@nostupidquestions Roleplaying aside, is there a point in Gnomes and Spell Focus (Illusion) in core DnD 3.5 or at most the expanded 3.5 SRD? There seems to be a dearth of relevant useful illusion spells.
@nostupidquestions Roleplaying aside, is there a point in Gnomes and Spell Focus (Illusion) in core DnD 3.5 or at most the expanded 3.5 SRD? There seems to be a dearth of relevant useful illusion spells.
Yeah but those are different niches. The people that already played 3/3.5 didn’t feel like 4e was for them (and in a way, it wasn’t), so they moved on to pathfinder etc. Some newer players got into dnd with 4e but it alienated the older minmaxer types that liked 3(.5)e. (I have not done any research and this is all gut feeling and 2nd hand accounts by the way). In 5e they struck the right balance to get a kind of 3.5e “light”, that can attract new players as well as satisfy older players, though of course you can’t ever satisfy everyone.
You’re right of course that mirror image and invisibility are super strong spells that don’t benefit from a higher save DC, but the pattern series of spells (of which I consider colour spray the single target version) are still super good.
In the end, don’t forget that “fun” is different for everyone, and with experience you might find yourself wanting to challenge yourself with “suboptimal” choices because it’s more fun to play your first gnome paladin than the tenth halfling rogue.