Dealing with Spike Growth

[elbandit]

Howdy!

The Ranger player in my campaign has become overly fond of using the spell of Spike Growth. His prime tactic is to attempt to get people to chase him and then cast it.

What would be a good counter tactic to the spike growth spell in general? I have had spellcasters counterspell his casting of it, but the spell itself is impossible to detect once it has been cast.

Have other GMs encountered an anbundance of this spell being used?

 

[Rel]

I saw it get used a fair bit by the Druid in my last campaign. I tended to play it based on the intelligence and motivations of the foe involved. I had one giant that was chasing him who wanted the Druid dead very badly, so he simply charged through it and ate the damage.

More frequently I had foes who simply stopped as soon as they started taking damage and focused their attention on other party members. If the Ranger in question uses a bow a lot, foes should simply stop chasing him after they start taking damage and respond with their own ranged attacks or take cover.

Also, at the levels you're talking about, the party will probably start to encounter more and more flying foes (or NPC's with a potion of Fly in their pocket). That'll get around it quite effectively.

But sometimes (and, in my opinion, most importantly), the bad guys will not have any good way to circumvent this tactic and it will simply work the way the player wants it to. There's nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Pielorinho]

I've not seen it be a real problem. Here's some things to consider:
1) It's undetectable to allies as well as enemies. You may want to consider not drawing it on the battle map (if you use one), but instead sketching it out on paper, and not letting the other players see where it is, and not letting the ranger player point out to them where it is.
2) It doesn't do a huge amount of damage.
3) Creatures can avoid the vast majority of the damage simply by not running around through it.
4) It doesn't affect creatures that can fly.

Given these things, even though I've played in two games (well, DMed one) with high-level druids, the spell never saw much use at all.

Daniel

 

[kenobi65]

I've had 2 druids in the various campaigns I've run. Our experiences have convinced me that the druidic "minefield" spells (Entangle, Spike Growth, Stone Spikes) are, IMO, broken. And, amazingly, they didn't get fixed in 3.5.

So, short of banning the spells, what to do?

- Bad guys with missile weapons.
- Bad guys who can fly.
- Encounters that don't lend themselves to use of these spells (i.e., underground, worked stone, etc.)
- Bad guys with DR that'll let them walk through the spikes with impunity.

Don't have the bad guys be able to ignore the minefields every time, but often enough that your player doesn't feel he can always rely on them to work. That gets boring for everyone.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I saw a ranger that would cast it behind his foes to prevent them from running away so have the foe do that!

 

[hong]

Dispel magic will get rid of it.
Fireball should burn away the vegetation.

 

[shilsen]

Fireball should burn away the vegetation.

House rule?

 

[hong]

House rule?

It's fire, mang.

 

[diaglo]

House rule?

fireball does damage to all things in the area of effect... half damage with save.

 

[Buttercup]

Fireball should burn away the vegetation.

And if you place it right, the ranger as well.