Grædigazor 3rd-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action Range: 15 feet Components: V, S, M (a bit of gold dust worth 10gp, which the spell consumes) Duration: Instantaneous You conjure a blade of force that shakes and shudders with pure energy, then leaps forward at your command toward a creature in range. Make a ranged spell attack. The target takes 5d10 force damage on a successful hit. If the grædigazor reduces a creature to 0 hit points, the body is turned into a cracked and malformed golden statue, which only vaguely resembles the creature it used to be. Objects that are being worn or carried are not affected. The statue falls apart when struck or pushed, crumbling into gleaming chunks of gold. Some of the gold is worthless fool's gold, but some is not. The amount of valuable gold left behind changes according to the CR of the creature killed. CR 1-5: 100gp CR 6-10: 250gp CR 11-15: 1,050gp CR 16-20: 5,050gp. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 3rd.
Balancing this spell: The range is not fantastic, but the damage output on a successful hit makes it decent. In addition, if you kill an enemy, you get money. That's right, your enemies get turned into money. The value increases as you slay enemies with higher CR, encouraging you to get up close an personal for that sweet, sweet payoff. The damage is good, but limited to a single target. The material component is required (and on theme), while not being unreasonable and weighty. Further, the spell consumes it. You know what they say, "You've gotta spend money to make money."
This spell could be perfect for a villain character who delights in turning victims into gold to finance an evil scheme, or pay some henchmen. But beware, greedy players will certainly be attracted to this spell, and delight in taking an extra hour to turn every enemy into more money.
All other objects turn to gold? What if they’re carrying a holy avenger, or the Hand of Vecna, or a +1 dagger? Under your formula, the hand would be worth, what 4-8gp?
Pain for the DM to figure out how much the clothes someone is wearing will cost.
I’d definitely start enforcing rules about how much weight characters can carry.
Yeah, it's a cool idea but this spell is kind of a nightmare to run. Not only do you need to figure out the net worth of the victim, you also need to know how much each monster weighs, which in general you won't know. That's why the grappling rules are size-based rather than weight-based. The fact that it destroys magic items is also a pretty significant oversight. Finally, this makes high-value loot much more cumbersome (e.g. platinum coins get converted to 10 gold coins.)
It'd be a lot simpler to give a fixed amount of gold based on the creature's size and leave all of their possessions intact.
Thank you for the feedback. Originally I had the idea that this spell was for absolute greed-lords who just want to amass tons of gold, and this spell is very handy for that. I had considered making the spell not effect items being worn or carried, but thought that it would be more fun with the potential to turn legendary artifacts into a pile of a few gold, thus devastating a party and giving you a laugh.
So what about these changes:
Items being worn or carried are not effected.
The body of the creature is turned into an amount of gold based on size. 5gp = Tiny, 15gp = Small, 50gp = Medium, 200gp = Large, 1,000gp = Huge, 15,000 = Gargantuan
It should definitely require a spell attack roll. The damage is far too consistently high despite the range, especially when combined with the ability to generate huge amounts of gold. Fireball gives a Dexterity saving throw, which most bosses end up making, so the single-target damage of this spell should be considered higher. inflict wounds requires touch range, and is also single target.
Compare what you've created to chromatic orb. Cast at 3rd level, it will deal 5d8 damage, requires an attack roll, and doesn't generate gold.
The money aspect is totally broken. A caster with access to 3rd level spells can buy a herd of cows for whatever your DM thinks they're worth - a donkey or mule is worth 8gp, so let's go with that. Each one I unfailingly execute (really unlikely I'll score below 15 on 5d10) with this spell nets me a nifty 200gp, for a tidy 192gp profit per cast.
4th level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (gold dust worth 50gp, consumed in the casting) Duration: 1 minute
You curse a target with shimmering golden energy, which lasts for 1 minute. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points during that time, it transforms into a gold statue. Worn or carried items are not affected. If the statue is broken down, some of it is fool's gold (worthless) and some of it is valuable gold. The amount of the true gold's value is dependent on the challenge rating of the creature:
CR 1-5: 100gp
CR 6-10: 250gp
CR 11-15: 1050gp
CR 16-20: 5,050gp.
This will:
Give risk to casting the spell (range of touch, no immediate effect). Currently the gold is a bonus, because in your version the damage is better than most comparable single target spells.
Make the gold the point of the spell, not just add it on to an awesome attack.
Requires a committed action to do it
Scales the gold to reasonable levels. This is a spell for greedy players who will waste time in combat in order to make profit - not just a reward for killing a monster with a powerful direct damage spell.
I missed this reading the spell the first time around. Absolutely. If not a spell attack, a Dexterity saving throw. As a rule of thumb there shouldn't be a way to inflict damage on an enemy without a d20 getting involved.
4th level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (gold dust worth 50gp, consumed in the casting) Duration: 1 minute
You curse a target with shimmering golden energy, which lasts for 1 minute. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points during that time, it transforms into a gold statue. Worn or carried items are not affected. If the statue is broken down, some of it is fool's gold (worthless) and some of it is valuable gold. The amount of the true gold's value is dependent on the challenge rating of the creature:
CR 1-5: 100gp
CR 6-10: 250gp
CR 11-15: 1050gp
CR 16-20: 5,050gp.
I like this because it doesn't actually harm the creature directly, which lets it be a much lower spell level than Flesh To Stone. On the other hand a spell that knows how hard a creature is to kill really bugs me. I'd really prefer a metric that's more concrete and objective.
Really though if I were to add something like this to my game I wouldn't guarantee any price for the end result at all. I think the player should have to deal with the implications of hauling life-like golden statues to town and trying to turn them into usable cash.
Thank you for all the feedback, I really appreciate it! I'll update the orginal spell with the advice I've gotten here, as well as with a few ideas of my own that make it feel more balanced and streamlined as a DM to run. Most of my homebrew before this point has been making ridiculous spells and items that are more funny than they are balanced. Like, for example, Super Mega Brain Hemorrhage, which is a 6th level necromancy that gives any creature a stroke if they don't succeed a Constitution saving throw. Yeah, it's stupid and broken, and that's the point. I might post some of those spells sometime.
4th level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (gold dust worth 50gp, consumed in the casting) Duration: 1 minute
You curse a target with shimmering golden energy, which lasts for 1 minute. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points during that time, it transforms into a gold statue. Worn or carried items are not affected. If the statue is broken down, some of it is fool's gold (worthless) and some of it is valuable gold. The amount of the true gold's value is dependent on the challenge rating of the creature:
CR 1-5: 100gp
CR 6-10: 250gp
CR 11-15: 1050gp
CR 16-20: 5,050gp.
I like this because it doesn't actually harm the creature directly, which lets it be a much lower spell level than Flesh To Stone. On the other hand a spell that knows how hard a creature is to kill really bugs me. I'd really prefer a metric that's more concrete and objective.
Really though if I were to add something like this to my game I wouldn't guarantee any price for the end result at all. I think the player should have to deal with the implications of hauling life-like golden statues to town and trying to turn them into usable cash.
I don’t really read it as “a spell that knows how hard a creature is to kill,” but more a matter of these are the results you can expect. Although I do agree that the implications of hauling a life-sized golden statue back to town and haggle it out are more fun.
A average, Medium humanoid would roughly convert to somewhere around 1.32 tons of gold. (1.2 tonnes, or 1,198 kg)
Grædigazor
3rd-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 15 feet
Components: V, S, M (a bit of gold dust worth 10gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: Instantaneous
You conjure a blade of force that shakes and shudders with pure energy, then leaps forward at your command toward a creature in range. Make a ranged spell attack. The target takes 5d10 force damage on a successful hit. If the grædigazor reduces a creature to 0 hit points, the body is turned into a cracked and malformed golden statue, which only vaguely resembles the creature it used to be. Objects that are being worn or carried are not affected.
The statue falls apart when struck or pushed, crumbling into gleaming chunks of gold. Some of the gold is worthless fool's gold, but some is not. The amount of valuable gold left behind changes according to the CR of the creature killed.
CR 1-5: 100gp
CR 6-10: 250gp
CR 11-15: 1,050gp
CR 16-20: 5,050gp.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 3rd.
Balancing this spell: The range is not fantastic, but the damage output on a successful hit makes it decent. In addition, if you kill an enemy, you get money. That's right, your enemies get turned into money. The value increases as you slay enemies with higher CR, encouraging you to get up close an personal for that sweet, sweet payoff. The damage is good, but limited to a single target. The material component is required (and on theme), while not being unreasonable and weighty. Further, the spell consumes it. You know what they say, "You've gotta spend money to make money."
This spell could be perfect for a villain character who delights in turning victims into gold to finance an evil scheme, or pay some henchmen. But beware, greedy players will certainly be attracted to this spell, and delight in taking an extra hour to turn every enemy into more money.
All other objects turn to gold? What if they’re carrying a holy avenger, or the Hand of Vecna, or a +1 dagger? Under your formula, the hand would be worth, what 4-8gp?
Pain for the DM to figure out how much the clothes someone is wearing will cost.
I’d definitely start enforcing rules about how much weight characters can carry.
Yeah, it's a cool idea but this spell is kind of a nightmare to run. Not only do you need to figure out the net worth of the victim, you also need to know how much each monster weighs, which in general you won't know. That's why the grappling rules are size-based rather than weight-based. The fact that it destroys magic items is also a pretty significant oversight. Finally, this makes high-value loot much more cumbersome (e.g. platinum coins get converted to 10 gold coins.)
It'd be a lot simpler to give a fixed amount of gold based on the creature's size and leave all of their possessions intact.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Thank you for the feedback. Originally I had the idea that this spell was for absolute greed-lords who just want to amass tons of gold, and this spell is very handy for that. I had considered making the spell not effect items being worn or carried, but thought that it would be more fun with the potential to turn legendary artifacts into a pile of a few gold, thus devastating a party and giving you a laugh.
So what about these changes:
Items being worn or carried are not effected.
The body of the creature is turned into an amount of gold based on size. 5gp = Tiny, 15gp = Small, 50gp = Medium, 200gp = Large, 1,000gp = Huge, 15,000 = Gargantuan
It should definitely require a spell attack roll. The damage is far too consistently high despite the range, especially when combined with the ability to generate huge amounts of gold. Fireball gives a Dexterity saving throw, which most bosses end up making, so the single-target damage of this spell should be considered higher. inflict wounds requires touch range, and is also single target.
Compare what you've created to chromatic orb. Cast at 3rd level, it will deal 5d8 damage, requires an attack roll, and doesn't generate gold.
The money aspect is totally broken. A caster with access to 3rd level spells can buy a herd of cows for whatever your DM thinks they're worth - a donkey or mule is worth 8gp, so let's go with that. Each one I unfailingly execute (really unlikely I'll score below 15 on 5d10) with this spell nets me a nifty 200gp, for a tidy 192gp profit per cast.
I'd be more likely to create something like this:
Midas' Curse
4th level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (gold dust worth 50gp, consumed in the casting)
Duration: 1 minute
You curse a target with shimmering golden energy, which lasts for 1 minute. If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points during that time, it transforms into a gold statue. Worn or carried items are not affected. If the statue is broken down, some of it is fool's gold (worthless) and some of it is valuable gold. The amount of the true gold's value is dependent on the challenge rating of the creature:
This will:
I missed this reading the spell the first time around. Absolutely. If not a spell attack, a Dexterity saving throw. As a rule of thumb there shouldn't be a way to inflict damage on an enemy without a d20 getting involved.
I like this because it doesn't actually harm the creature directly, which lets it be a much lower spell level than Flesh To Stone. On the other hand a spell that knows how hard a creature is to kill really bugs me. I'd really prefer a metric that's more concrete and objective.
Really though if I were to add something like this to my game I wouldn't guarantee any price for the end result at all. I think the player should have to deal with the implications of hauling life-like golden statues to town and trying to turn them into usable cash.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Thank you for all the feedback, I really appreciate it! I'll update the orginal spell with the advice I've gotten here, as well as with a few ideas of my own that make it feel more balanced and streamlined as a DM to run. Most of my homebrew before this point has been making ridiculous spells and items that are more funny than they are balanced. Like, for example, Super Mega Brain Hemorrhage, which is a 6th level necromancy that gives any creature a stroke if they don't succeed a Constitution saving throw. Yeah, it's stupid and broken, and that's the point. I might post some of those spells sometime.
Thank you again, and have a great day!
I don’t really read it as “a spell that knows how hard a creature is to kill,” but more a matter of these are the results you can expect. Although I do agree that the implications of hauling a life-sized golden statue back to town and haggle it out are more fun.
A average, Medium humanoid would roughly convert to somewhere around 1.32 tons of gold. (1.2 tonnes, or 1,198 kg)
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