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View Full Version : How to deal with hyperactive party members(PEACH)



Winged One
2006-04-20, 11:40 PM
Siphon Effervescence
Necromancy
Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: see text
Duration: instantaneous
Saving Throw: see text
Spell Resistance: see text

You transfer the excess energy from one willing target to another target. Both targets must be touched by the caster at the time of casting. The willing target does not recieve a saving throw or spell resistance, the other one is entitled a will save(harmless) for half effect.

This spell has three strengths.

Standard strength fatigues the willing target and affects the other target exactly as a Cure Light Wounds spell would.

Heavy strength exhausts the willing target and affects the other target as a Cure Moderate Wounds spell would.

Maximum strength puts the target to sleep(as the Sleep spell, except where noted here and that there is no hit dice limit). If the willing target was misled into believeing that a lesser strength would be employed, they are allowed a Fortitude save to reduce the effect to heavy strength. The other target is affected as if by Cure Serious Wounds.
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The spell level was pretty much a guess. How imbalanced is it?

PinkysBrain
2006-04-21, 12:07 AM
The maxmimum strength one doesn't make a whole lotta sense ... you can simply wake him up again and he will be no worse the wear.

hyenahyena
2006-04-21, 12:15 AM
weird wording. What is 'excess' energy. How can getting rid of something you have in surplus, make you fatigued? Wouldn't it just..bring you back to normal?

Maybe the spell can suck a spell charge out of the willing target, and use that to power the cure light wounds on the other target. Whom presumably is also willing.

Maybe for the bigger 'strengths' it could suck two spells and just cast cure light wounds twice. Or suck 3 spells, and cast it 3 times.

Also, I'm not sure making a hyperactive party members character pass out, is going to entice him/her to be less hyperactive. I'd say they'd get more distracted from the boredom of having their character out of interation for X many minutes.

TBPBenni
2006-04-21, 12:19 AM
Nailing party members with spells/pointy bits of metal/EX abilities/other nouns generally doesn't help matters. =)

EDIT: Duh, my apologies, I totally didn't understand what was going on, go ahead and forget I said anything.

Kaerou
2006-04-21, 12:56 AM
Combined with armor of the unending hunt it would make a sorcerer a fairly decent backup healer.

Winged One
2006-04-21, 01:07 AM
PinkysBrain: Good point. Perhaps I'll just nix that one when I revise.
hyenahyena: 1. the bit about excess energy is just flavor text. 2. Sucking spell slots is not what I'm going for at all. And Dhaver already invented a spell like that. 3. it's for characters that are hyperactive, not players. :)
TBPBenni: Well, it's willing only for the one who gets drained, see.
SkyWarrior: I'm afraid I'm not familier with that item.

Kaerou
2006-04-21, 01:37 AM
Makes a person immune to fatigue / exaustion i believe.

Reltzik
2006-04-21, 04:07 AM
I dunno. I like the overall concept, but giving someone, especially a non-divine caster, almost the equivalent of Cure Serious Wounds spell at 2nd level is a bit overpowered.

What happens if you're drawing the energy from someone already exhausted? Already asleep?

Spell it out a bit better (pun unintended) so that the person is at either normal, fatigued, exhausted. Nix the maximum strength. Allow nothing short of 8 hours rest or a spell of equal level to the cure-spell equivalent (lvl 1 for the weaker version, lvl 2 for the stronger) to counter this -- not even resting for an hour to go from exhausted to fatigued. (If they're fatigued due to a normal effect, and get hit by the weaker version for another fatigue to add up to exhausted, let them rest to get rid of the first fatigue) The weaker version still fatigues the power-source, and the stronger version exhausts them, but if they're unconscious or already exhausted then neither version works, and if they're fatigued then the stronger version acts like the weaker one. If anything prevents them from becoming fatigued/exhausted (a save, a magical effect, anything) then the spell fails.

Finally make it fourth level, at least. You're making up for the fact that you've got an arcane caster casting a spell that's almost as powerful as a divine caster's level 2 healing with one level, and for the fact that it's a wiz/sor healing spell with the second. Healing's the divine caster's specialization, and one of the explicit guidelines for new spells is that wizards and sorcerors should should not become healers.

Edit: Actually, 3rd level should be fine.

TBPBenni
2006-04-21, 07:18 AM
You know, to take a different tack on the subject, you could give the sender subdual damage equal to the number of hit points being recovered by the reciever. It's a little less nebulous than "tired for X rounds," as you naturally heal 1 subdual damage per level, per hour. You could also explicitly have the damage heal in minutes instead of hours, to keep the party from stopping for a few hours every time you have to Siphon some HP while still having a bit of a liability involved.

Undead using it would have to be summarily slapped in the face, but maybe some careful wording could deal with that, such as "The sender takes his choice of up to X subdual damage, and the reciever heals X number of hit points." An undead/unsubduable creature would take 0 subdual damage in this circumstance, hence healing 0 damage.

EDIT: After looking at the REST of "Healing Subdual Damage," namely "When a spell or a magical power cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage," I would note that a subdual damage variant of Siphon Effervesence should specifically -not- heal subdual damage. (Otherwise, you can cast another Siphon with the targets switched, and everybody's instantly peachy.)

As a side note, I like the use of the word Effervescence. It's a nice word that doesn't get out of the thesaurus much. I might suggest "Transfer Effervescence," though, since "siphon" implies it can be used on an unwilling target.

Winged One
2006-04-21, 11:10 AM
All right, version 2, taking in mind all suggestions except the one about subdual damage, which, again, isn't what I'm going for.

Transfer Effervescence
Necromancy
Level: Sor/Wiz 3
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: see text
Duration: instantaneous, see text
Saving Throw: see text
Spell Resistance: see text

You transfer excess energy from one willing target to another target. Both targets must be touched by the caster at the time of casting.

The willing target is fatigued by this spell. If they are already fatigued, the target is instead exhausted. If this spell fails to fatigue or exhaust the willing target, then it fails. This spell's willing target may not me asleep, unconcious, already resting, or already exhausted. The willing target does not recieve a saving throw unless something prevents them from voulentarily failing saving throws, in which case they recieve a fortitude save to negate the spell. Spell resistance does not apply if it can be lowered, but if not, it does apply. Nothing short of 8 hours rest, Lesser Restoration, Restoration, Greater Restoration, Psionic Restoration, Heal, or anything else the DM sees fit to include on this list will cure the fatigue induced by this spell. If the target is exhausted by this spell, they may reduce their conditon to fatigued as normal, but then the remaining fatigue is treated as coming from this spell.

The other target is healed for 1d8+5 damage, or 1d8 +1 per caster level if the caster is somehow casting this spell with a caster level below 5. They are entitled a will save to negate the spell, although it is harmless to them. If they are already at full hit points, then they gain temporary hit points equal to half of what would have been healed, which last for 30 minutes. The target to be healed is also allowed spell spell resistance, although note again that is is harmless to this target.

If this spell fails for any reason, the willing target is not fatigued or exhausted.