Death Ward

[Andreas]

3E Paladin spell that I'd love to see in the game

Grants immunity to death spells and effects.

[Glim]

Can you elaborate, Andreas? And also tell what spells and effects it would ward against?

(hehe, yep, im asking the pally to do the wizzy stuff, ya gotta sound smart too so you dont embaress yourself, none of that hillbilly paladin talk )

[Andreas]

Seems pretty explanatory to me. And it's not a wizard spell. It's a paladin spell from 3rd edition

Death Ward

Necromancy
Level: Clr 4, Death 4, Drd 5, Pal 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched
Duration: 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

The subject is immune to all death spells and magical death effects. The spell does not protect against other sorts of attacks, such as hit point loss, poison, petrification, or other effects even if they might be lethal.

3rd. Edition PHB p. 191

My guess is that it would render "instakill" spells (Harm, Disintegrate, Finger of Death etc.) useless against a paladin protected by the Death Ward spell. A nice countereffect to the variety of instant death spells available to mages and clerics.

[Gwain]

Wouldn't it be an anti-necromatic spell? Because it stops death spells?
Unless of course anti-necromatics don't exist.

[Glim]

My guess is that it would render "instakill" spells (Harm, Disintegrate, Finger of Death etc.) useless against a paladin protected by the Death Ward spell. A nice countereffect to the variety of instant death spells available to mages and clerics.

Actually, Andreas, there are only two instant kill spells in the game(from what I know at least). One is actually not considered a death spell since it is applicable to items (D&D wise anyways) too. Ide say this would be a good addition if there were more death spells and instakill spells for it to protect against.

[Andreas]

Regardless of how many or how few death spells are currently coded into the game, there is nothing coded to protect against them. That's why I want to see the Death Ward spell added to balance out the "instakill" spells.

[Dalvyn]

Currently, the usefulness of insta-death spells is quite limited.

- It can be sometimes used against mobs, but mobs are not clever enough to cast death ward when needed
- I do not think that an area with mobs using insta-death spells would be really a "fun area", so insta-death spells cannot really be used by mobs either.

Thus, for Player versus Monster combat, death ward is not really useful.

In Player versus Player combat now... insta-death spells are (in my opinion) one of the few things that make warriors tremble in front of spellcasters (at least, in general... I'm not talking about twinked invokers here), "as they should". Introduce death ward and that reduces this advantage.

All in all, I would think that this would be a good spell to code, but that there might be other things that might perhaps be better to have first (saving throws, some high level spells, ...).

[Andreas]

Good points all around, Dalvyn.

I would VERY much like to see Saving Throws coded to fit with AD&D guidelines. The resistances on here don't make much sense right now.

And high level spells would be nice in the future. Maybe something some of the mage players could roleplay as researching

[Glim]

Oooh...that is my new crusade...saving throws for FK. PLEASE!

Maybe both could be added, where things that effect the resistance to certain things lessened (so you could still have those items out there that provide resistance to fire, cold, ect)