Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 krackerjack Feb 27, 2015 18:38:25	Having some questions with this spell. Having a druid conjure 8 pixies who then cast confusion or polymorph on stuff. With them being a cr 1/4 fey creature they can mess up a campaign pretty quick. What is a good fix for this or do i let the druid wreck the campaign with spaming this spell.
#2 Barky Feb 27, 2015 19:31:06	That's a great question. I could see that being very annoying.   Polymorph does allow WI saves, so it may become less of a threat as you throw higher CR monsters against them. Maintaining polymorph does require concentration, so find ways to break that concentration. Shouldn't be too hard against pixies. Maintaining the conjuring itself also requires concentration, this time on the part of the druid. If the druid's concentration is broken the conjured pixies disappear, and that makes the polymorph break. DON'T FORGET CONCENTRATION! It's one of those game-balancing factors that's easy to forget.   Otherwise, that spell seems overpowered and game-breaking (or at least game-annoying). I hadn't looked at it this way until now. In my view, the spell should be modified:   the conjured creatures are free-willed, and the druid must make Persuasion checks, role-play, or other manipulation to get the conjured creatures to attack or whatever. go back to an earlier version, where the spell was summon woodland creatures, and only creatures that were already in the area would come to the druid's aid. This let the DM say "well, it's the desert, there are no pixies in the desert", and pick other creatures. This not only prevents "spell spamming" but makes things interesting: the druid has no idea what he's going to get when he calls out for aid! Good luck.
#3 Coredump00 Feb 27, 2015 22:18:44	The best I have heard, is to make it not automatic that the pixies follow instructions.  They show up, and are friendly, but you still need to convince them to 'use up' their spells for the day.  Even if they do it, just the potential of it taking a few rounds to convince them can stop some of the combat uses.
(Reply to #3) AaronOfBarbaria	Coredump00 wrote:
#5 Greenstone.Walker Feb 28, 2015 4:31:15	Another way of dealing with it, don't have pixies turn up. Have blink dogs, for example. The caster doesn't get to pick which fey creature turns up, just the number and challenge rating.   If you do want to have pixies turn up, remember that they are described as "tiny tricksters". What is going to be their reaction to being magically ordered around by a caster? Sure, they are generally friendly to the caster and party, but that doesn't mean they can't play tricks. Lots of tricks. If the druid tries to order the pixies not to do these things then I direct you to the phrase "herding cats." Trying to direct 8 pixies should be driving the druid nuts.   Also, polymorph is a concetration spell. If the pixie is threatened then they will drop concentration on the polymorph in order the concentrate on their superior invisibility.
#6 krackerjack Feb 28, 2015 7:35:24	Polymorph isnt really the spell that mucks things up its more confusion that dose the trick as 8 castings of it odds are you fail atleast one save i mean the part fought an adult dragon and the confusion stuck. Also if you bbuild a pixie using the monster creation rules they are cr 3 but the mm lists them as cr 1/4. Is there a nerf in them im not seeing
#7 Psikerlord Feb 28, 2015 14:33:57	krackerjack wrote:
#8 iserith Mar 01, 2015 7:39:16	The fix for this is easy: Talk to your player about not abusing mechanics to the detriment of the game experience. It's cool to use this tactic when it will contribute to a good time and help create an exciting, memorable story. That means using it judiciously because "spamming" it will get boring fast and part of "winning" at D&D is not making the game boring. If a player is committed to achieving the goals of play and you all agree on what that is, then the player will self-regulate.