Our [class]Wizard[/class], who is of the School of Evocation asked about the ability to reskin spells to different damage types. His example he gave was to change acid splash to a fire splash instead, keeping it otherwise the same. His reasoning was that when he reaches 6th level, he gets the Potent Cantrip class feature, described below, but that only affects 2 potential cantrips from the PHB (Acid Splash and Poison Spray) because it only affects saving throw's, where the other cantrips like Fire Bolt roll to hit (not save). He loves casting fire spells (basically is a pyro) and said his character wouldn't really want to cast acid/poison based spells, but that would basically turn his 6th level feature useless if he didn't.
Potent Cantrip
Starting at 6th level, your damaging cantrips affect even creatures that avoid the brunt of the effect. When a creature succeeds on a saving throw against your cantrip, the creature takes half the cantrip’s damage (if any) but suffers no additional effect from the cantrip.
I don't really have a problem with this, and I don't build my game to necessarily benefit one damage type over another (I don't consider my players/abilities when choosing the difficulty of an encounter, unless something has an immunity in which case I make sure the players have a way to hurt it, so it's not like more fire based attacks will benefit him in the campaign). However, I want to know if I am missing something that is giving him a large benefit by doing this (is he angling for something I'm not seeing?)
I allow it in my games as it makes characters feel more personal for the players, and helps fit narratives. Plus, as you note, there's no real benefit from one damage type to the other outside of very specific instances that I can DM/design around if I need. I'm sure there are a few surprise synergies that might create power combos, but even that can be incorporated into adventure planning.
So I let it happen. It makes it fun. I do it with NPC's as well. One of my parties is about to go up against a frost priest. Change a few things here and there and everything is good.
The only thing I would worry about is radiant damage and fire damage as they are the two types that affect the most monsters and could potentially make your life miserable for using certain types of monsters.
Poison IS one of the most heavily resisted damage types in the game. If you are running 1 shots a lot, it could give him a slight advantage... However, as you said, you can design around it.
I'm very partial to the idea of giving players credit for doing things and making character based choices and honestly it wouldn't do any harm. Even if poison damage is more easily resisted than fire its still a cantrip. I MIGHT reduce the damage of the poison spray re-skin 1D12 fire damage might end up being a lot I think the highest damage on existing fire cantrips a D10.
The reason poison spray does d12s is, quite simply, the fact that its range is 10 feet.
It's a compounding of limiting factors, I believe - since it has extremely short range, a commonly resisted/ignored damage type, no effect beyond damage, and is saving-throw rather than attack-roll based so it can't score critical hits. Plus a lot of the things which have enough HP for the d12s to matter as much as they can also have good Constitution saving throws.
The reason poison spray does d12s is, quite simply, the fact that its range is 10 feet.
It's a compounding of limiting factors, I believe - since it has extremely short range, a commonly resisted/ignored damage type, no effect beyond damage, and is saving-throw rather than attack-roll based so it can't score critical hits. Plus a lot of the things which have enough HP for the d12s to matter as much as they can also have good Constitution saving throws.
Fire is also commonly resisted/ignored, yes?
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I try to work with my players on the character they want to play(including altering spells). However, you need to be aware and ready to deal with a potential game-break situation. This is of course and extreme case and probably won't come up just from changing damage types, but it is always a possibility when changing game elements.
In fact I altered the shocking grasp cantrip for one of my players, making it deal fire damage and it did not cause any problems.
Assuming it's nothing game-breaking I think it would be fine. I'd have to consider ramifications if someone decided they wanted to reskin their magic damage as radiant when playing something like Curse of Strahd, though :)
I was just playing around with lightbringer warlocks the other day, when I noticed that you could not only juice up, not only radiant damage, but also consider convert either force or fire damage into radiant (the type of your choice, per long rest, but c'mon, really? I guess radiant acid could be thematic...)
Our [class]Wizard[/class], who is of the School of Evocation asked about the ability to reskin spells to different damage types. His example he gave was to change acid splash to a fire splash instead, keeping it otherwise the same. His reasoning was that when he reaches 6th level, he gets the Potent Cantrip class feature, described below, but that only affects 2 potential cantrips from the PHB (Acid Splash and Poison Spray) because it only affects saving throw's, where the other cantrips like Fire Bolt roll to hit (not save). He loves casting fire spells (basically is a pyro) and said his character wouldn't really want to cast acid/poison based spells, but that would basically turn his 6th level feature useless if he didn't.
Potent Cantrip
Starting at 6th level, your damaging cantrips affect even creatures that avoid the brunt of the effect. When a creature succeeds on a saving throw against your cantrip, the creature takes half the cantrip’s damage (if any) but suffers no additional effect from the cantrip.
I don't really have a problem with this, and I don't build my game to necessarily benefit one damage type over another (I don't consider my players/abilities when choosing the difficulty of an encounter, unless something has an immunity in which case I make sure the players have a way to hurt it, so it's not like more fire based attacks will benefit him in the campaign). However, I want to know if I am missing something that is giving him a large benefit by doing this (is he angling for something I'm not seeing?)
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
I allow it in my games as it makes characters feel more personal for the players, and helps fit narratives. Plus, as you note, there's no real benefit from one damage type to the other outside of very specific instances that I can DM/design around if I need. I'm sure there are a few surprise synergies that might create power combos, but even that can be incorporated into adventure planning.
So I let it happen. It makes it fun. I do it with NPC's as well. One of my parties is about to go up against a frost priest. Change a few things here and there and everything is good.
Thanks for the input!
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
The only thing I would worry about is radiant damage and fire damage as they are the two types that affect the most monsters and could potentially make your life miserable for using certain types of monsters.
Poison IS one of the most heavily resisted damage types in the game. If you are running 1 shots a lot, it could give him a slight advantage... However, as you said, you can design around it.
I'm very partial to the idea of giving players credit for doing things and making character based choices and honestly it wouldn't do any harm. Even if poison damage is more easily resisted than fire its still a cantrip. I MIGHT reduce the damage of the poison spray re-skin 1D12 fire damage might end up being a lot I think the highest damage on existing fire cantrips a D10.
The reason poison spray does d12s is, quite simply, the fact that its range is 10 feet.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I try to work with my players on the character they want to play(including altering spells). However, you need to be aware and ready to deal with a potential game-break situation. This is of course and extreme case and probably won't come up just from changing damage types, but it is always a possibility when changing game elements.
In fact I altered the shocking grasp cantrip for one of my players, making it deal fire damage and it did not cause any problems.
Assuming it's nothing game-breaking I think it would be fine. I'd have to consider ramifications if someone decided they wanted to reskin their magic damage as radiant when playing something like Curse of Strahd, though :)
I was just playing around with lightbringer warlocks the other day, when I noticed that you could not only juice up, not only radiant damage, but also consider convert either force or fire damage into radiant (the type of your choice, per long rest, but c'mon, really? I guess radiant acid could be thematic...)
I kindof got the giggles. :)