Yeah but you don't choose. You can only change the current weather by one, up or down.

3,5,5

is this actually legit? Like irl?

Dispel Magic can target a magical effect.  The area of Control Weather is Self (5 mi), meaning that the effect is a 5 mile area around the caster.  It can absolutely be dispelled without having to target the caster directly.  

Quote from silvertootharrowman >>

6,4,5 also works well.

 But 6 5 5 is better if that’s how you want things done. 1 5 5 also works well

I don't think enough of you are considering how miserable 1, 1, 1 is.

You don't need to pump up to an arctic storm, you just super heat a five mile radius until everyone passes out/dies of heat stroke.

Garbage.  8th level, lasts 8 hours BUT it's concentration for the whole time?!  I'd make it 6th, 7th tops, and drop the Concentration requirement.  

"You can change precipitation, temperature, and wind. It takes 1d4 × 10 minutes for the new conditions to take effect."

Is says "conditions" --plural. I thought you could change one condition from each category simultaneously, and it would take 1d4*10 minutes for those conditions to take effect. 

1, 1, 1 is also good

1 5 5 also sounds like an absolute nightmare, sweltering heat, imagine the humidity 

1, 5, 5 or 1, 1, 5 is probably worse, because above a certain humidity people loose the ability to cool down by sweating. If inhabitants don't have the option to go somewhere cooler or cool themselves with magic, you can genuinly kill people like that.

Quote from Appellion >>

Garbage.  8th level, lasts 8 hours BUT it's concentration for the whole time?!  I'd make it 6th, 7th tops, and drop the Concentration requirement.  

 I don't really see how it could be considered terrible. Yes, it would be bad in direct combat, but you're able to pretty easily flood cities, ruin crops and destroy all wildlife within 5 miles of you through intense heat and cold, along with hurricane level winds.

BUT REALLY I JUST WANT TO CONTROL THE WEATHER TO MAKE IT STOP RAINING, NOT MAKE IT TORRENTIAL RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY 8th LEVEL!!!!!!??????????????? WHY NOT JUST A 2nd TO 3rd LEVEL SPELL TO MAKE IT RAINY MISTY OR CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with it being a third or second level and there to be “no rain” option, but I really like the destruction aspect 

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Quote from RodTheBard >>

So... has anyone actually used this spell in play? What did you do, and how did it work out?

 one of my player did, to destroy the city of a bbeg... he thought he was so cool...
bbeg saw the temperature change, casted scrying on the source of the control weather spell. saw the man, teleported to him, cast desintegrate on him. he failed his concentration check and almost vanished, the city was still up and running no problem... by the way that was after the first 3 hours, so he had time to bring the storm. which was too fast to be natural.

another instance of the control weather that hapenned... a wizard friend wanted fog to camouflage his troops... they got into the city thanks to mist and fog. came to the castle in secret... clerics and paladins of the place were ready cause they knew the fog was unnatural in a place where there is barely any fog ever. some of the cleric of knowledge were detecting magic, saw the guy pass before them, dispelled the magic and the temperature was back to normal after a while. but the fight broke out real fast though...

its quite easy to figure that out so those who say ruin a city with ease... well if your DM isn't good enough to use levels for his baddies or think that not only the players can be level 20... then its his fault for letting players be gods in his world. my world is full of high level eople who, like the adventurers travelled one day and made some adventures... how do you think the world got shaped the way it is now ? that's also because of all that magic bullshit that my big capital cities, which are few and wide... have anti magic defenses or high level people taking the time to put enchantments for protections everywhere. prisons with anti-magic fields... checked ! clerics identifying and speaking with the dead to find murderers, checked ! generals actually scrying on other generals and soldiers to find weak spots in other countries, checked ! there is a whole war of attrition when magic is involved. if your world isn't build to contain your players, then nothing will really and they will have it easy. that's why people think high level game sucks, because they think it just breaks the game...

fun fact, it doesn't.. because if the players can do it, then why can't the rest of the world ?
the only magics that ruins the world are few, but do exists... true polymoprh is one, go to the beach make a human sized sand figure, change it into another me. do the same every day. each one of the clones do the same, it creates exponentially... you live in the north... do it with snow and it cost a level 4 instead of 8th. but aside from those, the rest are pretty easy to come by. and if people respect the materials instead of just hand waving them... things gets even more balanced... your player cast identify on your item, does he have the 100gp pearl on him ? you'd be surprised how much players scramble to find the actual components afterwards...

EDIT:
fun little story...
my players ask the king if he wants them to go to the other country and kidnap the child so they can ask a ransom. the king says no. he dislikes such methods, they discuss the actual strategies... after about 30 minutes one of the players ask me, why are you texting on your phone like that... i answered, explaining to the king in person what you are asking and what he would be answering. so i can have a basic idea of how he manage his kingdom. my players all opens their mouth in disbelief ! another one of the player says "thats not for real, you are joking right, you mean to tell us that we are in front of another player ?!!" and i simpyl answered, yup. previous campaign that ended before yours... the player ended up retaking his long lost throne, his character is now 30 years older though, he's in his mid 40ies now. been king for the last 20 or so years. my players said, **** it we're not interracting with another player he will kill us.... and i said, why would he kill assets ? he has a kingdom to run now, he has no quarrel with you guys, on the contrary.... and i turn my phone around ! "i'll pay them 500gold piece each if they bring me the head of the damn guard captain who owes the country because he fled" all the players were mind blown and now wanted to meet the guy in person. i said he can't unfortunately, thats why i'm texting him instead...

my world is alive, other adventurers literally inhabit the world they live in, so yes at some point they might end up meeting other ancient adventurers.
when that campaign will be over, their legacy will start. the other group might see the result of that labor they did previous campaign. now my players are all afraid they might just meet other players just by walking the streets of the cities they are in. but thats the point... there are other high level NPCs in the world !

 I love this, I never thought of having the “I used to be an’ adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee” type people, or just generally higher level people!

Let's collate some of the thoughts here.

• The spell creates a magical effect radiating for 5 miles from the caster. The caster is in control of the spell and concentrating on it for the duration.
• Every 1d4x10 minutes, each of the 3 categories can change by 1 level, as determined by the caster.
• Detect magic would sense the magical effect if you were within the area (and have no other magic in range). If you can see the caster, then you'd see the transmutation aura around them, otherwise the type of magic cannot be determined since that requires a creature or object to target. Identify cannot analyze the effect as it requires a creature or object as the target. It would work on the caster. In general, a creature might assume a weather change was caused by control weather, particularly if the weather is anomalous for the region, but couldn't be certain.
• Finding the caster using divinations would be difficult if they are unknown to you. Divinations such as locate creature or scrying require that you are at least familiar with the target in order to have a chance of finding them. Spells such as commune and contact other plane might help, but they only access knowledge the creature contacted already has. The being you contact does not use any powers or abilities to determine an answer for you.
• Dispel magic can target a magical effect without having to target the caster, and thus is the most direct way to try to end the spell.
• If the spell is ended, it's DM's discretion as to what "gradually returns to normal" entails. For my games, I ruled that each condition takes one step towards normal every 25 minutes (the average of 1d4x10). That gives both players and enemies 25 minutes to take advantage of the weather if it ends prematurely. So other ideas that might appeal:
  • Extreme effects "snap back" more quickly. Conditions 3 or more steps from normal step back every 10 minutes, 2 steps after 20 minutes, and the last step after 30 minutes. Downside to this is that you have to track all 3 conditions separately, but it makes for an interesting reset.
  • Magic decays exponentially. First step back to normal happens after 30 minutes, second after 20, and every other after 10.

Quote from LtLukoziuz >>

 

 

 

Beyond 20

 

 

 

 

 

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

 

 

 

Beyond 20

 

 

 

 

 

Quote from Minvis >>

So every time someone tried to use this spell you basically said “nope, they sense it and kill you”? That seems lame...

Also pretty sure you can’t uses Scrying to target a unknown caster of a spell. Most people don’t fill their worlds with level 20 adventures because then the player’s don’t feel as special, everything would probably get destroyed by 9th level spells, unless the players are also 20th level there’s no reason why they’d be the ones to save the world when every city has a godlike wizard.

Your story just seems very Antagonistic, but maybe I’m misinterpreting it. Regardless you do you.

 so, everytimes a caster int he party uses a spell, your other spellcasters or your monsters becomes suddently dumb and forget what spells are ?
seems pretty strong for players if you let them have it their ways all the time. my monsters can do it too, and they have used it with great effect. players too. but its not something that is used for combat. its a siege weapon. just doesn't work well against casters who have ways to find you and stop you. even more at high levels.

 You're not wrong that people don't become dumb and don't realize that "Hey, this is unnatural, someone's messing this up" but Scrying is a bad choice here unless the BBEG knows who could be the one casting it. The only things you can target with Scrying are either a "particular creature" (and I am pretty sure "someone casting Control Weather in this area" isn't a valid designation) or a "particular location, where you can't move the sensor" (so you have to be lucky and pick the spot from which you can see the spellcaster).

However, there's a much simpler solution - just cast Dispel Magic in the area. Even if you don't have/want to spend an 8th level, you could simply hit DC 18 on average in 3rd/4th casts (and if you have apprentices, just command them to do so)

 I think locating source by scrying on some vantage points and figuring where the edge is would be possible, though fairly expensive in spell slots. Assuming it's a caster on 15th level, they would probably need to have a high-level disciple or burn their higher-level slots for that.

Although, I think many would rule that detecting magic on the affected weather would show roughly the direction the effect comes from. Unless there is a more powerful version of detect magic that would be more appropiate.

Nevermind, didn't realize that response about dispel magic requiring to find the caster was bullshit. Dispel magic for the win, I guess.

Yes, because all god like abilities should be level 3..... ... ...

Hard to get your money's worth? Let's say you're adventuring through arctic mountains. No better time to do that then on a pleasant day.... that you can create.
Want to obliterate a camp or something else? There are a lot of spells to create buildings of comfort. A clear path can be as simple as an open door or window. Don't want all the weather blowing in? You can control that. Hell there's even something called an eye of the storm. No reason you can't set up camp and have a blizzard rage around you whilst not being affected in your nice little yurt or something.

The only one conditions on this spell and that's that if you lose a clear path to the sky it ends and you must be outside to cast it, well and that it can only affect a 5 mile area maximum. Everything else is discretion and probably should be allowed. Want a storm to herald your arrival? Create a rolling storm ahead of yourself that moves at your speed. Want a safe passage? create blistering heat and winds to roll forward around you at your speed.

Any DM who says NO! This spell effects the whole 5 mile area equally is probably a bad DM anyway.

Quote from Mizouse >>

I just want to make sure I understand. You can keep changing the weather up or down by one for the whole 8 hours right? You just have to wait 1d4+10 minutes for it to actually change each time?

 No....

When you cast the spell you say what you want it to be. You roll a 1d4 and multiply the roll by 10 minutes (or the DM can simply say 10 minutes or less if he chooses but I'd say 10)
After that the spell moves through those phases until the culmination of the desires weather pattern at the 10 or X minutes.
After the spell ends, it gradually goes back through those stages to normal If you change it again, you pick another condition you want and that happens, you can make it in 10 mins again if you want.

Here's the fun part. When changing the weather when it is full effect, you could change it "one step" but it does say you can change it again to another desired condition. Personally if someone weather to change it one step once completely controlling the weather I'd let that happen over the next couple rounds. I'd also let them completely change it to whatever they want, maybe at say... 5 rounds. It does say change it again to whatever you want....
We've all seen movies and how cool effects like gathering instant storms and dissipating them are. Who would want to take that away from characters who have the power to? They're the things that make the game fun.

The DM can allow whatever they want. If you don't know how to incorporate the spell in to your games then why let the characters get this strong? There's a lot more troublesome spells out there. But, hey. It is more fun and more useful consistently than Animal Shapes.

But seriously it says find this and move it one either side. If you got really pedantic about it someone could argue OK. It's a hot day and you want to make it artic cold. There's 5 steps. They could also say roll a d4 x 10 minutes for each stage change. .... worse, you could get it to blow a gale so they could argue you need to wait up to 40 minutes for each incremental heat change again for each condition change and AGAIN for each wind change. that could be taking 9 hours to change in an 8 hour spell. You never get there.

Take that out of the equation. Let them do what they want and make it happen in a time frame you can work with and they want. make it a flat 10 minutes and let them have fun with it. Have some fun with it too. If you really don't want them overusing it and they're looking for <object> in <area> tell them things are flying around in the wind, breaking. Use a bit of common sense gaming by letting them know subtly that what they're doing might ruin the goal. Introduce hazards to themselves like collapsing structures. Just be prepared to write in some way for them to fix whatever they need, or extend the campaign if they completely ruin it. After they ruin a quest and don't get paid from being silly they will think twice about it. DnD's a lot of fun, but like in life be prepared for when they do something silly and ruin a plan.