Spell evaluation

[Ast]

Just a quick question: how would you evaluate the "Dragonshape" spell from PHB II? Is it much weaker than Shapechange? I know that the latter is more flexible but there is still this 150 temp. hp. Is it worth a 9th level slot? As an emergency, for instance, when wizard runs out of attack options?

[Flickerdart]

Shapechange is one of the best spells in the game - not because of HP, but because you can shapeshift into a Solar and then chow down on some delicious free Cleric spells, or shapeshift into something with extra actions, and so forth. Granted, a Mature Red is at the top end of the 25HD cap of Shapechange, but dragons have over-inflated HD, and you get none of the benefits of having that HD. As an added insult, your new feats suck too. You also don't get to cast any spells while Dragonshaped.

So the spell sucks for a gish (who loses their feats, statistics and 1 round duration buff spells) and it sucks for a non-gish (who likely doesn't have the HP to use a melee form, and who usually relies on spells to accomplish things). At 17th level, you have no business running out of spells anyway.

[Ast]

Actually, I'm level 27 :P

The thing with running out of spells is very relative. This is high level but not high optimized game and we don't sleep every other fight to regain spells. In fact, we try to accomplish as much as we can in one day, even if it means traveling from ancient red dragon's lair to some very deep layers of Abyss ;)

As for the spell, I feared I would hear something like that. It's a shame because Dragonshape is listed as one of the most powerful spells from Netheril times in Forgotten Realms and it seems a bit weak for that description...maybe if they allowed transformation into older dragons, that would be helpful. The cap at 25 HD seems weird since the same can be accomplished by Shapechange and, if I read it right, in that case you actually would gain the dragon's spellcasting ability.

[Flickerdart]

Level 27? Then the spell is absolutely useless to you. When you first get it, a CR18 form is pretty nifty, but nine levels later it just doesn't hold up.

[Ast]

I've been actually simply looking for something that would allow me to transform into a dragon and not be completely useless at the same time. Dragonshape was the easiest and fastest choice but I see this is not the case. I would develop an epic spell for that but it seems that even with the transform seed it would be subject to a large amount of homebrewing.