Crawling darkness question

[ken-do-nim]

Just found this spell in the Spell Compendium. It says the tentacles attack anyone who tries to attack the caster. Would you rule that this means one counterattack per foe per round, or one counterattack per attempted attack?

[Starbuck_II]

Just found this spell in the Spell Compendium. It says the tentacles attack anyone who tries to attack the caster. Would you rule that this means one counterattack per foe per round, or one counterattack per attempted attack?
What the is the duration?

I'd say 1 per attempted attack.

[ken-do-nim]

What the is the duration?

I'd say 1 per attempted attack.

1 per attempted attack would be AWESOME.

Crawling darkness is a 5th level cleric spell that lasts 1 min/level. It grants concealment in addition to the counterattack benefit.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I'm not familiar with the spell, but when something is triggered by a creature attacking, that trigger usually happens with each attack. Though I'd have to know what kind of damage the spell did before I could evaluate whether or not that is in line with the power of a 5th-level spell.

[ken-do-nim]

I'm not familiar with the spell, but when something is triggered by a creature attacking, that trigger usually happens with each attack. Though I'd have to know what kind of damage the spell did before I could evaluate whether or not that is in line with the power of a 5th-level spell.

Geesh, because of the open gaming license, I'm not sure how much more detail I can go into here on this spell. I guess though when you compare it to righteous might, raise dead, and true seeing it is in line.

[Deathcow]

I cast Magic Missile at the darkness?

[ken-do-nim]

I cast Magic Missile at the darkness?

Hmmm... I wonder if it counts as an attack? The spell doesn't specify a reach either.

[oriong]

That's weird, there's a spell called Crawling Darkness in the magic of Faerun book which is a fifth level cleric spell and it surrounds you in tentacles of darkness, it grants concealment, gives a bonus on grapple checks, and grants feather fall and water walking.

But it doesn't give a counterattack ability, does the Spell Compendium say where this spell came from?

[Fizban]

Since they didn't change the name, it doesn't really say, but it's a safe assumption.

Looking at the spell, I'd say it works against every attack, and it wouldn't be overpowered to allow it against ranged attacks or spells that require attack rolls either. It only deals 1d12 damage, and it has to make an attack roll to hit the attacker, not too stront.

[Bears With Lasers]

Compare it with Fire Shield, which likely does more damage per hit but doesn't provide concealment (it does, however, make you 50% resistant to either fire or cold spells).

[SpiderBrigade]

The relevant quote is "When you are attacked, the tentacles strike back at your attacker." Personally I'd say yeah, every time you are attacked.

[ken-do-nim]

Compare it with Fire Shield, which likely does more damage per hit but doesn't provide concealment (it does, however, make you 50% resistant to either fire or cold spells).

Ah, but crawling darkness is also in minutes per level.

[Bears With Lasers]

Looking at the spell--they also need to roll to hit, and do a piddling 1d12 damage.

If you're using it for the counterattack ability, you don't care about minutes/level, fights don't last that long.

Overall, I wouldn't even say it's a very good spell, much less overpowered. 1d12, meh.

[ken-do-nim]

Looking at the spell--they also need to roll to hit, and do a piddling 1d12 damage.

If you're using it for the counterattack ability, you don't care about minutes/level, fights don't last that long.

Overall, I wouldn't even say it's a very good spell, much less overpowered. 1d12, meh.

I think minutes/level is great. It will last multiple fights. In my experience, our party enters the dungeon, gets through 3 or 4 fights, then retires for the day. The whole day's worth of adventuring may last 10 minutes. So this spell would stay on the whole time, whereas one like righteous might may make it to 2 fights, tops. Anyway, the counterattack is more powerful than you think because with fire shield it only happens when you get hit, this spell will counter per attempt. If some tentacled nasty strikes you 4-5 times per round, that's 4-5 counterattacks (though it has to roll to hit). And then on top of that is the concealment.

Edit: But yeah, the spell gets a lot better if the tentacles have infinite reach. I can just see the spellcaster walking through a gauntlet of missile fire, with the tentacles slapping at each shooter.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

But it doesn't give a counterattack ability, does the Spell Compendium say where this spell came from?
A good selection of spells in Spell Compendium were revised from the original versions. I learned this the hard way at an RPGA game. Though it's used in Living Greyhawk, I don't have Spell Compendium myself, so I was going off of Complete Divine for my Druid and was preparing to cast briar web. Someone then pointed out to me that the current version of briar web bears little resemblance to the old. We're talking the same level of revision as between 3.0 and 3.5 haste. Same basic concept, but very different implementations.

So, as has been said, since they have the same name, the version in Spell Compendium should be a revised version of the one from Magic of Faerûn.

(Wait a minute... I'm looking at Amazon, and it says Magic of Faerûn was August, 2001. That's 3.0. So it goes without saying that a copy of that spell in any 3.5 book is a revised version to supplant the old.)

[oriong]

(Wait a minute... I'm looking at Amazon, and it says Magic of Faerûn was August, 2001. That's 3.0. So it goes without saying that a copy of that spell in any 3.5 book is a revised version to supplant the old.)

Yes, but it was referenced, without any changes, in the 3.5 players guide to faerun. So (excepting the spell compendium version) it was brought over as is. I didn't know the Spell Compendium also updated the stuff, interesting.