The Investiture Spells: Analyzing and Fixing Them?

[AureusFulgens]

So I am always told that the four investiture spells from Elemental Evil kind of suck. Can anyone give me a good explanation as to why?

And... be that as it may, I really love the flavor, and I want these spells to be good. So how would you recommend fixing the spells? If we leave them alone mechanically, what level "should" they be; or how could we tweak them to make them up to snuff as 6th level spells?

[Flashy]

I’ve always thought they were fine? They’re powerful 10 minute self-buffs that give you a repeatable action that’s somewhere between a cantrip and a 1st level spell at that stage of play.

I mean, Investiture of Stone gives you 10 minutes of resistance to nonmagical weapon damage, plus of earthglide, plus a mildly useful AoE battlefield control action. Investiture of Flame gives you immunity to one type of elemental damage, resistance to another, a light burning aura, and the ability to cast (essentially) Burning Hands every turn for 10 minutes. I have a hard time seeing how you price either of those lower than 6th level. The others are similarly fine.

[Jerrykhor]

They are quite weak, numbers are too low. Fire and Ice are mediocre, at least they grant immunities and resistances. But anyone who is using fire against you is most likely immune/resistant to it themselves, so its quite pointless to throw fire back at them. The fire aura is just pathetic. Only a measly 1d10? Trash.

Stone is just useless, i mean come on, still resist only nonmagical damage at this stage? If you can cast this spell, you are already in tier 3. No damage on the action effect, and create only a lousy prone... Seriously, any enemy worth a damn at tier 3 is hardly affected by it, and can deal magical BPS easily. You are spending a level 6 slot, which you only have 1 until level 19. Being okay does not cut it.

Wind is okay, can fly, disadv, against ranged weapon attacks, but piss poor damage that can't even match a cantrip.

All of them use concentration, so its really hard to make use of them in any combos. Overall, just not worth it.