Scattergloom vs. Net of Shadows ...

[Miss Disaster]

Hey Everyone.

I'm quite fascinated by the 3rd level spell in the 3.5 Dragons of Faerun book called Scattergloom (http://dndtools.eu/spells/dragons-of-faerun--26/scattergloom--1110/).

To be honest with you, it looks like the spell suffers from some sketchy designing and edit review (the designer stated that there are 4 Glooms in the spell, not 6 as the flavor text states). And that's why I'm coming to you Playground folks. Can any of you get a good idea as to just what the hell is going on with this spell?

"You create four cylinders of magical darkness within the area, which randomly and rapidly move around at ground level, giving concealment to nearby creatures. The cylinders of shadow (called "glooms") occupy space as Medium creatures (a 5-foot square), are 10 feet tall, and cannot leave the area of the spell."

This first paragraph of the spell description is confusing in regards to the creatures it gives concealment to. In further parts of the spell description, it seems that you use "follow-up" free actions to assign Glooms to attack specific targets (which gives them Will Save attempts).

"A creature fully engulfed by one or more of these glooms has concealment. This concealment applies to attacks made against or by creatures in these glooms."

So there's benefits and penalties to having a Gloom attached to you. I'm starting to wonder how this is worth spending a 3rd level spell slot to cast. Especially since it seems Net of Shadows (SpC) does something similar as a first level spell, albeit for a shorter duration.

If anyone can tell me how this spell actually works, if it's tactically useful and whether it's properly slotted as a 3rd level spell (compared to Net of Shadows), I'd greatly appreciate it.

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To note, I originally asked this question in the Simple Q&A Thread. Although it's obviously not simple. I do thank Curmudgeon though, for answering a part of that query regarding the weird Range/Area setup of this spell.

[Mental-State]

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Seeking

for stuff like this, I am sure there are other ways to deal with concealment but this is the only one I remember and its just for a +1

[Miss Disaster]

Not quite what I'm looking for, Mental State. But thanks.

I'm looking for insight on the details of how Scattergloom works ... and if it's structured/labeled properly ... and has tactical value for its level.

[Fouredged Sword]

Ignore the text, as it is confusing.

Here is what the spell does.

Each round you pick 4 spaces within the area of the spell. Any medium or smaller creatures in that space get a willsave. If they pass the willsave, you loose a space for the rest of the spell. If they fail the willsave they suffer a miss chance on all outgoing attacks, but get a miss chance applied to any attacks VS them.

If you can fill the squares of a large creature, it is effected as well, but this will take multiple segments.

This goes on each round until you opponents pass enough willsaves to remove all the squares or until the duration expires.

[Miss Disaster]

Ignore the text, as it is confusing.

Here is what the spell does.

Each round you pick 4 spaces within the area of the spell. Any medium or smaller creatures in that space get a willsave. If they pass the willsave, you loose a space for the rest of the spell. If they fail the willsave they suffer a miss chance on all outgoing attacks, but get a miss chance applied to any attacks VS them.

If you can fill the squares of a large creature, it is effected as well, but this will take multiple segments.

This goes on each round until you opponents pass enough willsaves to remove all the squares or until the duration expires.Thanks, Fouredged. Yeah, your explanation is *much* more clear than the original text. You're right the original verbiage is a bit misleading. Although the first sentence of the spell description still indicates that there is an automatic endowment of concealment to "nearby creatures". Which is probably not true. :smallannoyed:

That all said, and using your clarified and concise text ... this spell is indeed a variant of Net of Shadows. Albeit at 2 levels higher and a completely different school - Evocation [Darkness].

Still, Scattergloom does have one interesting tactical application to it. I believe you can free-action assign all 4 Glooms to attack one target. And I believe that one target would have to save all 4 times to keep the thing off of him. If so, that gives this spell some niche potency ... and lets it scale fairly well into the middle to upper-middle layers due to the ton of saves that 1 target would have to make. For select creatures who don't have blindsight, scent, tremorsense etc., this could severely bork them if the party has custom-optimized means of dealing with concealed enemies.

Granted, the weirdly small and mechanically incompatible range/area of the spell means that a successfully targeted creature could probably get the thing shaken off of him pretty easily.

[Fouredged Sword]

No, the creature saves 4 times, but if he passes even once, the spell looses enough space that it cannot effect the target.

The best use of it would be to throw all 4 at a single medium target. He would have to save VS all 4.