I'm working on a Warlock subclass based around a pact with a creature who lives in a shadowy plane of darkness. All their powers and spells should be themed around dark energy, and so I'm creating a few more unpleasant spells that deal cold or necrotic damage for the lower levels. One is "Shadow Breath", based on the level 2 sorcerer/wizard spell dragon's breath from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Aside from the description, it has the following changes from the original spell:
the material component is a piece of blackened lung;
the only choices for damage type are cold and necrotic;
it does an additional d6 damage to targets of the breath (so 4d6 at level 2);
the saving throw for targets is Constitution, not Dexterity;
the creature affected by the spell must also make a Con save when they use the breath action; on a failed save they take 2d6 damage of the same type as the main spell damage and the spell ends early, and on a successful save they take half damage and the spell does not end.
Thematically I'm pretty happy with it - the caster is linking the target's lungs to the shadowy plane, so it makes sense for it to be harm them, and this also fits with the general disdain the warlock's patron has for life in general. The offset for the damage to the breather and possibility of it ending early is a little extra damage. But is the extra damage enough? Would it be overpowered to make the base level 2 damage 5d6? (It still scales up by 1d6 for each slot level higher than 2nd.) Is the change to a Constitution save okay, or is that too hard to resist?
Something else to keep in mind: the subclass will get resistance to cold and necrotic damage, making it safer for them to cast the spell on themselves, but it could still end early.
This is my first time writing new stuff for 5E, so feedback is appreciated!
I'm not personally fond of using self-damage to balance out extra power, and it's not something you see much of in 5e, but it does sound like it fits the style and theme of the subclass. I wouldn't add any more damage to the spell - repeatable 5d6 at low levels is quite too much oomph, even if you're taking some of that damage back every turn - sooner reduce the self-damage if you're concerned about the risk-reward ratio. Does the self-damage also scale with level?
Targeting Constitution as a saving throw is more appropriate for necrotic and cold damage than Dexterity, and a good choice - many monsters will have better CON saves than DEX, but not all, so it may actually be easier to pass on average. I think that rounds out okay and is a soft curb for the boosted damage over dragon's breath.
An interesting observation: the creature that gets to breath this stuff has to make saving throws against the Warlock's spell save DC to maintain the spell. That save DC gets pumped up nicely with level, whereas non-proficient CON saves do not. At higher levels, I suspect the Warlock really won't want to use this on themselves, since they'll have a hard time passing a CON save against their own spell save DC and using it more than once. This is inverse to use at low levels, when the warlock stands to get much more damage out of a single spell slot (with 2-3 rounds of concentration) than with other options, so long as they keep rolling lucky.
All in all, if I were playing a Warlock and had access to this 2nd level spell, I think I would use it sometimes (as long as my party has a dedicated healer). It looks like the right spell for some situations, the wrong spell for others - which, as far as balance is concerned, is exactly what I think you want.
4d6 is decent. The damage bump is fine considering it has less options and Con saves are typically easier to succeed at than Dex saves.
I would lose the part about the affected creature having to make con saves or take damage. Remove that and your spell is perfectly balanced and thematically appropriate.
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Naxanaktaon, my intention was that the self-damage would also scale with level, so casting the spell at level 3 it would do 5d6 damage to those in the breath effect and 3d6 to the breather, and so on. I hadn't thought about the proficiency leap with Con saves; someone with the proficiency will (mostly) keep up with the increased DC, though it won't get any easier to pass (just no harder), while someone without the proficiency will get significantly left behind. So you're probably right, perhaps the base self-damage should be 1d6 instead of 2d6? Or maybe as Cyb3rM1nd suggested, leave it out entirely?
Thematically it really works, but perhaps there are other ways to introduce that idea of if being bad for the user if they push it too far. Could I introduce an optional (i.e. voluntary) recharge roll each time you use it; choosing to make this roll inflicts damage (1d6, scaling with level?) as they inhale the shadowy breath back in, but if it succeeds they can do it again? Or perhaps they can just recharge it at the cost of taking the damage, making it optional?
Be happy to hear your thoughts on balancing it to include the self-damage, especially this second optional version, since I think it's even more thematically appropriate.
Too many moving parts doesn't help the spell any, I wouldn't introduce the optional recharge. Recharging at the cost of taking damage definitely sounds better.
If you're insistent that the spell must have a negative effect on the breather, it'd be simplest to just have them take damage each time they choose to use the breath (you could even give the first breath free, and cost in damage for each subsequent) - maybe half of the total damage roll, or d6s that scale up with level. I wouldn't burden that part of the spell with a CON save, since the risk of taking damage each time is probably enough to limit how many times it's used.
Alternately, you could look at Haste as an example spell that has a drawback, but only once the spell has ended. With this spell, perhaps the affected creature can use it as much as they wish, but once the spell is over, they take damage proportional to the amount of times they used the breath. This would allow a familiar to use the effects of this spell (a popular wizard's tactic with dragon's breath) but be killed once the spell ends.
Hi all,
I'm working on a Warlock subclass based around a pact with a creature who lives in a shadowy plane of darkness. All their powers and spells should be themed around dark energy, and so I'm creating a few more unpleasant spells that deal cold or necrotic damage for the lower levels. One is "Shadow Breath", based on the level 2 sorcerer/wizard spell dragon's breath from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Aside from the description, it has the following changes from the original spell:
Thematically I'm pretty happy with it - the caster is linking the target's lungs to the shadowy plane, so it makes sense for it to be harm them, and this also fits with the general disdain the warlock's patron has for life in general. The offset for the damage to the breather and possibility of it ending early is a little extra damage. But is the extra damage enough? Would it be overpowered to make the base level 2 damage 5d6? (It still scales up by 1d6 for each slot level higher than 2nd.) Is the change to a Constitution save okay, or is that too hard to resist?
Something else to keep in mind: the subclass will get resistance to cold and necrotic damage, making it safer for them to cast the spell on themselves, but it could still end early.
This is my first time writing new stuff for 5E, so feedback is appreciated!
Interesting spell! I'll gladly share my thoughts.
I'm not personally fond of using self-damage to balance out extra power, and it's not something you see much of in 5e, but it does sound like it fits the style and theme of the subclass. I wouldn't add any more damage to the spell - repeatable 5d6 at low levels is quite too much oomph, even if you're taking some of that damage back every turn - sooner reduce the self-damage if you're concerned about the risk-reward ratio. Does the self-damage also scale with level?
Targeting Constitution as a saving throw is more appropriate for necrotic and cold damage than Dexterity, and a good choice - many monsters will have better CON saves than DEX, but not all, so it may actually be easier to pass on average. I think that rounds out okay and is a soft curb for the boosted damage over dragon's breath.
An interesting observation: the creature that gets to breath this stuff has to make saving throws against the Warlock's spell save DC to maintain the spell. That save DC gets pumped up nicely with level, whereas non-proficient CON saves do not. At higher levels, I suspect the Warlock really won't want to use this on themselves, since they'll have a hard time passing a CON save against their own spell save DC and using it more than once. This is inverse to use at low levels, when the warlock stands to get much more damage out of a single spell slot (with 2-3 rounds of concentration) than with other options, so long as they keep rolling lucky.
All in all, if I were playing a Warlock and had access to this 2nd level spell, I think I would use it sometimes (as long as my party has a dedicated healer). It looks like the right spell for some situations, the wrong spell for others - which, as far as balance is concerned, is exactly what I think you want.
It's a good spell.
4d6 is decent. The damage bump is fine considering it has less options and Con saves are typically easier to succeed at than Dex saves.
I would lose the part about the affected creature having to make con saves or take damage. Remove that and your spell is perfectly balanced and thematically appropriate.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Thanks for the feedback!
Naxanaktaon, my intention was that the self-damage would also scale with level, so casting the spell at level 3 it would do 5d6 damage to those in the breath effect and 3d6 to the breather, and so on. I hadn't thought about the proficiency leap with Con saves; someone with the proficiency will (mostly) keep up with the increased DC, though it won't get any easier to pass (just no harder), while someone without the proficiency will get significantly left behind. So you're probably right, perhaps the base self-damage should be 1d6 instead of 2d6? Or maybe as Cyb3rM1nd suggested, leave it out entirely?
Thematically it really works, but perhaps there are other ways to introduce that idea of if being bad for the user if they push it too far. Could I introduce an optional (i.e. voluntary) recharge roll each time you use it; choosing to make this roll inflicts damage (1d6, scaling with level?) as they inhale the shadowy breath back in, but if it succeeds they can do it again? Or perhaps they can just recharge it at the cost of taking the damage, making it optional?
Be happy to hear your thoughts on balancing it to include the self-damage, especially this second optional version, since I think it's even more thematically appropriate.
Too many moving parts doesn't help the spell any, I wouldn't introduce the optional recharge. Recharging at the cost of taking damage definitely sounds better.
If you're insistent that the spell must have a negative effect on the breather, it'd be simplest to just have them take damage each time they choose to use the breath (you could even give the first breath free, and cost in damage for each subsequent) - maybe half of the total damage roll, or d6s that scale up with level. I wouldn't burden that part of the spell with a CON save, since the risk of taking damage each time is probably enough to limit how many times it's used.
Alternately, you could look at Haste as an example spell that has a drawback, but only once the spell has ended. With this spell, perhaps the affected creature can use it as much as they wish, but once the spell is over, they take damage proportional to the amount of times they used the breath. This would allow a familiar to use the effects of this spell (a popular wizard's tactic with dragon's breath) but be killed once the spell ends.
This is great advice, thanks Naxanaktaon. I'll try reworking it along those lines!