Radiant Sphere - Broken?

[Morphie]

So this item on the MIC that has 3 charges that are renewed each day at dawn and can be discharged to deliver rays agains undead - 3 charges blast for 6d6 + 2d6 splash damage (10ft) with no save.

But you can also recharge the Sphere with any spell with the light descriptor. Which means that if you spend 3 0-lvl spells you can use and abuse of this bad boy. And it only costs 3.500 gp!

Isn't this broken? It should at least require a spell with a minimum level to recharge it, IMHO, not any spell.

[Venger]

So this item on the MIC that has 3 charges that are renewed each day at dawn and can be discharged to deliver rays agains undead - 3 charges blast for 6d6 + 2d6 splash damage (10ft) with no save.

But you can also recharge the Sphere with any spell with the light descriptor. Which means that if you spend 3 0-lvl spells you can use and abuse of this bad boy. And it only costs 3.500 gp!

Isn't this broken? It should at least require a spell with a minimum level to recharge it, IMHO, not any spell.
6d6+2d6 damage is only 21 damage to the primary and 7 to secondary targets on average. hardly game breaking.

more importantly, since it's a combat item, you would likely mean that you can just load up the sphere with several castings of "light," a 0 lvl divine spell with the light descriptor.

check the fine print: jamming a spell in there is a full round action. and it only gives 1 charge. so the trade is essentially 3 cantrips/orisions for the aforementioned ray effect. there is no way that 3 full round actions plus another standard to fire the ray is a good deal for the piddly amount of damage it inflicts. even if you do refuel the sphere out of combat, you never get more 0 lvl spells/day, capping out at 4, so you can refuel the sphere once without staring to dip into your 1sts, at which point the actual spells could probably do more for you.

so no, it's far from a broken item, it's actually kind of a lame one.

[Morphie]

Really? That's an interesting perspective, but if you have more than one caster in the party with cantrips/orisons to spare, you can just charge it along the way, spending 1 charge deals 4d6 vs undead - which is really good for its cost, as I see it.

I'm not saying there aren't any better spells, but this is quite powerful, regarding its cost/benefict ratio.

[Big Fau]

4d6 at the cost of a Cantrip is actually not that much. Yes, it's better than every blasting-focused cantrip ever printed (1d3 damage is pathetic), but it still isn't that much (Magic Missile, for the record, has an average damage that's better than the sphere).


Furthermore this is limited to undead enemies. While useful for most campaigns, against dragons (or anything not light-sensitive) it's completely useless.

[The Trickster]

Eh, it's ok IMO. If you made it where you needed a leveled spell to charge the item, it would not be worth it. Take Nimbus of Light, for example;


A glittering corona of sunlight surrounds your body at a few inches distance—until you release it as a focused blast of divine energy.
The nimbus of light glows like a lantern, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius (and dim light for an additional 30 feet) from you.
As a move action, you can coalesce the energy from the nimbus of light around your outstretched arm, and then as a standard action fling it toward a foe within 30 feet.
As a ranged touch attack, the nimbus of light deals 1d8 points of damage +1 point per round that's elapsed since you cast the spell (max of 1d8 + caster level damage).

You could use up 3 of them, and it would be better...but why not just prepare better level-1 spells? I'd say its alright.

[nedz]

You can do better than this with a cantrip.
Acid Splash is eligible for Sneak or Skirmish damage, and that isn't even high OP.

[Morphie]

You can do better than this with a cantrip.
Acid Splash is eligible for Sneak or Skirmish damage, and that isn't even high OP.

4d6 with one cantrip/orison vs undead and you just need a ranged touch attack? I beg to differ. I think this is a really powerful item against undeads, regarding its cost.
Skirmish/Sneak Attk are situational, this is an item that can be used by all classes and, in the hands of a high-Dex char that's almost a sure hit with no save.

Oh well, but I'm new to optimizing, so I'm sure there are one hundred million better ways to kill all the evil beings in the world with a roll of duct tape and Skill Focus (basket weaving).:smallsmile:

[Karnith]

4d6 with one cantrip/orison vs undead and you just need a ranged touch attack? I beg to differ. I think this is a really powerful item against undeads, regarding its cost.
Well, you also need to use a full-round action to actually put the orisons in it. Which is a pretty significant downside if you're trying to use it more than once in combat.

Also, at levels in which that kind of damage would be really good, 3,500 gold is way too much to be paying for that kind of effect, if it's only usable against undead. And at higher levels, characters ought to have better things to be doing with their time and money.

[The Trickster]

4d6 with one
Skirmish/Sneak Attk are situational, this is an item that can be used by all classes and, in the hands of a high-Dex char that's almost a sure hit with no save.

Yeah, but this item is situational too. Only undead get hurt by it :(

[Gnaeus]

Lets think of this differently.

4d6 damage (average 14). Thats less than a 50% chance to take out a CR 1/2 zombie. Thats assuming you make the touch attack (likely, but not certain at level 1-2).

So, you buy an item that is the most expensive thing on your sheet (because anyone above about level 3 should be able to do better than kill a single zombie in a round. And while using that expensive, highly situational, charged item, you do less damage than your raging barbarian friend with his greataxe (at level 2, figure 2d6 +9= average 16).

Yea, I'm gonna say its pretty weak.

[Fouredged Sword]

+1 undead bane longbow does close to this damage in an unlimited fashion. Yes, not a touch attack, but you can attack with +3 to hit and vs non-undead. Deals 1d8+2d6+3 damage vs undead.

8000 gp. You are spending 1/2 the GP to be able to fire half as much.

[Phelix-Mu]

So, to counter the general sentiment (with which I generally agree), there may still be some uses to this. Consider, as a rich higher level party, if there is some kind of undead threat in the countryside, to equip each family in a remote village with one of these spheres. As long as they don't blow all the charges in one shot, and maybe group together to target w/e low-level undead might be intruding on the village, then this might be a good way for a bunch of commoners to deal more reliable damage than they'd otherwise be capable of.

Likewise, if the characters have a fortress with guards, this might be a useful item to put at each guard post if there is a known undead threat (+1 undead bane arrows are probably still a better choice in this last instance, though).

Not ideal, but it may give a nice first line of defense while the party responds to calls for help (sending stone or some such). Totally situational, though, and there are probably still better ways to kill most undead (like alchemical stuff, green slime, etc) that are even more affordable.

[Fouredged Sword]

3500gp is 140 flasks of holy water. 10 villagers with 10 flask each of holy water and slings can do a great deal of damage to low CR undead in short order. What more, you just have to ship them material components, the level one village cleric can create the holy water.

I would do this first, mixed with +1 undead bane slings if I have real money to burn (so the bane gets applied to the holy water as ammunition)

From a cost perspective, acid flasks deal more damage per GP, especially if the town has an alchemist (expert 1 with craft alchemy and +1 int mod) to craft it at 3gp a flask.

[Phelix-Mu]

3500gp is 140 flasks of holy water. 10 villagers with 10 flask each of holy water and slings can do a great deal of damage to low CR undead in short order. What more, you just have to ship them material components, the level one village cleric can create the holy water.

I would do this first, mixed with +1 undead bane slings if I have real money to burn (so the bane gets applied to the holy water as ammunition)

From a cost perspective, acid flasks deal more damage per GP, especially if the town has an alchemist (expert 1 with craft alchemy and +1 int mod) to craft it at 3gp a flask.

So I was right. There is a much cheaper non-magical thing that does almost the same thing. Thanks for reminding me about holy water.

Really, it's amazing that low CR undead ever pose a problem, since the amount of holy water that would have built up over time with all the low-level clerics able to cast it one or more times per day and the wealth that a cleric can generate through acquiring donations/charging for spells...but I guess there are lots of necromancers, too?

Can you really load holy water in a normal sling?

[Fouredged Sword]

Looking quickly I can't find the rules for it, so it may just have been a DM house rule. Still 50ft is far enough to make some undead unhappy.

[Phelix-Mu]

Looking quickly I can't find the rules for it, so it may just have been a DM house rule. Still 50ft is far enough to make some undead unhappy.

There was a special weapon somewhere, a gnomish/gnome calculus, that was basically a sling designed to hurl flasks and other alchemical goodies. Maybe that was what the DM was using.

I was a little confused, cause that item wouldn't really have a reason to exist if you could sling such things with a normal sling.

Speaking of which...yay, slings!:smallcool:

[Fouredged Sword]

Also zombies can't move and attack unless they charge. Town guards with halberds braced for a charge can do some serious damage, and the damage is slashing AND piercing, so it ignores the DR. three or four of them backed up by four or five commoners with slings (for skeletons) and you can tackle most CR 1-3 basic undead encounters.