(d and d 3.5) Boney Spikes

[smoke prism]

Boney Spikes
Transmutation
Level: sor/wiz 2, Drd 2
*Component: V
Casting time: 1 immediate action
Range: personal
Duration: Instantaneous*
Saving throw: none
Spell resistance: no


After*speaking a couple of sharp words, long, pointy, *bone like structures burst from the casters skin.

When the caster is Attacked in melee by a non-reach weapon , he may use a immediate action to cast this spell which cause spikey protrusion to burst from his skin. The creature that attacked the caster must make a reflex save or take 1d6+1/ 1d6 per 2 level points of damage.*

When the spell ends the spins recede back into the casters skin and re-fuse with the casters bone.


Please *comment if you see any problem.Also please tell me if you like the spell Idear in general and if I should make more spells like this.*

[inuyasha]

although i like the spell, when does it end? the duration is instantaneous

[Deviston]

Yeah*it seems to*be a great spell. I also*wonder about*the duration as instantaneous*makes me think it lasts forever*.

[inuyasha]

Yeah*it seems to*be a great spell. I also*wonder about*the duration as instantaneous*makes me think it lasts forever*.

or that it lasts for one second. I think of instantaneous as instant, boom fireball goes off, no other duration. Permenant however is just forever. So basically with this version of the spell you get bony spikes for not even one round and you just wasted a spell slot :smallsmile:

[smoke prism]

The idea was that the spell deals damage to the attacker then the spikes disperse.

[Empedocles]

The idea was that the spell deals damage to the attacker then the spikes disperse.

That's how it reads to me

[super dark33]

I thought it would be a gore instakill spell.
This is nice too.
:smallsmile:

[Jota]

I think it should be a level one spell. My argument is partially based on it being similar to shocking grasp damage-wise. While boney spikes does require only an immediate action, which you don't have much use for at low levels, thus allowing your spell output/round to go up, it also requires you to get attacked in melee, which isn't the greatest thing for a caster. It also allows a Reflex save to negate the damage (though the description says none), which makes it worse again.

[Empedocles]

I think it should be a level one spell. My argument is partially based on it being similar to shocking grasp damage-wise. While boney spikes does require only an immediate action, which you don't have much use for at low levels, thus allowing your spell output/round to go up, it also requires you to get attacked in melee, which isn't the greatest thing for a caster. It also allows a Reflex save to negate the damage (though the description says none), which makes it worse again.

You may be right, but it definitely needs a damage cap of +5 in that case.

[Network]

I think the damage increase should be +1/2 level instead of +1/level, but that's not a big deal, and you can get much more from a 3rd level spell, so the spell level is right to me.

Edit : Baring the odd +1 to damage before adding the caster level, and if a cap is put on it, its power is comparable to that of a 1st level spell. Yet, it requires an immediate action, which means the caster can cast another spell on the same turn. Definitely 2nd level.

[Jota]

I think the damage increase should be +1/2 level instead of +1/level, but that's not a big deal, and you can get much more from a 3rd level spell, so the spell level is right to me.

Edit : Baring the odd +1 to damage before adding the caster level, and if a cap is put on it, its power is comparable to that of a 1st level spell. Yet, it requires an immediate action, which means the caster can cast another spell on the same turn. Definitely 2nd level.

As an advocate for level reduction, I would say this: casting two spells in a round is not strictly a good thing or a bad thing. We as players tend to think of it in terms of quickened spells, which is a powerful thing, and with spells already being powerful themselves we would call this unbalanced, but in this particular instance I cannot agree.

This spell really isn't that powerful on the internal scale of spells. Casting two spells in a round, when one of the two is this, means that you have one less spell to cast in that day. On one hand you might argue this turns the 15 minute workday into the 10 minute work day, but that conundrum aside, (casting/memorizing) this really is a substandard allocation of resources (some damage versus ending a fight entirely) unless you need this to kill someone in a situation where you wouldn't survive into the next round to cast color spray or whatever.

As far as damage is concerned as a first, you could do:

1d6+1 per level to a maximum of 5d6+5 (or whatever, this just seems consistent with shocking grasp and burning hands)
1d6 + one per level to a maximum of 1d6+20
1d6 per two caster levels

Or some combination of any of the above.

[Debihuman]

Here is how I would change this:

When the caster is attacked in melee by a non-reach weapon , he may use a immediate action to cast this spell which causes spikey protrusions to burst from his skin. If the attack succeeds, the creature that attacked the caster must make a Reflex save or take 1d6 points of damage plus an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 2 caster levels to a maximum of 5d6. If the attack fails, the attacker takes no damage from the spikes.

Since this is an immediate action, the this spell can only cast before the caster knows whether the incoming attack succeeds or fails.

Debby