Gelatinous cubes are on clear-up duty. If we stop kiling them.

I cant stop,I wont stop....and  cant  nobody tell me nothing

I thought gelatinous cubes were on the dessert cart?

Right, for all you magic types, I'm going to be taking over a level 4 human mage in another game, Advanced D&D, and can either pick stinking cloud, or levitate as my second level spell. I'm kind of undecided on this.  I have shield as my first level spell, and that's it.   So, utility and the possibility to drop heavy objects on people, or  stink cloud, what would you pick?

I'd personally go with levitate. Stinking cloud is great, but depending on your DM you might just have monsters run through it whilst holding their breath or something else that they metagame to reduce its effectiveness.

Levitate has many and varied uses including defense, exploration and rescue :)

. . . but Stinking Cloud can be hilarious at parties!

I'd go with levitate. It is an offensive spell too. It can hold an opponent on place, unable to move. Then use ranged attacks.

Yeah I don't think that would wash when the spell says creatures caught within the spell area MUST save versus poison and the spell effects visual and olfactory organs as well.  In reality (IMO) Stinking Cloud is far too powerful to be level 2.

I'd always go with Stinking Cloud because I like spells that can't be saved against.  Levitate is neutralised with a successful saving throw, Stinking Cloud is still effective even if saved against.

Creatures that emerge that make their saving throws are still helpless for 1 complete round.  That's helpless.  As the DMG says pg 167



Stinking cloud can be a kill spell even to creatures far more powerful than you and when a mage of mine has one he usually always carries it in reserve for emergencies.  Get yourself a Necklace of Adaptation and you become a killing machine since you can dump the spell upon yourself and remain unharmed whilst everyone around you is spluttering and choking.

Levitate might seem useful but it is seldom used.

Anyone who has played a drow was used to having levitate innate

It was sometimes useful

Stinking cloud is offense and defense in one.  Take it!!!

This message was deleted by the player at 04:20, Sat 26 Feb 2022.

I've used stinking cloud to get the party out of nasty scrapes.
I've found awesome hidden treasure using levitate.

Which you choose should be influenced by the type of game the DM is running and the balance of classes in the party (e.g., lots of fighters might mitigate the value of stinking cloud; a DM who never hides treasure in ceilings or down pits would make levitate less useful; etc.).

Hauraki has it right, Stinking Cloud is way too powerful for lvl2. Any spell that still affects you even after a successful saving throw is a game-changer.

SC wins.
I learned moments ago that I will be inside a sizeable bandit camp, with only  a few spell conponents hidden on my person. I'll be a prisoner of said bandit camp.    Stinking Cloud just seemed like  the way to go.

In a bandit camp Levitate won't cut it, unless you want to become a pin cushion.

In my live group, the party's paladin has boots of levitation. They find all sorts of useful ways to implement his levitation ability. But in a bandit camp? Yeah, I'd go with stinking cloud as well. :D

Right so if  you are a ranged character for sure levitation can keep you out of melee range and get  you up into a tree  and has potential to escape lots of situations....

But SC utility far outweighs it for battle field control, offense/defense, etc....

Oh, yeah...SC is a no-brainer if you're a prisoner in a bandit camp. Have fun!

All I know is it's WAY harder to win Pool of Radiance without Stinking Cloud.

Is it me or has it been just a little quiet? I ask because the front page has said I have unread posts, but then when I go to a game there isn't any. I am using the r.rpol.net interface and wondering if there is a bug...

You can get that when someone posts in a group you don't belong to or if group permissions are changed.  It has, however, been a bit slow in my games of late, perhaps in part due to World Crises and partly time of year.

We're still here though.

Last couple of days have been surprisingly quiet for me as well.

I'm just glad that others are seeing the bug and it's not just me.

You can always check the cast list for the latest post dates. But yeah it seems slower.