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#1 Zardnaar Nov 10, 2014 16:20:36

This thread is to look at how buff spells have been used through out D&Ds history and have a look at how they are used in 5E. Buff spells are usually spells or class abilities that make PCs better usually by providing a bonus to hit or damage. Other spells such as Stoneskin, Fly, Greater/Improved Invisibility can also be considered buff spells. After third edition buff spells may have a bad reputation in some quarters but I will deal with that in the 3E section.   AD&D Years ago D&D was D&D. You had buff spells in BECMI just less of them and for the most part they were the same as AD&D.  I have found if you play AD&D after playing 3E you are more likely to cast buff spells than what we were back in the say. Anyway by modern standards buff spells were rare and limited mostly to the cleric class. There was also a difference between spells in 1E and 2E. The bread and butter spells to buff with for the most part were.   Bless Aid Prayer Strength (became bulls strength in 3E) Faerie Fire (1E +2 bonus no save, nerfed to +1 in 2E)   These were your basic buff spells. Haste existed but it aged you  year and could kill you so you did not use haste just because and stone skin was also used which was a great spell and why it has more or less sucked ever since. It negated 1d4+1/2 levers physical attacks. Mage Armor and Shield also exist but they did not stack. No buff spell gave much more than a +1 bonus to hit faerie fire being one exception. The 2E spell magic weapon gave a whopping +1 bonus to hit and damage and made you weapon magical. That spell was 4th level in 2E and in 3E it became a scaling spell +1 to hit/damage for ever 3/levels in 3.0 +1/4 levels in 3.5.    Big bonus buff spells did not exist as such, the strength spell could get a fighter to exceptional strength as the spell granted +1d8 bonus to strength and at 18 strength each +1 became +10% for exceptional strength. In AD&D an 18 strength would only give you +1 to hit and +2 damage. If you have read old TSR era AD&D material and seen PCs with multiple 15+ ability scores you may think munchkin but bonusesto ability scores kicked in at much higher numbers. The default array in 5E is the equivalent of 15, 15 16 and a 17 or 18 in AD&D terms.    In late 2E buff spells got a bit more potent in various source books but Spells and Magic (S&M) and Faiths and Avatars (F&A) offered some very interesting ones. Cleric level 4 and 5 spells could duplicate haste without the aging and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful for example granted +3 to hit and damage, 1d8 hit points and an extra attack to those of the same faith for a level 5 spell slot. A fun spell to use on NPC mooks in an evil temple. Cats Grace also turned up in this book and I guess 3.0 rounded these spells out with the other animal spells (Owls Wisdom, Foxes Cunning etc).   3.0 3,0 was a massive hit when it landed and 2000 and 2001 have been used as a silver age of D&D (1982/83 being the golden age). The internet was around and the D&D collective hive mind got to work on these very forums (and others). People did not like playing clerics apparently so they buffed them. 3.0 haste removed the restriction on haste (the aging) and it only granted 1 extra attack  but more importantly it granted an extra standard action as well. This let spell casters cast 2 spells a round including haste+ 1 more spell on round 1.   Scaling buff spells were also introduced and spells such as divine favour, divine power, greater magic weapon also turned up. The animal buff spells like Bulls Strength granted 1d4+1 extra on the ability score. 3.0 also retained AD&D double stacking rule on bows and ammunition and removed the restrictions on clerical use of weapons that only dealt bludgeoning damage. This set the stage for  perfect storm of buff spells when combined with a feat from a 3.0 splat book Persistent Spell and spells such as Greater Magic Weapon. In AD&D one could not easily create +5 weapons, you could in 3.0. I got to see the cleric archer in action long story short 5 attacks per round +25 to hit and damage or more.    The other big abuse with buff spells was the animal spells such as bulls strength although the big offender here was the mental ones that buffed intelligence, wisdom and charisma. This also buffed spell DCs. There was no limit to how many times you could empower these spells and prestige classes like the Incantrix reduced the cost of metamagic points. Even worse a prestige class known as the Spelldancer could dance to empower spells removing the cost of the metamagic entirely. Pun Pun was bad but was a theory build a mid level Spelldancer could get unlimited ability scores (and spell DCs). The natural spell feat was also in a 3.0 splat book which let Druids cast spells while wildshaped. And they made Druidic buff spells as well such as magic fang and greater magic fang. After a few years of this 3.5 came out which was supposed to clean up all of that.   3.5. To be fair 3.5 did clean up most of the worst abuses of 3.0. You could no longer double stack magic bows and arrows, haste got nerfed, and so did all the buff spells. However even the nerfed haste was a great spell even though it “only” granted 1 extra attack to everyone I the party. Druids got buffed directly and indirectly buffed by adding the natural spell feat to the core PHB. Persistent Spell feat was nerfed as well but then they made the feat divine metamagic which resurrected a new buff cleric build and the Druid was more abusive than ever hence the term CoDzilla. Bards were also buffed and our group broke that as well having a bard build that granted +8 to hit and damage to everyone in the party.   Bards did not suck in 3.5 (or 2E) but there you have it. As it turned out or min/max fu was weak and I shared that build on the forums and it at the time it was a new build. After a bit of refinement (we lacked some 3.5 books) that bard build could now grant +16 to hit and damage to everyone in the group and we had an archer heavy party with rapid shot at level 8/9. It was more or less the 3.0 cleric archer build all over again except everyone got the buff effect. Around about now I just started banning things (Divine Metamagic, Persistent Spell, Natural Spell, Words of Creation) and the banned list kept on getting added to up to 2012 when I finally burnt out on 3.x games including Pathfinder.   4E 4E came out and and more or less used a nuke to kill off the worst effects of 3.5. Suffice to say I wanted a more AD&D style solution to the rampant abuses of 3.0/3.5. Long story short I bailed on D&D and stuck with house ruled 3.5 for a few more years. 4E seemed to be about stacking lots of little modifiers and conditions together and/or party synergy like the radiant mafia. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.   5E.  So now 5E is here. Most of the old combos still work after a fashion but you often need multiple spell casters to set them up and fly+ anything is risky now.  Most of the buff spells are nerfed or gone and most of them are not worth using (Aid). The various animal spells are now enhance ability which is a good spell out of combat and has some in combat use as well such as shield bashing, grappling, initiative rolls and passive perception scores. The best buff spells are now mostly level 1 such as Bless and Faerie Fire. Higher level buff spells include haste and ye olde greater invisibility. Haste is usable but has a draw back and is really dependent on party composition as you want something like a ranger or barbarian to use it with. I would consider bless as a lt blue buff spell on a character guide, gold if you have the warcaster feat and/or are proficient in constitution saves.   There are also buff effect tied to various classes such as the Bard and most of the spell casters and numerous damage buff spells for rangers and paladins. Effects such as invisibility also grant advantage and disadvantage to hit so greater invisibility makes for a great spell to stick on PCs using certain feats that add +10 damage.  The highest DPR build in 5E that I know of involves a multiclass Sorcerer/Warlock abusing the spell hex, eldritch blast and metamagic. Metamagic may still be a bad idea. Foresight also looks like a great spell but it does have to compete with other level 9 effects and there are multiple crazy things going on at level 17 anyway soit may be the least offensive effect at those levels.    Oh well that’s about it. Personally I think any effect granting a bonus over +2 or the equivalent is going to cause trouble in any edition of D&D unless it is very limited such as the Guiding Bolt spell or of very limited duration or a one shot effect. This is noticeable in 5E with its bounded accuracy which roughly means low ACs and to hit numbers. Bless and finding ways to gain advantage seem to be your best options for buffing effects along with various ways to deal more damage such as hex and great weapon master and sharpshooter feats.