So, in my game, I have a Sorcerer using Wild Magic that picked up Chaos Bolt at level one. I thought that was a great idea and was very excited to see the Sorcerer play up the "I shoot at one thing at a time. Wizards throw magic grenades" idea and with that power in its list. The real reason I was excited is because, in 4E, I LOVED Chaos Bolt. It was a great and exciting power to have. You shoot at one target and, because of the amount of uncontrollable power Chaos Bolt uses, it had the chance to leap to another bad guy and another and another. You had to guess even or odd on your roll. If you guessed right and (after bonuses) you hit, you got to attack again as long as it wasn't the same target. So, there was a 50% chance to proc the possible extra attack to a new enemy. You would keep going until either a.) guessed wrong b.) you missed c.) you ran out of targets. Straight magical shrapnel. For an at will, that was just destructive and, for all intensive purposes, totally OP.
In 5e, it's not a cantrip (ie, at will spell), but a first level spell, which was a smart change and, if you hit, you roll 2d8+1d6 for damage where, if the d8s match, that triggers the extra attack. Once again, this continues until they don't match, you miss or you run out of targets. However, I noticed my Sorcerer was very seldomly getting her extra attack to proc. So, I did the math and, to my surprise, it now only had a 12.5% chance to hit at level 1. Shocking but, it's level 1 so it's weak, the caster is new and I figured at higher levels it would happen more. Ya know, more power expelled, more chances additional energy to leap, but it doesn't change per level. Casting at higher levels increases the d6 for more damage, but the chance to hit more opponents stays at 12.5% since d8s don't increase. Can you imagine casting at, say, 4h level and a huge explosion of power hits one guy, but the chance of that effecting another baddie didn't increase too? It's like throwing a water balloon 4 times as large and you still don't expect the splash to hit anyone else as if it was normal size. It hurt my heart how nerfed this power was so I began devising.
I'm thinking, more power should equal more splashback which should increase the likely someone new getting hit. Like I said, casting Chaos Bolt does 2d8+1d6. The d8's identify "magical shrapnel" to indicate another attack roll to a new enemy. Casting at higher levels increases the d6 for more damage, but what I want to do is drop the d6 altogether (it was only added to justify higher level casting ) leaving 2d8 at level 1 and, when the Sorcerer casts this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, each target takes 1d8 extra damage for each slot level above 1st and that extra d8 counts towards your extra attack chance. So, casting at 4th level, they would do 4d8 giving the Sorcerer 32% chance of triggering the extra attack, now. This way as the player grows, the danger of that old Level 1 Chaos Bolt grows with it making it more and more likely to hit multiple people since there are more chances for 2 identical dice in the pot.
I'd actually like to see Chaos Bolt worked better officially in game to make this power more devastating in its ability to arc and leap, maybe a feat allowing something what i'm thinking above anyway, but does anything of what I'm proposing in my game seem to be problematic outside of "that Sorcerer is gonna be buff at later levels"?
I think it's worth at least home brewing in your own game for a bit to see if it makes the spell more versatile and fun for your player. I am a bit worried that it will be too easy for it to jump after a certain point... my first instinct is to have it reduce by 1d8 for each new target it jumps to, down to 2d8. Still, I'd need to see it in action for a bit to say for sure.
I would probably limit it to a new target within 30' of the original target, as level 8 has infinite forks and thus if you can continue moving 30' at a time you can walk your way across a continent. Odds of forking by level
So, in my game, I have a Sorcerer using Wild Magic that picked up Chaos Bolt at level one. I thought that was a great idea and was very excited to see the Sorcerer play up the "I shoot at one thing at a time. Wizards throw magic grenades" idea and with that power in its list. The real reason I was excited is because, in 4E, I LOVED Chaos Bolt. It was a great and exciting power to have. You shoot at one target and, because of the amount of uncontrollable power Chaos Bolt uses, it had the chance to leap to another bad guy and another and another. You had to guess even or odd on your roll. If you guessed right and (after bonuses) you hit, you got to attack again as long as it wasn't the same target. So, there was a 50% chance to proc the possible extra attack to a new enemy. You would keep going until either a.) guessed wrong b.) you missed c.) you ran out of targets. Straight magical shrapnel. For an at will, that was just destructive and, for all intensive purposes, totally OP.
In 5e, it's not a cantrip (ie, at will spell), but a first level spell, which was a smart change and, if you hit, you roll 2d8+1d6 for damage where, if the d8s match, that triggers the extra attack. Once again, this continues until they don't match, you miss or you run out of targets. However, I noticed my Sorcerer was very seldomly getting her extra attack to proc. So, I did the math and, to my surprise, it now only had a 12.5% chance to hit at level 1. Shocking but, it's level 1 so it's weak, the caster is new and I figured at higher levels it would happen more. Ya know, more power expelled, more chances additional energy to leap, but it doesn't change per level. Casting at higher levels increases the d6 for more damage, but the chance to hit more opponents stays at 12.5% since d8s don't increase. Can you imagine casting at, say, 4h level and a huge explosion of power hits one guy, but the chance of that effecting another baddie didn't increase too? It's like throwing a water balloon 4 times as large and you still don't expect the splash to hit anyone else as if it was normal size. It hurt my heart how nerfed this power was so I began devising.
I'm thinking, more power should equal more splashback which should increase the likely someone new getting hit. Like I said, casting Chaos Bolt does 2d8+1d6. The d8's identify "magical shrapnel" to indicate another attack roll to a new enemy. Casting at higher levels increases the d6 for more damage, but what I want to do is drop the d6 altogether (it was only added to justify higher level casting ) leaving 2d8 at level 1 and, when the Sorcerer casts this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, each target takes 1d8 extra damage for each slot level above 1st and that extra d8 counts towards your extra attack chance. So, casting at 4th level, they would do 4d8 giving the Sorcerer 32% chance of triggering the extra attack, now. This way as the player grows, the danger of that old Level 1 Chaos Bolt grows with it making it more and more likely to hit multiple people since there are more chances for 2 identical dice in the pot.
I'd actually like to see Chaos Bolt worked better officially in game to make this power more devastating in its ability to arc and leap, maybe a feat allowing something what i'm thinking above anyway, but does anything of what I'm proposing in my game seem to be problematic outside of "that Sorcerer is gonna be buff at later levels"?
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I think it's worth at least home brewing in your own game for a bit to see if it makes the spell more versatile and fun for your player. I am a bit worried that it will be too easy for it to jump after a certain point... my first instinct is to have it reduce by 1d8 for each new target it jumps to, down to 2d8. Still, I'd need to see it in action for a bit to say for sure.
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I would probably limit it to a new target within 30' of the original target, as level 8 has infinite forks and thus if you can continue moving 30' at a time you can walk your way across a continent. Odds of forking by level