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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Something weird about the Lightning Lure is that DnDB gives it a range of "self" and an area of "15ft", leading me to wonder if its range is indeed doubled by the Distant Spell Metamagic. In the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide book, the spell's text simply says "Range: 15 feet", so I'm inclined to follow the book over what DnDB says.
Another thing that I'm wondering is the 10ft pulling distance is also doubled. I think it would just make sense, but RAW, it doesn't appear to be the case. It all depends if you consider these 10ft a "range".
As a point of note, the range was errata'd to "Self (15-foot radius)", so that's the one to go by. Presumably this was specifically to prevent players from using features like Distant Spell to get up to weird forced-movement hijinks.
Sort of moot in light of the above, but the 10ft pull distant wouldn't be doubled even if Distant Spell did apply. Distant Spell only doubles the spell's range, which is a specific and isolated figure - the 10ft forced movement is part of the spell's effect, and therefore not included.
I don't think so, because they also did this with Sword Burst: This spell’s range has been changed to “Self (5-foot radius).”
And Sword Burst is an AoE and Distant Spell doesn't apply AoE, so whatever the reason was for this change, it wasn't to screw over Sorcerers.
Especially since, in the case or Lightning Lure, it's a straight up mistake. Contrary to Sword Burst, Lightning Lure is not an AoE spell. "15 ft" is not an "area".
As written (after errata), mechanically, Lightning Lure is an AoE spell regardless of the flavor of the description. The "lash of lightning energy" is created at the point of origin, which is at the spellcaster's location (self). This particular AoE only affects one creature of your choice that is within the area of this AoE. The rest of the creatures that are within that area are unaffected by it.
"You create a lash of lightning energy that strikes at one creature of your choice that you can see within 15 feet of you." contradicts the idea that the spell is an AoE. The description, with this sentence, says that it's not an AoE.
An AoE has a shape, as described in the glossary: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024/rules-glossary#AreaofEffect
Lightning Lure's effect doesn't have a shape, so it's not an AoE. I'm not against RAW, but we have to keep at least a modicum of common sense, here.
In the original printing of SCaG Sword Burst had a range of 5 ft., meaning that it was also open to the same issue. It was the same for Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade (which were the subject of a number of reach-exploiting builds at the time) and it's likely why all four of these cantrips underwent a similar edit.
Regardless, RAW is clear that Distant Spell doesn't affect Lightning Lure.
For all the other 3 spells you mentioned, the correction makes sense. Sword Burst is actually an AoE spell, with a real AoE. Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade are buff spells to your weapon, so it's normal they don't have a Range. Lightning Lure, there is no reason I can see, and unless I get one, I'm treating this as a mistake.
And don't tell me it's a matter of balance. Thorn Whip has a range of 30ft and nobody thinks that's a problem.
Hey, rule it however you like at your own table. That's your prerogative. I'm just answering the question you asked based on the published rules and errata.
If interested for more insight the Devs discussed spells with Range Self ( X feet) in DragonTalk Podcast Sage Advice - Targeting Revisited (5:28)
Essentially this
Ok so nothing to do with Distant Spell. Thanks for the help.
Honestly, this explanation is total nonsense. He has been historically terrible whenever discussing this topic and overall, he is often quite bad when discussing many rules topics off the cuff when he is put on the spot to explain something.
The difference here is that Thorn Whip involves making an attack roll, so it's standard for the Range parameter to reflect how far away you are able to make such an attack. While the spell effect will technically originate at that distant location, it is understood that an attack roll functions by an attack being generated from the spellcaster which targets some other creature. In this case, Lightning Lure creates a saving throw spell effect. Flavor-wise, they wanted this effect to lash out from the spellcaster at a target creature -- the only way to really do that is to declare the spellcaster as the point of origin and create a designated area that is affected by this spell effect (which makes it an AoE). Who knows why they didn't choose to write it like Thorn Whip with an attack roll mechanic? That probably would have made more sense for this spell, but they did it this way instead.
FWIW, Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade are also AoE spells for this same reason, but people typically get even more upset when this is pointed out about those spells. Those spells are even more non-standard because they actually do use the attack roll mechanic. In those cases, what they should have done is to define the spell as Touch Range and then explicitly declare within the spell description that your Reach for that particular attack is 5 feet. But they didn't do that, so we are left with a couple of poorly written spells which use the AoE mechanic in an odd way.