Bigby's Hand spells -- useful or not?

[Particle_Man]

Are the various Bigby's hand spells worth their level? What uses have you found for them?

 

[Shard O'Glase]

no they are not worth there level. The highest crushing hand and also grasping hand are useful for its level in the limited situation where you're fighting a solo large or smaller creature. If there are others on the victims side nearby the hand likely will be destroyed before its worth anything remotely resembling its level of spell.

But in the vast majority of situations they are just sub par spells. Especially considering the foes that interposing(blocking?) or the shoving one hand are primarily used against useually have a bad will save so there are generally better options.

This isn't particualrly surprisng since there are a lot of sub par spells at the higher levels. a Lot of broken one too.

 

[KingOfChaos]

I've found uses for Crushing Hand when dealing with ogres and such of higher level, but the spells really aren't that useful.

 

[Particle_Man]

Hmmm...if they are too weak for their level, then what level are they about equivalent to? 1 level down? 2 levels down? 3? 4? or (Heaven help us!) 5?

 

[Nightfall]

The only good use for them is using Interposing Hand and saying "Talk to the Hand!" Otherwise pass.

 

[AuraSeer]

My sorcerer gets a lot of use out of grasping hand. It's extremely useful against spellcasters, and even Medium-size melee characters have trouble against it.

Ideally, I cast it on a mage in the enemy back row. Assuming I penetrate SR, he's almost certainly grappled. There are very few damage spells with only V components, so unless he has both Still Spell and Eschew Materials, he's unlikely to be able to destroy the hand himself.

A fighter-type minion could probably rescue him by destroying the hand, but the minions will be in melee with my own allies. If a minion withdraws from combat to go attack the hand, he takes AoOs, and also gives my allies an opening to advance through the front line and gain tactical advantage.

Alternately, I can send the hand against a fighter-type in the first place. With its high Strength and size bonus, it's more than likely to win a grapple even against melee characters. Either I just keep him pinned for the whole combat, or my allies quickly hack him to death and I send the hand off to another target.

Special bonus feature: it gives me a legitimate in-character reason to yell. "Talk to the hand!" (Yes, I'm easily amused.)

 

[Nightfall]

Special bonus feature: it gives me a legitimate in-character reason to yell. "Talk to the hand!" (Yes, I'm easily amused.)

Same here.

 

[Victim]

The grasping and crushing hands are especially effective against archers as well as casters.

 

[Nightfall]

The grasping and crushing hands are especially effective against archers as well as casters.

Walls are better.

 

[Melan]

All of them can be put to good use, although they were more useful in 1e and 2e. 3e PCs can destroy them too easily.
Plus they tend to be overlooked for direct damaging spells. Still, they are cool to use - maybe not optimal in a mathematical sense, but fun.