Spell misses and monster CC

[Bleak]

Spell misses:

 

In general I find myself enjoying the DnD ruleset more than the PoE ruleset. One thing that annoys the hell out of me in PoE for example, is spell misses.

 

My wizard with 16 perception and eldritch aim can even miss a 4/4 of his spells versus average monsters to my level. In DnD as far as I remember spell misses were far more rare. A reflex save to avoid half the damage of a fireball would be rare for example. Spells did not miss as often as attacks, which seems like the logical thing since spells are limited and need a rest to be replenished.

 

Too much RNG involved perhaps, when it comes to spell hitting. Found myself reloading a lot of times in a battle because of spell misses which were defining for the result of the battle. And all these misses with decent stats (perception etc). I normally enjoy great difficulty, tactics and error punishment, but I feel that this kind of difficulty is not the right kind.

 

 

Monster CC:

 

Ghasts in BG for example, even with weak saves, couldn't stunlock your characters like monsters can in this game. I may be wrong but from my experience until now there are too many monsters in a lot of encounters that can mass-perma CC the hell out of you. I like having to deal with monsters that may CC your party, needing special tactics to overcome but I think a little tuning-down of CCs is in order. 

 

Comparing with the DnD ruleset again, in a few words, an army of Illithids seems more fair of an enemy than a couple of phantoms. 

 

 

 

I must say that this is only my experience/feedback from the game so far - haven't completed it yet. 

Edited December 3, 2015 by Bleak

[Sensuki]

Spells did not miss in the IE games. You either saved, had magic resistance or were immune.

[Bleak]

Spells did not miss in the IE games. You either saved, had magic resistance or were immune.

 

True, meant the reflex saves etc - if I remember correctly it was possible to dodge some spells completely except dodging only half of their damage. But either way, they miss a LOT in PoE don't they?

[Sensuki]

in Icewind Dale 2 Rogues could do that with a feat. The other IE games use 2E rules though.

[Doppelschwert]

 

Spells did not miss in the IE games. You either saved, had magic resistance or were immune.

 

True, meant the reflex saves etc - if I remember correctly it was possible to dodge some spells completely except dodging only half of their damage. But either way, they miss a LOT in PoE don't they?

 

 

As sensuki said, this is a feature of DnD 3/ 3.5 .

In DnD 3.X, all characters are allowed to take half damage on a successful reflex save against most area of attack spells.

Certain classes can pick up the evasion talent which grants no damage on a successful reflex save and improved evasion which results in only half the damage in case of a failed save on top.

 

If you have trouble hitting a foe with a spell you may be targetting a high defense or use a spell which has a strong effect and therefore a reduced accuracy. It's highly debatable if per rest ressources should be able to miss, but that is more or less possible in all DnD versions. In PoE, it turns out to be the best strategy to use afflictions on enemies that target their weakest defenses before applying a stronger spell targetting a defense.

 

Considering how effective using CC of your own is, I think it is only fair that enemies have the means to do the same to you. Even then, there is only a handful of enemies that can CC you properly and there are multiple ways to play around them with a full party. It's kind of annoying if you don't use casters in the party yourself, but even then one can manage it.