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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Thoughts on the new Faerun feats Spellfire Spark & Spellfire Adept?
The damage reduction is small but entirely passive. Mainly intrigued by the Spellfire Spark‘s ability to cast the Sacred Flame cantrip as a Bonus Action. Limited use makes Cold Caster seem more attractive maybe?
But Sacred Flame would synergize with certain builds more. Like a Cleric which could add +4 or +5 damage to the cantrip from level 7 on? Or a Celestial Warlock?
And does Spellfire Adept look attractive enough to take? Like on a Light Cleric maybe? I haven’t played a full caster before. Thx!
The bonus action Sacred Flame is nice, though it's a very limited number of uses of it. I'd like it better if it were based on the spellcasting ability modifier rather than the proficiency bonus.
It does seem best used on a Cleric with Potent Spellcasting, especially since they don't have a lot of ways to turn their bonus action into damage. And Potent Spellcasting does not have a one-per-turn limit like Divine Strike does, so you can Sacred Flame with your action and with your bonus action on the same turn and get the extra damage on both of them. The level 14 upgrade to Potent Spellcasting also doesn't have a per-turn limit, so if you do that Sacred Flame double-tap you can also give out temp HP to two different people.
Spellfire Adept seems like it would super crucial to have if you're fighting monsters that have Radiant resistance. But there's a grand total of 10 of these in the 5.5e Monster Manual and most of them are pretty niche. The ability to boost radiant damage from spells is neat, but having to spend hit dice to do it is risky, especially if you're the party's healer (which a lot of characters that throw radiant damage around are). And it only works on spells, so it won't apply to things like the Light Cleric's Channel Divinity thing or weapons that deal radiant damage.
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Cool. Yeah 2d8+4 for a ranged Bonus Action attack at level 7 feels is pretty good. Limited use isn’t the worst since there may be other things you want to do with your BA (Healing Word, species things, etc.). And one way to think of the dmg reduction part for a caster is lowering DC for your concentration save by 1-4, not bad.
Question is: is Spellfire Spark worth taking over something like Musician or Alert.
But yeah, not sure I’m that impressed by Spellfire Adept. Especially compared to other WIS feats.
Yeah, I mentioned that above — since temporary hit points don't stack, you don't gain anything by doing it twice to the same person, but you can do it to two different people on the same turn.
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Spellfire Adept can be a pretty useful feat. If you are in a situation where you are pretty certain that you will be taking a Long Rest after the current fight (like when you are obviously fighting the boss monster of the dungeon you are in), then any hit dice you have when combat begins will likely just go unused that day. It's effectiveness is particularly good if you can use it for an AoE effect, such as the Light Domain Cleric's Radiance of the Dawn Channel Divinity power. With Spellfire Adept, you would add 2d8 (average 9) to the damage for each creature you hit with it, which can often be multiple targets with it's 30' range emanation. Hit 4 targets, and those otherwise worthless hit dice just became around 36 extra damage on your AoE. Not bad at all.
Hmm. Light Cleric is what I was considering this for, since they have good Radiant spells at each level. AoEs would surely get the most bang for your buck here.
You're right on the timing - if you're reasonably confident you won't need a Short Rest for another fight, spending hit dice for damage utilizes a resource often sitting on the shelf.
As the previous poster said, SFA doesn't work on non-spell forms of radiant damage. So no Radiance of the Dawn buff, no Aasimar species ability buff, nothing that isn't a spell. That's the limiting factor.
Personally, I think people here are overexaggerating preservation of Hit Dice as a resource. At level 5, you will have 5 Hit Dice. Unless you have bad AC, are constantly in the line of fire and taking damage, or just have poor healing capabilities, you aren't gonna need to worry about needing them later. So, spending two Hit Dice on something like an AoE spell such as Spirit Guardians is incredible. It will turn it from a 3rd level spell slot tier damage, to a 5th level damage, without spending a 5th level spell slot.
Question on Spellfire Spark's d4 Magical Absorption: "damage from a spell or magical effect, you reduce the total damage taken by 1d4."
Can this apply to magical damage from weapons? Like the fire damage from a flaming sword? That sounds like a magical effect.
Yes, it can.
In the 5.5e rules, there is actually a formal definition of "magical effect" (see here) and it includes effects created by magic items.
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Sweet! Thank you.
The 1d4 reduction does add up to alot of HP saved. It also feel great when you roll that 1d4 and because of it you still have 1 hp left.
A small benifit is that it help make your save as for concentration.
I spell Goodly.
Yes moving the needle on concentration saves is a subtle perk I like for my Cleric. 1 or 2 lower DC is a real benefit.
And yeah, avg. dmg. saved is 2.5. If you're hit each turn (w/ magic effect), that's 10 extra HP per combat if it goes 4 rounds. With all of that being a passive benefit, not bad.
Does it work with True Strike? It is a spell that deals radiant damage, but it is from a weapon. What about a booming blade attack done with a pact of the blade weapon?... it is a spell and it dealt radiant damage. I ask this because 'it deals damage' is a mess in my mind. The moment they have said you can't twimnned spell cast dragon's breath because it deals damage, it looks like that no matter how convoluted the way that you deal damage, being given the ability to breath fire and do damage, or to make a weapon attack that dealt damage, that is all that matters, damage was dealt.
Your mind and everyone else's. There's no real clear official answer on whether True Strike counts as a spell that deals damage. Some feel it does, some feel it doesn't, some feel it only does after level 5 where it starts adding its own damage to the weapon's normal damage. Unfortunately we've now gone two whole years without any official ruling on it, which I think implies that no such ruling is coming anytime soon, meaning it's up to individual DMs to adjudicate.
I'm not sure who told you this, but a spell's eligibility for Twinned Spell has nothing to do with whether it deals damage or not. Dragon's Breath is ineligible for the 5.5e Twinned Spell because it can't be upcast to target an additional creature, not because it deals damage. It is eligible for the 5e version because it's a spell that only targets one creature and doesn't have a range of Self.
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I think because it adds radiant damage to the weapon attack (or replaces the damage at lower levels or both) that is a spell that deals damage. Firebolt is still a fire spell, even if you miss. I used true strike on my celestial warlock for 3x Cha mod (one from TS, one from agonizing blast, and one from radiant soul) to do holy arrows. Yeah, it's a magic action, so it doesn't work with extra attack (because you're a warlock, not an eldritch knight) but what a single attack! (True, it works for firebolt and other fire cantrips, too, but some of them are not warlock spells, so don't work with agonizing unless you take pact of the tome to grab it as a part of that feature)