Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Howdy fellow DMs..
One of my players has come up with the following ideas for a few homebrew spells (Bladesinger Wizard) and I'd just like your input for balance (to balance out my own eternally worried thoughts of unbalanced stuff). I *do* like the engagement, interest and initiative on the player's part, so I want to be as respectful and accomodating as possible. So, what do you say - any edits or thoughts on balance?
1) NAME (Cantrip | Bonus Action, 30 ft range, S, 1 hour duration)
You enchant a creature with a faint magical glow visible only to them. For the duration, dim light, which only the target can see surrounds the target in a 10-foot radius centered on themselves. Only one instance can be active at a time; casting it again ends the previous The light moves with the target and can be dismissed as a bonus action
2) NAME (2nd lvl | Bonus Action, Self, V+S, Conc 1 minute)
You weave together threads of shadow to infuse the ranged weapon of your choice. Thus infused the weapon produces its own shadowy ammunition, which deals the same amount of damage as the normal ammunition. The damage type changes to psychic.
You use your spell casting modifier for attack and damage rolls. This magic ammunition lasts until the spell ends. When you attack a target that is in dim light or darkness, you make the attack roll with advantage.
When hit the target must make a Constitution Saving Throw against you spell DC. Failure: Shadowy tendrils erupt from the contact point of the shadow ammunition striking a number of targets within 30 feet equal to the number of damage dice suffered. These targets suffer spell damage modifier damage of the same type as the primary damage type.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a 3rd- or 4th-level spell slot, the damage die increases by 1. When you cast it using a 5th- or 6th-level spell slot, the damage dice increase by two. When you cast it using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the damage increases by 3 dice.
3) NAME (6th lvl, ritual only (1 hour), self, S+M, concentration - see description)
When attaining sufficient training and experience, the Aladrinn of old were sent out on missions, where they would need to remain alone, and completely still for years at a time registering flow of events, the rise of tribes through a generation or the changing of sahauagin seasons under the great lakes. In such endeavours, the Phalang'ar would sever his link to his bodily needs for weeks of even months at end. Only very few knew the techniques and magic needed to enter this state of being and knew the risk, should the scout be exposed.
You enter a state of perfect psychic stillness, severing your dependence on the body's needs. Until your next long rest, while you maintain concentration, you gain the following benefits:
You remain fully conscious and aware throughout the duration. You must renew the ritual each day for the stillness to continue in the body. The spell ends if:
4) NAME (5th lvl | Bonus Action, Self, VSM, Conc. Up to 1 minute)
Ýou invoke the echo of the first elven bladesingers, weaving ancestral instinct into your Bladesong. For the duration, you gain the following benefits:
Your speed increases by 20 feet.
Your jump distance is tripled and uses your Intelligence instead of Strength.
When taking the attack action, you can loose one attack to either move half your movenment speed or take the dodge action.
You add your intelligence modifier when you roll for damage of your cantrips.
When you deal damage to a creature with both a weapon attack and a cantrip on the same turn, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Intelligence modifier.
When the spell ends, you cannot take reactions until the start of your next turn as the ancestral rhythm fades.
1) I'd like to rework it around Light (the only other comparable cantrip with a duration of 1 hour). In fact, I'd like to more or less mirror it with only Dim Light in a 10-ft radius - and just remove the "only the target can see it" (because it doesn't make sense).
2) This one worries me alot more. There's some wording and clunkiness to its weird Con Save-effect; I think I'd streamline it to something more static (like Prof Bonus or spell level) *and* lower the range from 30 to max 10 ft. I also don't like the "damage die" thing of upcasting (for both balance and simplicity reasons).
3) Weird with the ritual only, but that's for flavor purposes I guess. i don't have issues with this one off the top of my head.
4) Hodgepodge mess (and wording issues), but I get the central idea - more mobility, more generalized combat prowess. But it just does too many different things IMO.
Fingers crossed for competent input, while respecting the player's agency. <3
For spell 2: a 30 ft tendril is massive. A fireball is "only" 20ft radius and this would be 10ft bigger radius. Also target scaling with damage die amount very weird. I would keep it capped at proficiency bonus or increase the amount of targets per spell level. And I would lower the radius with quite a bit, maybe to a 10ft radius, or 20ft, but then the extra targets need to be behind the original target. I would also make this somewhat similar to Hunter’s Mark, so that it grants an additional XdY damage instead of providing additional weapon damage die.
For 3, I would remove "ritual only".
4 I would remove at least initiative order fumbling mid combat. And to be fair, some of those effects sound like class traits instead of spells or they're pretty well covered by other spells (longstrider, jump, ...). I like the utility versatility, but I would refactor the effects a bit. And I would probably lower the spell level as well. Nerfing/removing effects makes this a very underwhelming 5th level spell.
I am a pretty lenient DM, but I would be very careful here. My default way to deal with new spells is to start them at a higher level than I think they might be: it is always easier to lower the spell level or increase the effects, than to go the other way.
What PC level is the campaign currently at? Have you played with this payer before? All of these spells are (except for the ritual) Bonus Action to cast. That's a red flag overall, regardelss of what they do.
If you have not played with them before. I would adopt a "let's stick to published materials for now" approach, And see how the game goes
1. the cantrip, is basically "I get blindsight for an hour", except better, since they can actually see within that 10 feet. way to powerful for a cantrip, since there is no spell that currently does this until True Seeing at 6th level (Polymorph can do it at 4th with caveats). Big Nope. there are light spells in the game. I wouldn't even mess with trying to make this work.
2. Huge AOE. The way the number of extra targets is calculated is wonky - how do they intend to stack that with other affects (would 2d6 Sneak Attack add 2 extra targets?)? Psychic Damage is a red flag, few things resist it. And that is every attack made with that ranged weapon for 1 minute. How would that stack with True Strike? Suddenly at 5th level you've doubled the number of targets hit each round. Too much for a 2nd level spell - it basically forces concentration checks on any caster within 30' of the original target every round and grants advantage on attacks. CHANGE: if it lasts more than 1 round, change casting time to 1 action; AOE 5 feet or 10 feet; Additional targets - set to 1, +1 target and +1 damage die per upcast. Set damage done to additional targets to Psychic (implied, but not explicit in original wording). Set Spell Level to 3rd.
3. Ritual only means that it will never cost a spell slot to cast. red flag. Also, Wizard, so will never have to prepare the spell, either. This is an extra class feature disguised as a spell. Unless the Material Component is costly AND consumed, this is a big no.
4. Tenser's Transformation is a 6th lvl spell. This spell is better than Tenser's.... Change casting time to 1 action, remove 4th and 5th abilities (sacrifice an attack to Dodge; INT bonus to cantrip damage). Then Maybe... still a powerful spell.
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The cantrip is strange, though I suppose the intent is to sneak around with the creatures you're hiding from won't see the light, which I guess makes since if you're trading bright light for dim.
The 2nd level Spell needs a huge tone down. That's a crazy AoE, and assuming they maintain their distance with the weapon, concentration won't be hard. So if they hold it the whole time, their attacks will decimate the enemies. Take off the free advantage, lower the radius, and restrict the amount of tentacles that can be launched so that they depend on spell level ( Like on or two at level two and the amount you can have increases with spell level).
The 6th level is... interesting. It feels kind of like a flavor spell, something like Dream of the Blue Veil (which you may or may not have heard of). Not aging shouldn't be too relevant, although it can come up and not requiring food or drink usually doesn't make much of an impact unless you're playing a gritty resource management game. Air could come up if you need them to swim somewhere. Taking three levels of exhaustion seems really harsh too, so maybe lower that to two or even one. I think the material component should be consumed though.
5th level-oof. This is pretty overpowered. Definitely knock the 4th benefit, maybe also the fifth, and increase the debuff, maybe something along the lines of Haste by losing a turn and gaining some exhaustion. Make it 6th level and/or take an action.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
The cantrip has potentially broken implications if comboed with a Gloomstalker Ranger (who are Invisible in Dim Light). Presumably they actually mean it to be basically a dimmer version of Light to be used while sneaking? It makes no sense for the target creature to be the only one able to see the dim light, it also makes no sense for this cantrip to be a Bonus Action rather than an Action. If they want something for sneaking it should be a 1st level spell not a cantrip, and it could simply be 10 ft of Darkvision. There is a 2nd level spell granting 60 ft of Darkvision, so a 1st level version of that granting 10 ft of Darkvision seems fine.
The 2nd level spell is totally broken because it is currently designed to be stacked on top of an existing magical item. It's kind of a hybrid between Shadowblade (2nd level) and Flame Arrows (3rd level) and Hail of Thorns. I'd suggest either making this simply a ranged-version of Shadow Blade : i.e. no stacking on top of an existing magic item, no spellcasting mod for attack/damage. Or making it a psychic version of Flame Arrows : i.e. 3rd level, no AoE damage. Or you could suggest making it a psychic version of Hail of Thorns : i.e. affects a single attack with the AoE effect. Draft versions below:
Shadow Bow 2nd lvl | Bonus Action, Self, V+S, Conc 1 minute
You weave together threads of shadow to create a bow of solidified gloom in your hands. This magic bow lasts until the spell ends. It counts as a simple ranged weapon with which you are proficient. It deals 2d6 psychic damage on a hit and has range 60/120. It magically conjures shadowy ammunition while used, but both hands must be used to load/fire this weapon. In addition, when you use the bow to attack a target that is in dim light or darkness, you make the attack roll with advantage.
If you drop the bow, it dissipates at the end of the turn. Thereafter, while the spell persists, you can use a bonus action to cause the bow to reappear in your hand.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a 3rd- or 4th-level spell slot, the damage increases to 3d6. When you cast it using a 5th- or 6th-level spell slot, the damage increases to 4d6. When you cast it using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the damage increases to 5d6.
Shadow Arrows 3rd lvl | Bonus Action, Self, V+S+M (a ranged weapon worth at least 1 sp), Conc 1 minute
You conjure tendrils of shadow which cling to one ranged weapon you are holding. These tendrils weave together to create ammunition for this weapon (this does not negate the Loading property or hands required to load or use the weapon). Attacks with the weapon deal psychic damage instead of its normal damage type and deal an additional 1d6 damage on a hit.
Strangling Shadows 2nd lvl | Bonus Action which take immediately after hitting a creature with a Ranged weapon, Self, V.
Dark tendrils of shadowy magic erupt from the ammunition reaching out to grip two creatures of your choice within 30 ft of the target of the attack. These secondary creatures take psychic damage equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the number of secondary creatures affected by this spell increases by 1 for each level higher than 2nd. All of these secondary creatures must be within 30 ft of the target creature.
The 6th level spell is not a spell, it is a class feature / feat. In it's current incarnation it will be a straight debuff to the character most of the time because of the concentration requirement. I'd suggest instead creating the feat below and giving it to this player as a bonus feat as a reward for completing a side-quest to seek out a Master Bladesinger and completing some kind of trial to prove themselves to the Master.
The 5th level spell also doesn't make much sense as a spell, it reads more like a massive boost to Bladesong which multiple class features than a spell. It's borrowing stuff from Haste, Blur, and Cleric/Druid class features. If they really want something like this as a spell you could potentially create a spell similar to Tenser's Transformation where instead of gaining Fighter-Barbarian like features, they gain Rogue-like features.
Elegant Transformation (5th lvl | Action, Self, VSM, Conc. Up to 1 minute)
You infuse your body with magical energy enhancing your speed and agility. You gain the following benefits until the spell ends:
Above all though, I'd suggest this player get some experience playing their character first, before trying to HB a bunch of abilities / spells, because lots of these suggestions are redundant with other spells like Haste, or Spirit Shroud.