Author Topic: Control Winds: country smashing, or just battlefield-changing?  (Read 2121 times)

Offline Silent Wayfarer

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Control Winds: country smashing, or just battlefield-changing?
« on: February 17, 2013, 09:37:34 PM »
So by various means I have obtained CL 18 Control Winds as an SLA. Can I cast it and walk around as my shield of tornado-force wind annihilates everything it touches, or is the effect immobile?

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: Control Winds: country smashing, or just battlefield-changing?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2013, 10:03:53 PM »
Based on the spell description, it looks like it's normally immobile but you can concentrate on it to change the direction and such, so you could move and then concentrate to effectively get a moving tornado.

The Extraordinary Concentration feat might work for it if it's allowed to work on an SLA.  Combine with Steady Concentration to always take 10 on concentration checks and thus potentially always be able to maintain concentration as a swift action.

I have a sudden urge to make a druid with those feats and be wildshaped into an air elemental or something while using Control Winds.

Offline brujon

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Re: Control Winds: country smashing, or just battlefield-changing?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2013, 12:37:38 AM »
In addition the description says "You alter wind force in the area surrounding you."

What really interests me, though, is that the spell description does not say that it requires concentration to keep the spell up, only to change wind direction and such...

Using Control Weather on top of a Control Winds spell is a good way of simply destroying vast swathes of land, and even whole countries. Combined with Earthquake and other spells with similar effects, i'm surprised most of campaign worlds don't look like Dark Sun, especially since there aren't many spells with that kind of power that create, rather than destroy.
"All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

Offline Silent Wayfarer

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Re: Control Winds: country smashing, or just battlefield-changing?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2013, 02:33:28 AM »
Well, I got CL 18 Control Winds from the Mark of Storms + DMH, which should mean I can turn still air to tornado force winds. What I'd like is to turn it into a moving spot of destruction and rampage over the countryside.

Here's a fun thought experiment. Sharn is basically a Manifest Zone of Syrania, the Elemental Plane of Air. So... walk one of these into it?

Also, how exactly would Control Weather interact with Control Winds? There are some items like the Crown of Dominion that expand your Control Weather to 6 miles wide for 48 hours, and a Dragonmark Rod of Storms would give you an extra use of any of the possible DM SLAs, provided you had the DM feat for the SLA level in question. So, Greater DM (control winds) would let you use the rod to cast control winds or control weather.

Offline brujon

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Re: Control Winds: country smashing, or just battlefield-changing?
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2013, 02:53:47 AM »
Well, I got CL 18 Control Winds from the Mark of Storms + DMH, which should mean I can turn still air to tornado force winds. What I'd like is to turn it into a moving spot of destruction and rampage over the countryside.

Here's a fun thought experiment. Sharn is basically a Manifest Zone of Syrania, the Elemental Plane of Air. So... walk one of these into it?

Also, how exactly would Control Weather interact with Control Winds? There are some items like the Crown of Dominion that expand your Control Weather to 6 miles wide for 48 hours, and a Dragonmark Rod of Storms would give you an extra use of any of the possible DM SLAs, provided you had the DM feat for the SLA level in question. So, Greater DM (control winds) would let you use the rod to cast control winds or control weather.

Control Weather requires preexisting conditions to exist prior to determining which efffects you get to produce with it... Making tornados with Control Winds open up some of the more fun effects like Thunderstorms, Snowstorms, Greater Duststorms...

Greater Duststorms get special mention since they cause drowning to any creature that's unable to cover their breathing whole with something. Being flayed around by tornado force winds i think would prevent that.
"All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life