For those who haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 early access yet, the cantrips fire bolt and ray of frost have terrain effects. With ray of frost whether you hit or not it creates a patch of ice that seems to force a dex save or go prone in addition to the D8 damage, the ice lasts for 2 rounds. I haven been able to tell if the advertised speed reduction is the effect of the ice patch on the ground of a separate effect. Fire bolt create a patch of fire on the ground, again hit or miss, the fire does 1d4 damage plus a 1d6 for the bolt itself. It does seem to function that the terrain fire damage happens whenever you start a turn in it or when its created. This potentially makes firebolt do 1d6 hit dependant, 1d4 terrain fire not hit dependent and 1d4 at the beginning of the targets turn. I think this is interesting what Larion did and I want to get other peoples thoughts on possibly making these changes to these spells in 5e, would making these changes and mirroring the BG3 cantrips in traditional 5e be balanced? I would say from the get go that the terrain effects would end at the end of the targets turn not last 2 full turns.
I don't mind it, I think they are trying to make cantrips more useful considering the tempo of play vs actual dnd play. The AI could use some work but the game is also a year from gold master so I have high hopes. I do love the chill touch graphics. But back to the question at hand, the terrain effects being moved over to the table top, good idea, bad idea, balanced or not?
For those who haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 early access yet, the cantrips fire bolt and ray of frost have terrain effects. With ray of frost whether you hit or not it creates a patch of ice that seems to force a dex save or go prone in addition to the D8 damage, the ice lasts for 2 rounds. I haven been able to tell if the advertised speed reduction is the effect of the ice patch on the ground of a separate effect. Fire bolt create a patch of fire on the ground, again hit or miss, the fire does 1d4 damage plus a 1d6 for the bolt itself. It does seem to function that the terrain fire damage happens whenever you start a turn in it or when its created. This potentially makes firebolt do 1d6 hit dependant, 1d4 terrain fire not hit dependent and 1d4 at the beginning of the targets turn. I think this is interesting what Larion did and I want to get other peoples thoughts on possibly making these changes to these spells in 5e, would making these changes and mirroring the BG3 cantrips in traditional 5e be balanced? I would say from the get go that the terrain effects would end at the end of the targets turn not last 2 full turns.
I don't mind it, I think they are trying to make cantrips more useful considering the tempo of play vs actual dnd play. The AI could use some work but the game is also a year from gold master so I have high hopes. I do love the chill touch graphics. But back to the question at hand, the terrain effects being moved over to the table top, good idea, bad idea, balanced or not?
Cantrips are already incredibly useful, they're what casters use in small combats and have tons of utility
i once blew up a wind mill with fire bolt killed 9 goblins
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