased and dying everywhere. Can you heal anyone except for that set encounter? No. Can you raise any dead out of boredom? No. Can you speak with dead? Ok, in one game you can, but not many.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
A few from ToEE:

Magic Missile:

magic%2Bmissile.jpg


Fireball:

fireball.jpg


Lightning Bolt:

lightning%2Bbolt.jpg


Cone of Cold:

cone%2Bof%2Bcold.jpg


Ice Storm, Flame Strike, Call Lightning:

AoEs.jpg


Entangle:

entangle.jpg


Spike Growth, Spike Stones:

01.jpg


Enlrage Person:

righteous%2Bmight%2B%252B%2Benlarge%2Bperson.jpg


Righteous Might:

righteous%2Bmight.jpg

Many others, including Teleport.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
There're no bad spells, only bad implementation and bad users.

Say, Command spell.

In game like IWD/BG series we mostly dont do Command because the games are designed so that commands dont work well. But a Wisdom-check command is doable in low level fights it work well against dumbass (but high HP). Make them grovel/fall prone and another melee ally can do coup de grace to finish it off~

Or Goodberry, another unused spell. IT's unused because games are mostly skipping over the campsite action and food requirement for rest: IWD/BG games has free rest (money to pay for the beds at inn are nothing). So gamers can only use it to heal, which is measly and not as initially designed.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
A few more from ToEE:

Spider + snake summon:

01.jpg


Elemental summons:

elementals.jpg


Glitterdust:

glitterdust.jpg


Paladin, Bless:

paladin.jpg


Grease:

grease.jpg
 

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