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2012-07-09, 07:40 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Truenaming (2), Drowning (2), Trap Sense (1), Cancer Mage (2), Invisible Blade Prerequisites (2). Can I give a negative vote to chicken infested? I don't think something made as an April Fool's joke deserves to be judged alongside materials published to actually be used.
It's been a bit, GitP. If you're reading this, you're either digging through old stuff, or I've posted for the first time in forever.
If you want to stay in touch, reach out to me on twitter (same username).
The best answer is always to ask your DM.
Unless you're the DM, in which case you should talk to your players.
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2012-07-09, 07:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Hm, perhaps this would work better if everybody could vote yes/no/neutral on each entry (instead of spreading 10 positive votes and 0 negatives around somehow). That would give a more balanced picture of what people actually consider broken. $.02
Guide to the Magus, the Pathfinder Gish class.
"I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums. I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that." -- ChubbyRain
Crystal Shard Studios - Freeware games designed by Kurald and others!
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2012-07-09, 08:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Germany
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Are we talking about bad design, or about poor wording in explaining how things work?
Because many of the most infamously broken things don't seem too bad to me, when you read the description slightly differently.
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2012-07-09, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Hmmm, on the subject of poorly written... Unlike the crab which was poorly designed/thought out, or the invisible blade, which was poorly split from the Master Thrower, I'd call out the errata for the naztharune rakshasa. While better than the base (which meant that naztharune would only have 1d6 sneak attack until they took levels of rogue) it was instead changed to them getting the sneak attack of a rogue of their total hit dice.
So, class levels taken afterwards will continue to grant sneak attack. Go rogue/assassin and gain double the sneak attack progression! Or, better yet, Daring Outlaw Swashbuckler for, yet again, double sneak attack progression.
Still one of my favorite monsters though, that and the marrulurk. Definately want to play a rogue using one of those some day.
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2012-07-09, 08:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Location
- Freljord
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Truenamer, no doubt.
Myself I actually don't think Iron Heart Surge is that badly written, but oh well.Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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2012-07-09, 08:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2010
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
One for bad design and one for bad wording:
Bad design: Ur-Priest.
That one really do make me wonder if the designers ever played D&D. Easy entry, and 9th level spells in 9 levels. With its own spell-progression table. I mean, what? And its not just that, but it was reprinted in Complete Divine! "We've had a long time to see just how broken this thing is, so lets reprint it"
Its not just bad design, its, well it is not having played the game at all.
Bad wording: Versatile Spellcaster.
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2012-07-09, 09:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
I think Apocalypse from the Sky needs at least an honorable mention, for allowing for infinite, free major artifacts in one's spell component pouch.
Avatar by zimmerwald1915
Characters:
Spoiler
Current characters: None, looking for a game.
Homebrew!
Wow, it's been a while. Sorry for the unexplained absence!
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2012-07-09, 09:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Truenamer. Not for the DCs, but for the Law of Sequences, the 5 round duration, the laughably short range, and the single-target restriction.
Candle of Invocation. Nuff Said.
Pazuzu Pazuzu Pazuzu.
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2012-07-09, 10:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
The tracking rules. They manage to bear no relation to actual tracking, as well as lending themselves so, so willingly to plot abuse or outright irrelevance.
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2012-07-09, 10:05 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Wandering in Harrekh
- Gender
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Here are my votes (along with a couple new suggestions).
2 votes - Description of Alignments (Rule). The paragraphs that launched ten thousand threads.
2 votes - Paladin's Code (Class feature/Rule?). Maybe a subset of Alignment description, but I suspect this particular rule has caused more in-group conflict than any single rule in the book. Anything that forces other people in the group to play their characters in a certain way is just asking for OOC difficulties. Some of the Vows in BoED are guilty of this too, but at least they come with a big warning label. (If you're using BoED at all, you know what you're getting into).
2 votes - Candle of Invocation. Acanous said pretty much all that's to be said about it.
1 vote - Dust of Sneezing and Choking (Item). Hey, an "I win" button for 2400gp!
1 vote - Truenamer mechanics (Class). Just all-around bad.
1 vote - Iron Heart Surge (Maneuver). They really need to be a bit more specific.
1 vote - Guidance of the Avatar (Spell). Just poorly thought-out. If it exists at all, it should be a much higher level.
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2012-07-09, 10:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Another vote for Shivering Touch.
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2012-07-09, 10:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2008
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
What, no Prone Shooter or Monkey Lunge? They have my vote.
(For the non-Pathfinder people: Prone Shooter allows you to ignore the (non-existent) penalties for shooting a crossbow or firearm while prone. Monkey Lunge lets you neutralize the -2 AC from the Lunge feat (which gives you reach) until the end of your turn as a standard action; which leaves you no way to actually attack that turn, since you just used your standard action. And Lunge only lasts until the end of your turn, so it's not like you could at least still make AoOs with reach with no AC penalty.)
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2012-07-09, 10:16 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2010
- Location
- Kingston
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Right,
Iron Heart Surge (2 votes)
Trap Sense (2 votes)
Drowning (2 votes)
Dust of Sneezing & Choking (2 votes)
Death (1 vote)
Shivering Touch (1 vote)
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2012-07-09, 10:19 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Are we allowed to include monsters in this? Because the CR of clockwork horrors and Elemental Weirds should definitely be up here.
I'm putting a vote on that Blizzard spell from frostburn that has an area that's greater than it's range.
And 1 vote for Iron Heart Surge, and 1 for Dust of Sneezing and choking.
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2012-07-09, 03:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
While the entire polymorph line has both confusion and overpower issues, Polymorph Any Object really stands above the rest. I honestly don't know which uses of it are appropriate and which are abuse.
I'll also mention Practiced Manifester, which does not affect your "powers per day" (is there any class with a powers per day limit?) but doesn't say if it affects your points from a high ability score.
And yet another vote for Iron Heart Surge.Looking for a monster? Making a monster?
Age of Wariors,, A Homebrew Sequel to Tome of Battle (see also the original thread, disciplines table and prestige class table)
All My Homebrew
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2012-07-09, 04:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
I don't suppose Spell to Power counts?
Also, another vote for Iron Heart Surge.
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2012-07-09, 04:30 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2010
- Location
- The State of Denial
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
I don't really get what you want us to vote on here. Is it supposed to be stuff that's the most badly designed? Or stuff that's horribly overpowered? Or stuff that simply isn't explained well?
If build a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day.
If you set a man on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
My Homebrew
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2012-07-09, 04:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Forced Dream - Ambiguously written, horribly conceived, poorly executed. How could this possibly be a good idea?
Haunt Shift - Nightmarishly complex, poorly written, breakable like crazy.
Practiced Manifester - Ugly copy/paste job that doesn't make sense in its system, leaves ambiguity in execution.
Jack of All Trades - The writer doesn't know how skill ranks work.
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2012-07-09, 04:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
shaedling. shadow gossamer. note the restrictions.
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2012-07-09, 04:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2009
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
"Yo, IHS. I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Truenamer had one of the worst things of all time. One of the worst things of all time!"
Yeah, Truenamer.
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2012-07-09, 04:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
I'd have to go with Ex/Su/SLA abilities, Natural abilities and the interaction between the RC and the MM.
Also the DWK, which isn't on your lists. Those are the two most contentious things I can think of, so they're the worst as far as being badly written and opaque.
Otherwise, as far as power, I'd go with Candle of Invocation and the Delay Death->Drowning trick.
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2012-07-09, 05:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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- Canada
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
I know this is a 3.x thread, so I don't expect this to count as an official vote, but I'm personally a fan of Prone Shooter from Pathfinder.
It allows you to ignore the penalties for firing a crossbow or firearm while prone... ignoring the fact that there are no penalties for firing a crossbow or firearm while prone.Rules that supersede Rule 0:
Rule -1: You're all there to have fun. The GM and the players should never do anything that would limit people's fun, for any in-game or real-life reason.
Rule -0.5 (corollary): That means that if someone's fun is getting in the way of other people's fun, that person needs to change how they're playing.
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2012-07-09, 05:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2011
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- ⚣
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Erudites get unique powers per day. But they're still powers per day.
Also, the vast majority of Complete Psionic. There're like 10 usable things in the whole book. The rest are broken, worthless, or duplications of things that should've been condensed (such as a feat that says "Choose a weapon; you can now turn your mind blade into it;" could've saved a good six pages that way).
And then there are the senseless nerfs. Damn you CPsi!Last edited by Rubik; 2012-07-09 at 05:09 PM.
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2012-07-09, 05:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2011
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Oh, the Lucid Dreaming skill. Oh my god it's so ridiculously ridiculous.
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2012-07-09, 05:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Location
- a nice pond
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
The first ten that come to mind:
- Leadership (feat)
- Iron Heart Surge (maneuver)
- Drowning (rule)
- Truenamer (class)
- Whether or not you lose the features of a prestige class if lose its prereqs (rule)
- Dragonwrought (feat)
- Diplomacy (skill)
- Grapple (rule)
- Epic spellcasting (rule)
- Free actions (rule)
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2012-07-09, 05:20 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2007
- Location
- Central Kentucky
- Gender
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Clever Wrestling!
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2012-07-09, 05:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Sunnydale
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Another vote for Leadership. Actually anything which works differently for PCs and NPCs fits into that category, including Diplomacy.
Metamagic shenanigans are inherently destabilizing/overpowering (i.e., they'll wreck your game), so I think Incantatrix (free metamagic!) should be on the list.
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2012-07-09, 05:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2012
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Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Void Disciple is a very poorly-written prestige class from Complete Divine. The worst part about the Void Disciple is his trademark ability, Voidsense. There are no specific rules on its use, for example, no duration is listed. This class can really wreck a campaign due to the ambiguity of its abilities, which are basically tools for scrying with no risk and no chance of resistance or failure.
This is just plain poorly written, not really mechanically broken, but I think this qualifies more than any of the top ten currently listed, as they are merely extremely powerful, but not necessarily wholly worst-written.
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2012-07-09, 05:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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2012-07-09, 06:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- Central Kentucky
- Gender
Re: Top Ten Worst-Written Spells, Class Features, Racial Abilities, Feats, Items, etc
Cause if you get bigger than medium, it turns off, and invalidates Reaping Mauler if you took that class, turning off the entire class. And you want to get bigger than medium to grapple...
Basically, it should say: "Clever wrestling. Requires: Improved Grapple or Improved Grab. When grappling larger creatures, you get a bonus to your grapple check or escape artist check for escaping a grapple or pin. The bonus is +2 for each size category the creature is bigger than you."