Persistable party buffs

[Aurosman]

So I have a level 11 archivist cohort that I am playing. His role is the party buffer/emergency healer. I am now able to persist 4 spells a day (up to 5th level) and made up a list of what I was gonna use until I found out that luck bonuses dont stack(buddy was mistaken when he taught me)

The ones I was gonna use we're recitation, prayer, righteous wrath of the faithful and surge of Fortune.

As of now I was going to use righteous wrath of the faithful for sure. My second choice would be prayer or recitation be better for the second one? Would surge of Fortune still be a good buff even with prayer or recitation?

Also looking for any other party buffs I should get since I can get any divine spell. I've read a bunch of lists, but most of those are for personal buffs.

Lastly, the archivist is against hurting other beings, so he will not use spells that deal damage or inflict statuses on enemies and such.

[Coretron03]

Mass lesser Vigor (complete divine). Fast healing 1 all day for the whole party (5 at your level). Its a fixed ranged spell too.

[Anthrowhale]

Prayer and RWotF are [mind-affecting] hence any mechanism of making party members immune to [mind-affecting] will interrupt them. Elation is in the same category.

Surge of Fortune is a Discharge spell so it can't be persisted.

With Ocular Spell or Reach Spell, many more spells can become fixed range. Combine with a Rod of Chain Spell to create a party buff.

[SirNibbles]

Shield of Lathander (Player's Guide to Faerun, page 110) is a great option if you have Reach Spell to fix the range. It gives the target DR 15/-.

Blessing of the Righteous (Player's Handbook II, page 104 gives allies within 40 feet of you +1d6 holy damage on their attacks and makes their attacks good-aligned.

[Aurosman]

Dischargeable spells not being able to be persisted it good to know, upsetting, but good. I am going to be getting reach spell next level, so that will hopefully open up more options.

If I persist a spell and use chain spell on it that makes all of them persisted? I am definitely getting a rod of chain spell then!

[SirNibbles]

Dischargeable spells not being able to be persisted it good to know, upsetting, but good. I am going to be getting reach spell next level, so that will hopefully open up more options.

If I persist a spell and use chain spell on it that makes all of them persisted? I am definitely getting a rod of chain spell then!

Yes, it will be persisted for all targets if you chain it. You can't chain an Ocular Spell. Whether you chain a Reach Spell is debatable. A Lens of Ray Widening (Lords of Madness,
page 46) is an alternative option if chaining is not.

[Anthrowhale]

You can't chain an Ocular Spell.

What's the argument?

[SirNibbles]

What's the argument?

Chain Spell (Complete Arcane, page 76) - "Any spell that specifies a single target and has a range greater than touch can be chained..."

Ocular Spell (Lords of Madness, page 181) - "When you release an ocular spell, its effect changes to a ray with a range of up to 60 feet."

Ocular Spell changes the spell to a ray and thus it does not have a "single target".

Whether or not Reach Spell actually changes the spell to a ray is debatable, but it likely suffers the same fate as Ocular Spell.

Reach Spell (Complete Divine, page 84) - "You may cast a spell that normally has a range of touch at any distance up to 30 feet. The spell effectively becomes a ray, so you must succeed at a ranged touch attack to bestow the spell upon the recipient."

[Anthrowhale]

Ocular Spell changes the spell to a ray and thus it does not have a "single target".


Why can't a ray have a single target?

[SirNibbles]

Why can't a ray have a single target?

Spells that have Effect: Ray don't have a Target line (with one or two extremely rare exceptions.

[Arael666]

Bastion of Good will be good when you're able to cast 7th lvl spells. It's magic circle against evil combined with a lesser globe that surounds you. All your party has to do is stay close to you, or fall back when needed.

Blessed Aim. +2 morale bonus on ranged attacks

Inspired Aim. Like the above, but insight bonus

End to Strife. Also for greater levels. Any attack made within 80 feet of you causes the attacker to take 1d6 damage/caster level. ( you can decide if damage is lethal or nonlethal)

[Gruftzwerg]

Since recitation & prayer give both "luck bonus" I would ditch prayer and go Protection from Evil (or something else) instead.

PoE is good if you have to deal with mind effecting spells or summons a lot.

[danielxcutter]

Since recitation & prayer give both "luck bonus" I would ditch prayer and go Protection from Evil (or something else) instead.

PoE is good if you have to deal with mind effecting spells or summons a lot.

Oh yeah, seconding PoE or the like. That spell is awesome.

[Gruftzwerg]

and while we are talking about PoE, since you are higher lvl better go for Circle of Protection from Evil to buff the entire party. sry was still half asleep at my first post^^

[Anthrowhale]

Spells that have Effect: Ray don't have a Target line (with one or two extremely rare exceptions.

I see, you are using the inferred lack of existence of a target line to forbid chain spell. I see two issues:

Nothing in the description of Ocular spell says the target line goes away. There is a convention that most spells do not have an effect line and a target line, but as far as I know that is just a convention---nothing excludes the possibility of having both. As a consequence, the target line remains by RAW in the absence of a statement saying it goes away.
Chain spell should work with most ray spells anyways. Effect: Ray (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#effect) rules say
You aim a ray as if using a ranged weapon... and under combat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatStatistics.htm) we have
If your result equals or beats the target’s Armor Class... "the target" implicitly specifies a single target as required for Chain spell. Nothing in the description of Chain Spell implies that the specification must be in a 'target' line: it merely needs to be specified which Effect: ray certainly does. Moreover, the reason why a convention exists of not specifying a target line is because a ray fully specifies targeting with most rays specifying a single target.

[Anthrowhale]

I also wanted to mention one legitimate weakness of chain spell for party buffing: It's only one spell. This has a consequence when interacting with dispel magic because one targeted dispel on one recipient ends the spell for all recipients.

The upside is that a divine caster can get caster level+8 easily via Prayer Beads[Karma] + Ankh of Ascension.

[SirNibbles]

I also wanted to mention one legitimate weakness of chain spell for party buffing: It's only one spell. This has a consequence when interacting with dispel magic because one targeted dispel on one recipient ends the spell for all recipients.

The upside is that a divine caster can get caster level+8 easily via Prayer Beads[Karma] + Ankh of Ascension.

But that's wrong.

"Target or Area: One spellcaster, creature, or object; or 20-ft.-radius burst

...

One object, creature, or spell is the target of the dispel magic spell. You make a dispel check (1d20 + your caster level, maximum +10) against the spell or against each ongoing spell currently in effect on the object or creature."

- Dispel Magic (Player's Handbook, page 223)

It gives no license to end its effect on any other affected creature, no more than it would to end a Sleep spell on a group of creatures by doing a targeted dispel on one of them.

[Twurps]

But that's wrong.

"Target or Area: One spellcaster, creature, or object; or 20-ft.-radius burst

...

One object, creature, or spell is the target of the dispel magic spell. You make a dispel check (1d20 + your caster level, maximum +10) against the spell or against each ongoing spell currently in effect on the object or creature."

- Dispel Magic (Player's Handbook, page 223)

It gives no license to end its effect on any other affected creature, no more than it would to end a Sleep spell on a group of creatures by doing a targeted dispel on one of them.

If it really is one spell:
dispel targets one thing (creature->1 buffed party member) as you quoted, and then effects each ongoing spell currently in effect on the object or creature. So a successful dispel will end the buff spell currently in effect on said partymember. When that spell ends, it ends for all party members.

The part you quoted doesn't counter that (in fact it supports it). I did state 'if' however, cause I'm not sure it should all count as one spell. If it does, so does mass-lesser vigor and any other 'mass' spell. Also: Warweaver just became a lot more vulnerable

[cagemarrow]

I'm pretty sure Aurosman is from my gaming group.

My Artificer is already persisting Mass Lesser Vigor and Perception Link on the group as well. Since I rarely use my infusions I could persist up to six 1st through 4th level spells for the group too without eating into my higher level infusions. I have reach spell as well so I could do touch range buffs but that would eat two of my Metamagic Spell Trigger infusions to apply. I need to make some Schemas so I can do more but am currently limited by wealth by level before I can make more.

We have an Astral Deva in the party so the PoE and Lesser Globe of Invulnerability is also covered. Our DM ruled that our own magic is halted in the Globe too so we have to use that sparingly. The holy damage spell could be useful for our front line fighters. Wish we had known about that before I made the Deva and our Crusader's weapons holy. Guess I'll have to eat them and make them something else later.