PCI_StatMonkey wrote:
...think of "scene" spells as per round spells in 3.X except I'm a nice GM and tell you they last till the end of combat.
That goes a long way to explaining the thinking of how long these should last, to me. What it means is that in general these spells are difficult to maintain over a long period of time, and generally won't be maintained outside of a "high tension situation" for very long.
That changes my perspective of the lower level "path of.." spells, where I was thinking that wolf and raptor forms may be a key mode of transportation for shamans, since it gives them dramatically faster movement as they travel, and they may not want to own animals, etc. But if they have to stop ever few minutes to cast "Path of the raptor" than there is little to no speed gain from staying in human form. This is odd, to me, since raptors don't have very capable combat stats, so I thought the primary use for these spells might be for the flavor of having these abilities for long distance travel, etc.
Additionally, I'm surprised with the duration of "Heighten Senses" especially, and maybe "Alter Appearance." Heighten Sense's most obvious use is to be ready for surprises, which by their very nature can't be planned/precast for. So, as a scene duration spell this isn't something that can be cast while on caravan gaurd duty and maintained to help prevent ambush. That is important to know. It still has use as a support spell in dungeon crawls and other known "high tension" environments, but I'm surprised the spell can't be used for a longer duration.
Personally, I would question whether the duration of some of these spells could be reconsidered, since I don't really see how having "path of the wolf" last more than scene really breaks anything, and it would be a whole lot more fun.