Crunch - 5/6/2006 6:35 PM
I'm a little confused as to how the Bigby's was overpowered compared to this. It was my mage and cleric delayer until it was diminished to the trash heap.
NOTE: Balancing spells is not a part of either of my positions on the team. As such the following are personal opinions.
Secondary Disclaimer: Neither have I played a spellcaster under the layo spell changes of high enough level to have a familiarity with how these spells work out in practice.
I assume we are refering to the 9th level bigby's here. Some of the lower level ones were imo overpowered for their level as they were coded by bioware. I'm not sure if I ever encountered anything in the OC that wouldn't get knocked down by the 6th level bigby.
I think the thing that really weakened bigby 9 is the fort save negating the hold. The hold being... kindof the point of the spell as I've used it in other settings.
Since its a save, rather than the str check, it means casters can apply their spellcraft + to saves vs spells. Which is large.
It seems to be more in line with what these checks and saves are used for to have the STR check vs the hold and the fort save to negate the damage for the round.
A giant hand is grasping you. Which description most properly describes how you would resist its holding effect:
1 - With your monstrous strength you force your way out of the gripping fingers which speed after you. You drag the giant hand along behind you by sheer force ignoring its painful grabbing and pinching (but still taking dmg) and you charge the wizard who dared challenge you.
2 - With your inner strength of body and vitality you are able to avoid the hands ability to hold you, but if you aren't strong enough you will still take damage from it crushing you even though your movement is not impeded by it.
It seems that these are backwards. through inner strength of body and vitality you could negate of halve the damage you were taking, and through strength you could drag the hand along with you or force free of it for a round.
Anyway, random thoughts on how different saves and checks are supposed to be used as per PnP rules, and more on the IC side of things than the balance side I suppose. Though the hold portion of the bigby's 9 always seemed to me to be the fundamental defining part of the spell. Isn't there a lower bigby that allows you a save or be stunned each round? Does this particular change make the 9th bigby rather similar to that lower spell level bigby?
