First let me say that I don't have any figures for this spell yet as I am still working on the concept, but I would like to try to come up with a fairly balanced concept before I start to actually work on the creation of it.
So I have decided to give all my players either a unique item, spell or NPC that is tied to their background stories and histories. I want to do this as a kind of thanks to them for being such great players and sticking with me this long.
One of my players has a Wizard character whose story and history is tied tightly in with hell and devils.
(He spent some of his preteen years and all of his teenage years trapped in the city of Dis)
Because of the contracts he signed with various devils, he has Fire, Illusion and Shadow magic abilities.
He chose the unique spell option and I have been trying to Homebrew a spell called Dark Flames. This spell is a variation of Hellfire and combines his shadow and fire magic abilities into a single spell.
The idea behind the spell is that when its cast, it creates a black flame - this flame can be either a wall of black fire, that he can shape into either a basic wall or a protective circle or something. It can also be concentrated into a ball of black flames.
The black flames produced by this spell, burns the soul rather than the physical body.
How could I balance this spell so that it was a strong spell - equivalent level 5 magic. I don't want the spell to be a free spell, I still want it to consume one of his level 5 slots but I do want him to be able to cast it at higher levels (for the price of one of those higher level slots) and I want it to be fairly balanced, so not too overpowered but still quite a powerful spell.
Also, what kind of damage would be done if the flames burned the soul rather than their physical body.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
First of all, if his powers are influenced by contracts with devils, why is he not a warlock?
As for the spell. Basically copy Wall of fire, make a choice to choose 60 foot wall (10 feet high) or 15 foot radius sphere within range.
Remove the light emitting part of firewall and have it make bright light become dim light and dim light become darkness within 10 feet of wall. In sphere mode have the inside treated as darkness.
Dex saves when cast, anything that enters or ends its turn with 10 feet of (the "hot" side of) the wall takes 6d8 necrotic, anything that enters or ends its turn in the sphere, same thing.
If a creature has its HP reduced to 0 by this spell its soul is incinerated and it can not be resurrected or reincarnated. CHA save maybe?
Thanks so much for your reply.and for your assistance.
It's true that a Warlock seems a better fit but he didn't get power from his contracts, he got knowledge that he was then able to use to acquire power on his own.
Something like a wizard might do - the only difference is that he had devils for teachers essentially.
Why devils would do agree to such contracts and give him such knowledge all ties into his story and the wider world story arc.
His Dark Fire, isn't something that was given to him by devils, it's something he has learned on his own - using the knowledge that devils gave him.
Long story short - he wanted to be a wizard and his focus on gaining knowledge seemed wizardy to me.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I would set it up for a 5th level spell and have it where it gains 3d8 damage for every 2 spell levels higher than 5th level so 5th level would be 6d8 necrotic damage, 7th level would be 9d8 necrotic, and 9th level would be 12d8 necrotic. Just how I would approach this.
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Fight by my side, or stay behind me, and please don't get in my way.
Krymsyn
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Hi everyone,
First let me say that I don't have any figures for this spell yet as I am still working on the concept, but I would like to try to come up with a fairly balanced concept before I start to actually work on the creation of it.
So I have decided to give all my players either a unique item, spell or NPC that is tied to their background stories and histories. I want to do this as a kind of thanks to them for being such great players and sticking with me this long.
One of my players has a Wizard character whose story and history is tied tightly in with hell and devils.
(He spent some of his preteen years and all of his teenage years trapped in the city of Dis)
Because of the contracts he signed with various devils, he has Fire, Illusion and Shadow magic abilities.
He chose the unique spell option and I have been trying to Homebrew a spell called Dark Flames. This spell is a variation of Hellfire and combines his shadow and fire magic abilities into a single spell.
The idea behind the spell is that when its cast, it creates a black flame - this flame can be either a wall of black fire, that he can shape into either a basic wall or a protective circle or something. It can also be concentrated into a ball of black flames.
The black flames produced by this spell, burns the soul rather than the physical body.
How could I balance this spell so that it was a strong spell - equivalent level 5 magic. I don't want the spell to be a free spell, I still want it to consume one of his level 5 slots but I do want him to be able to cast it at higher levels (for the price of one of those higher level slots) and I want it to be fairly balanced, so not too overpowered but still quite a powerful spell.
Also, what kind of damage would be done if the flames burned the soul rather than their physical body.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I'd suggest something that is like an amalgamation of the spells Fireball and Wall of Fire, except make it do either necrotic or psychic damage.
First of all, if his powers are influenced by contracts with devils, why is he not a warlock?
As for the spell. Basically copy Wall of fire, make a choice to choose 60 foot wall (10 feet high) or 15 foot radius sphere within range.
Remove the light emitting part of firewall and have it make bright light become dim light and dim light become darkness within 10 feet of wall. In sphere mode have the inside treated as darkness.
Dex saves when cast, anything that enters or ends its turn with 10 feet of (the "hot" side of) the wall takes 6d8 necrotic, anything that enters or ends its turn in the sphere, same thing.
If a creature has its HP reduced to 0 by this spell its soul is incinerated and it can not be resurrected or reincarnated. CHA save maybe?
Thanks so much for your reply.and for your assistance.
It's true that a Warlock seems a better fit but he didn't get power from his contracts, he got knowledge that he was then able to use to acquire power on his own.
Something like a wizard might do - the only difference is that he had devils for teachers essentially.
Why devils would do agree to such contracts and give him such knowledge all ties into his story and the wider world story arc.
His Dark Fire, isn't something that was given to him by devils, it's something he has learned on his own - using the knowledge that devils gave him.
Long story short - he wanted to be a wizard and his focus on gaining knowledge seemed wizardy to me.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I would set it up for a 5th level spell and have it where it gains 3d8 damage for every 2 spell levels higher than 5th level so 5th level would be 6d8 necrotic damage, 7th level would be 9d8 necrotic, and 9th level would be 12d8 necrotic. Just how I would approach this.
Fight by my side, or stay behind me, and please don't get in my way.
Krymsyn