For everyone to enjoy I will make the spell public as a homebrew spell and work on getting it set for dice rolls.
Blood lightning (Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Blood Hunter: Order of the Profane Soul) Lvl 4 Schools: Evocation, and Necromancy. Range: Touch Components V,S,M Casting time: 1 minute Duration: Until triggered Area of effect: 1 creature touched
Spell Description: This spell can be cast on either the caster or a willing creature touched. The blood lightning spell doesn't take effect until the next time the creature bleeds. Suffers slashing or piercing damage. And Is virtually undetectable until activated. The only effective way to stop it from triggering is by remove curse cast of the recipient.
Once triggered the recipient first bleeds they will have control of how the spell is unleashed. As either A 2d8+ con healing to the recipient B a 40 radius Blood red lightning arching out from all wounds the recipient has. dealing 6D6 Lightning or Necrotic damage Caster chooses at casting. Dex Save vs casters DC for half.
A recipient of blood lighting is at the center of the spell being unleashed and is never harmed by the spell.
If not triggered within 24 hours of casting the magic fades and must be cast again. Cumulative castings on the same target do not stack.
Material Component is 50 GP worth of Powdered amber sprinkled on the recipient during casting. The powder is consumed in the casting.
Using a higher spell slot to cast the spell add 1d6 for damage and 1d8 for healing.
Seems like a very cool and thematic spell. Is the save for creatures trying to avoid the lightning dex? I am just wondering because it does not say. The gold cost may be a bit too expensive if this is planned to be a combat spell that will see regular use, but other than that the spell seems great! it would certainly hurt those melee enemies that use weapons.
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Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
Yes is it a dex save. At 4th level I feel that a 50 GP is a reasonable cost for what the spell does a mage in a group capable of casting would have ample spare gold to help keep the mage casting this stocked.
Ideally the mage would cast it on themselves or front line brawlers before taking a long rest. so that upon waking they have that extra damage or free healing should they enter combat. Since it's the recipients choice to either heal or release the lightning it's good to cover one hit or take out a group.
I'd also reduce the range to Self. Being able to cast this on your barbarian or fighter is basically giving you something close to a second level cure wounds, plus a lightning bolt, without having to spend an action in combat.
You could work around that by adding Concentration to the spell.
Currently this can be cast on multiple characters. You could stack this up a number of characters and effectively obliterate a lot of enemies this way with free burst damage. Once a caster reaches say 10th or 11th level, it's hard to imagine them not casting this on every melee character in the party.
The spell is designed with that option in mind it is a blaster spell without a doubt.
It only allows a player to choose one of the effects not both. While it does offer a free healing spell or a fairly decent AOE damage spell it doesn't grant both the recipient Chooses. It is also Instant so Concentration would be pointless. The spell is designed to be cast on a subject. The caster or a party member and then it's in waiting. (this was a concept for alot of 2nd edition spells.) Which is why dispel magic doesn't effect it but remove Curse does.
The spell doesn't grant the recipient the power to mold the spell to ignore allies if the damage option is taken the healing is recipient only so if they just took 4 points of damage in that attack and releasing the AOE would hurt the party more than harm it kind of burns the heal on a scratch. So The player has to choose and they do not get to hold the spell till they want to release it. It's a double edged sword. Yes it gives you a heal or a blaster spell one time at the start of combat. It's not perfect. No spell from 2nd ed was I mean hell cantrips weren't even a thing they were relegated to a 1st level spell and severely limited.
I get that it's supposed to blast an enemy creature, but the power of the spell is massively magnified by it not requiring an action to use in combat, and by the versatility of allowing a level 2 cure wounds instead. The more versatile an effect is, the more the damage should be reduced. This spell also triggers with no condition, meaning that it seriously messes with action economy - see how I can abuse it below.
A 4th level lightning bolt requires an action to cast, and deals an average 31 damage. This 4th level spell requires no action in combat, has an almost guaranteed trigger (not to mention that the subject can trigger it themselves if they really want to, stabbing themselves with a dagger and triggering the heal or the damage).
Effectively this means that an 8th level caster can cast this twice, then take a long rest to get their spell slots back, and effectively have 4 x level 4 spells up at once. A warlock can take a short rest, then cast again, then rest, then cast again. They can get 8 of these spells up simultaneously in a single day. Any party with a warlock who has access to this would be well advised to make sure that every member has it up before entering a dungeon. The 50gp cost is the same as a healing potion, which is weaker than this spell's healing component. Let's not even get started on coffee locks.
It's entirely conceivable that an 8th level character who does this throws out their level 4 Lightning Bolt, and both their Blood Lightning's trigger in the first turn of a combat, dealing 9d6+6d6+6d6 damage = 73 (21d6) damage in a single turn of combat. This is vastly overpowered.
Other ways to abuse this at level 8:
Get a Druid to cast Conjure Animals, put Blood Lightning on 2 of them then just charge them into an enemy. Feel free to shoot them yourselves or Spike Growth for guaranteed piercing damage to make them explode for 12d6 damage in the first turn of combat.
Warlock casts Blood Lightning on 2 targets. Takes a short rest, gets spell slots back. Casts it on 2 familiars. Takes a short rest. Conjure some wolves. Cast Blood Lightning on 2 wolves. Charge them all in. Spike Growth for guaranteed piercing damage.
If the PCs can do it, the enemy can do it too. Since you can choose to Heal instead of Damage, all casters that your enemies face who would have access to it should have this spell ready as standard. Gets triggered by mistake? Just choose to heal, no biggie.
There is also no way to play around the spell. You can't tell whether an enemy has it or not, so where is the gameplay? The spell is not a curse, so remove curse doesn't make sense here.
40 foot radius is crazily large - that's a circle 80 feet wide, double the size of a fireball.
Overall, your current design is deeply abusable and too powerful. I'm not really interested in anything about 2nd edition as the purpose here is to make a viable spell for 5th ed.
Blood lightning (Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Blood Hunter: Order of the Profane Soul) Lvl 4 Schools: Evocation, and Necromancy. Range: Touch Components V,S,M Casting time: 1 minute Duration: 1 hour Area of effect: 1 creature touched
Spell Description: This spell can be cast on either the caster or a willing creature touched. The blood lightning spell doesn't take effect until the next time the creature suffers slashing or piercing damage. The spell Is virtually undetectable until activated, but creatures that can see magical auras (such as those using a detect magic) will perceive an aura that appears like tiny crackles of lightning along the recipient's veins. The spell can be removed by dispel magic or similar effects.
When the affected creature suffers at least 1 point of slashing or piercing damage they choose one of the following effects: Their blood heals them for 2d8 plus their constitution modifier.
A 20 foot radius Blood red lightning arching out from all wounds the recipient has. Creatures within the area must succeed on a dexterity saving throw against the caster's DC, suffering 4d6 Lightning or 4d6 Necrotic damage on a failure or half as much on a success. The creature at the centre does not suffer any damage.
If not triggered within 1 hour of casting, the magic fades. If a creature receives a second Blood Lightning, the spell has no effect.
Material Component is 50 GP worth of Powdered amber sprinkled on the recipient during casting. The powder is consumed in the casting.
Using a higher spell slot to cast the spell add 1d6 for damage and 1d8 for healing for each level above 4th.
imo, add this in DDB (even if you don't share it) and you'll find a few more errors, such as spells in 5e only have one school. And you're AOE designation isn't necessary since its not really an AOE spell. There's always cases where DDB can't do what you want it to, but imo, you should make that a conscious decision vs. an oversight.
For everyone to enjoy I will make the spell public as a homebrew spell and work on getting it set for dice rolls.
Blood lightning (Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Blood Hunter: Order of the Profane Soul)
Lvl 4
Schools: Evocation, and Necromancy.
Range: Touch
Components V,S,M
Casting time: 1 minute
Duration: Until triggered
Area of effect: 1 creature touched
Spell Description:
This spell can be cast on either the caster or a willing creature touched. The blood lightning spell doesn't take effect until the next time the creature bleeds. Suffers slashing or piercing damage. And Is virtually undetectable until activated. The only effective way to stop it from triggering is by remove curse cast of the recipient.
Once triggered the recipient first bleeds they will have control of how the spell is unleashed.
As either
A 2d8+ con healing to the recipient
B a 40 radius Blood red lightning arching out from all wounds the recipient has. dealing 6D6 Lightning or Necrotic damage Caster chooses at casting. Dex Save vs casters DC for half.
A recipient of blood lighting is at the center of the spell being unleashed and is never harmed by the spell.
If not triggered within 24 hours of casting the magic fades and must be cast again. Cumulative castings on the same target do not stack.
Material Component is 50 GP worth of Powdered amber sprinkled on the recipient during casting. The powder is consumed in the casting.
Using a higher spell slot to cast the spell add 1d6 for damage and 1d8 for healing.
Seems like a very cool and thematic spell. Is the save for creatures trying to avoid the lightning dex? I am just wondering because it does not say. The gold cost may be a bit too expensive if this is planned to be a combat spell that will see regular use, but other than that the spell seems great! it would certainly hurt those melee enemies that use weapons.
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
Yes is it a dex save.
At 4th level I feel that a 50 GP is a reasonable cost for what the spell does a mage in a group capable of casting would have ample spare gold to help keep the mage casting this stocked.
Ideally the mage would cast it on themselves or front line brawlers before taking a long rest. so that upon waking they have that extra damage or free healing should they enter combat. Since it's the recipients choice to either heal or release the lightning it's good to cover one hit or take out a group.
I like it, but I'd reduce the damage to 4d6.
I'd also reduce the range to Self. Being able to cast this on your barbarian or fighter is basically giving you something close to a second level cure wounds, plus a lightning bolt, without having to spend an action in combat.
You could work around that by adding Concentration to the spell.
Currently this can be cast on multiple characters. You could stack this up a number of characters and effectively obliterate a lot of enemies this way with free burst damage. Once a caster reaches say 10th or 11th level, it's hard to imagine them not casting this on every melee character in the party.
The spell is designed with that option in mind it is a blaster spell without a doubt.
It only allows a player to choose one of the effects not both. While it does offer a free healing spell or a fairly decent AOE damage spell it doesn't grant both the recipient Chooses.
It is also Instant so Concentration would be pointless. The spell is designed to be cast on a subject. The caster or a party member and then it's in waiting. (this was a concept for alot of 2nd edition spells.) Which is why dispel magic doesn't effect it but remove Curse does.
The spell doesn't grant the recipient the power to mold the spell to ignore allies if the damage option is taken the healing is recipient only so if they just took 4 points of damage in that attack and releasing the AOE would hurt the party more than harm it kind of burns the heal on a scratch. So The player has to choose and they do not get to hold the spell till they want to release it.
It's a double edged sword. Yes it gives you a heal or a blaster spell one time at the start of combat. It's not perfect. No spell from 2nd ed was I mean hell cantrips weren't even a thing they were relegated to a 1st level spell and severely limited.
I get that it's supposed to blast an enemy creature, but the power of the spell is massively magnified by it not requiring an action to use in combat, and by the versatility of allowing a level 2 cure wounds instead. The more versatile an effect is, the more the damage should be reduced. This spell also triggers with no condition, meaning that it seriously messes with action economy - see how I can abuse it below.
A 4th level lightning bolt requires an action to cast, and deals an average 31 damage. This 4th level spell requires no action in combat, has an almost guaranteed trigger (not to mention that the subject can trigger it themselves if they really want to, stabbing themselves with a dagger and triggering the heal or the damage).
Effectively this means that an 8th level caster can cast this twice, then take a long rest to get their spell slots back, and effectively have 4 x level 4 spells up at once. A warlock can take a short rest, then cast again, then rest, then cast again. They can get 8 of these spells up simultaneously in a single day. Any party with a warlock who has access to this would be well advised to make sure that every member has it up before entering a dungeon. The 50gp cost is the same as a healing potion, which is weaker than this spell's healing component. Let's not even get started on coffee locks.
It's entirely conceivable that an 8th level character who does this throws out their level 4 Lightning Bolt, and both their Blood Lightning's trigger in the first turn of a combat, dealing 9d6+6d6+6d6 damage = 73 (21d6) damage in a single turn of combat. This is vastly overpowered.
Other ways to abuse this at level 8:
There is also no way to play around the spell. You can't tell whether an enemy has it or not, so where is the gameplay? The spell is not a curse, so remove curse doesn't make sense here.
40 foot radius is crazily large - that's a circle 80 feet wide, double the size of a fireball.
Overall, your current design is deeply abusable and too powerful. I'm not really interested in anything about 2nd edition as the purpose here is to make a viable spell for 5th ed.
Blood lightning (Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Blood Hunter: Order of the Profane Soul)
Lvl 4
Schools: Evocation, and Necromancy.
Range: Touch
Components V,S,M
Casting time: 1 minute
Duration: 1 hour
Area of effect: 1 creature touched
Spell Description:
This spell can be cast on either the caster or a willing creature touched. The blood lightning spell doesn't take effect until the next time the creature suffers slashing or piercing damage. The spell Is virtually undetectable until activated, but creatures that can see magical auras (such as those using a detect magic) will perceive an aura that appears like tiny crackles of lightning along the recipient's veins. The spell can be removed by dispel magic or similar effects.
When the affected creature suffers at least 1 point of slashing or piercing damage they choose one of the following effects:
Their blood heals them for 2d8 plus their constitution modifier.
A 20 foot radius Blood red lightning arching out from all wounds the recipient has. Creatures within the area must succeed on a dexterity saving throw against the caster's DC, suffering 4d6 Lightning or 4d6 Necrotic damage on a failure or half as much on a success. The creature at the centre does not suffer any damage.
If not triggered within 1 hour of casting, the magic fades. If a creature receives a second Blood Lightning, the spell has no effect.
Material Component is 50 GP worth of Powdered amber sprinkled on the recipient during casting. The powder is consumed in the casting.
Using a higher spell slot to cast the spell add 1d6 for damage and 1d8 for healing for each level above 4th.
I can see points and Can agree, One way we modified it in playtest was make the release take up your reaction.
It's still being tested out. The down side with the large radius is that any wizard that isn't an evocation specialist risks harming their party.
imo, add this in DDB (even if you don't share it) and you'll find a few more errors, such as spells in 5e only have one school. And you're AOE designation isn't necessary since its not really an AOE spell. There's always cases where DDB can't do what you want it to, but imo, you should make that a conscious decision vs. an oversight.
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