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Control Freak (continued)

2. Holds
Holds is the term for spells that hold your opponent in place (or slow them significantly) and render them unable to attack. They vary wildly in usefulness based upon the specific nature of the spell. Most of the hold spells are single target affects. They include the following:

• Hold Person
• Hold Monster
• Otto’s Resistable Dance
• Daze Monster
• Ray of Exhaustion
• Command
• Greater Command.
  

Area hold spells are often reflex saves. The area holds consist of these spells:

• Ice Storm
• Grease
• Web
• Sleet Storm
• Halt Undead
• Solid Fog. (Solid Fog is truly not a hold; in fact, it slows movement to 20% of regular movement.)
  

Grease, Ice Storm, and Sleet Storm all cause friend and foe alike to make a difficulty check (DC) 12 reflex save or fall down, plus reduce movement substantially (though not as much as solid fog). These three spells always have DC 12, and this cannot be changed by Feats, Ability scores, or other factors.

Web’s DC is determined normally and both holds an opponent in place and prevents actions. Web does not affect giants or fire creatures. Additionally, while it appears in the affects when examining these creatures, Web does not seem to affect spiders and other vermin, oozes, nor many types of undead. If a fire spell affects a web, it will often destroy the web. Web is considered (rightfully enough) to be the best hold spell in the game.

Halt Undead has all the benefits of web, but affects undead, in a necromantic spell and is a will save.

Holds that are single target are best used for single opponents who are not specifically strong against the save type of the spells. Holds that are area of affects are best used near the beginning of the combat as an opening spell. This will allow your fellow party members to decide who to attack under static conditions. That is, your opponents will not be running around, and you will have minimized confusion as a result. Holds often can be placed before combat, and then opponents can be led into the spell.

3. Mezmerization spells (Mezz in slang)
Mezz spells act like holds, but allow foes to break out of the affects of the spells when attacked. The strong suit of mezz spells are their durations. Uniformly, mezz spells will last longer than a hold spell of the same level. The down side of mezz spells are that they require party coordination. Party members gain little benefit from mezz spells unless they can be organized to attack the same opponent at the time. Finally, mezz spells are all will saves, making them most effective against large numbers of melee opponents. The mezz spells in the game are:

• Sleep
• Deep Slumber
• Hypnotism
• Hypnotic Pattern
• Animal Empathy (ranger only ability)
  

4. Fear
Fear spells are all necromancy. They cause your opponents to flee from you, or, if saved against, allow them to attack with a (very short duration) penalty. Fear spells are useful in that they allow your party members to deal with your enemies in two groups: those who saved, then (after the duration ends) those who failed their saves. There are two spells (Scare and Cause Fear) that affect only creatures with 5 hit dice (levels) or less. Two fear spells (Fear and Scare) are area of affects. These spells are all will saves.

The reason fear spells exist is because in the pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons game, certain spell casters could not cast some crowd control spells due to class specialization, and these spells were a form of alternative.While these spells are interesting, they tend to be inferior to other spells of similar nature and level. For example, Hypnotism affects several opponents, and affects more hit dice than Cause Fear.

Because scattering opponents isn’t particularly useful, the best use of fear spells is to cast them on enemies to cause them to enter the area of another spell. For example, Fearing opponents that have passed a Web spell causes them to run back into the spell, forcing a second save. The fear spells in the game are:

• Chill Touch (single target against undead)
• Cause Fear
• Scare
• Fear
  

Turn Undead abilities also act like fear spells, but the fear is a secondary affect and has different mechanic from regular spells.