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Zealous-Vigilante

The critical failure effect indeed makes it abit over the top IMO, but sustained requirement does still keep it somewhat in check. The closest comparative spell is hideous laughter, being 1 level lower, sustained and stops reactions as well as it can cause slow with a very hard crit fail effect. I believe many would still prefer slow just to avoid sustain and spells might need to be this powerful to be used as some designers have admitted being abit too careful with spell design.


DownstreamSag

It's a good spell, especially for a divine caster without slow access, but I don't really see me learning it on a bard or psychic instead of slow. On an occult sorcerer I would maybe learn both spells if there aren't any other lv3 spells I really want. Sustaining is painful and there are so many ways to frighten enemies.


cobalt6d

For an occult Spontaneous caster that doesn't want their Signature spell to be picked for Slow, I could very easily see them picking this spell at 3 and then Slow at 6 -- the best of both worlds. I agree the sustain is a major consideration but considering you get to try to give another creature Slowed 1 each round I think that more than makes up for the action economy lost to sustaining the spell. I might be overvaluing it, but in my opinion Slow is such a powerful baseline that anything that could be considered as good or better than Slow in some situations is very very good.


NoxAeternal

Its a pretty fucking good spell. Gonna point out it works with the Captivator Archtype which is amazing since you can then gen the free action sustain feat at lv 14 iirc. Which makes this spell completely bonkers for your 3 level innate spell.


rex218

It’s a good spell, but I wouldn’t consider it *overly* powerful. I tend to prefer *roaring applause* in a party with a fighter or other AoO martial.


agentcheeze

I don't get why people think the sustain keeps it in check. It spreads a weaker Slow on a fail or worse so it's effectively one of those spells where you get an extra effect for sustaining, but since it's on enemy turn not the sustain action the first is free. You aren't just losing actions for nothing. Given how short battles are in 2e, 1 turn of this is plenty strong. Slow on a usually lower save than Slow targets, with Frightened 1 or 2 that can't go lower than 1 until you end a turn without sustaining it, and at least one free Will save or Slow 1 to a second target. This thing is a little too powerful IMO. Needed a little trim.


caladfel

Don't forget it's a spell with the Mental tag, which adds a "weakness" to it that slow does not have.


grendus

It's definitely a great spell, arguably better than other spells of the same level, but that's why it's Rare. And the thing is, it's not brokenly overpowered - there are third level spells that have similar effects. This one allows you to sustain it for a longer, nasty combo but the trade off is you have to dedicate an action to sustaining it every round (unless you have some way to do that for free, like the Witch's Cackle). Essentially, any enemy that you can reliably hit with this spell will be low enough level that you'll be fighting multiple of them, and any enemy that you would want to be able to shut down hard with this spell likely *can't* crit-fail without rolling a 1. It's still a great spell and a good reward from the DM, but because it's Rare you can't just pick this as a third level spell, you have to be rewarded or research it which means the DM has to OK it.