Crown of Stars creates stars that you can launch for radiant damage as a bonus action, but does doing the damage count as casting a spell that does radiant damage? If so, it would stack with the Celestial Warlock’s Level 6 Radiant Soul ability, allowing you to add your charisma modifier to one of the attacks.
Crown of stars states: You can use a bonus action to send one of the motes streaking toward one creature or object within 120 feet of you. When you do so, make a ranged spell attack
Radiant Soul: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
Crown of Stars has you make a “ranged spell attack”, so yes, it is a spell that deals radiant damage and therefore is compatible with Radiant Soul
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No I would have to disagree with MonksAreGreat70. Casting spells and making spell attacks are 2 entirely separate things. For example if a team mate casts Magic Stone and gives me a pebble to make a spell attack with it. In no way did I just cast a spell now did I?
So no, spell attacks from Crown of Stars would not trigger the Radiant Soul ability.
Thelonelymagi, that’s a good point, but said warlock used their mystic arcanum to cast Crown of stars, a spell that gives them the ability to deal radiant damage to a target. If I cast guiding bolt, another spell that I think would be affected by Radiant Soul, here is the official text: “A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target.”
Notice that it has you make a ranged spell attack. Would you say that guiding bolt is not affected by Radiant Soul?
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Thelonelymagi, that’s a good point, but said warlock used their mystic arcanum to cast Crown of stars, a spell that gives them the ability to deal radiant damage to a target. If I cast guiding bolt, another spell that I think would be affected by Radiant Soul, here is the official text: “A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target.”
Notice that it has you make a ranged spell attack. Would you say that guiding bolt is not affected by Radiant Soul?
Yes Guiding Bolt would trigger Radiant Soul because the spell attack is a part of the same Action as casting the spell. That is the main trigger of Radiant Soul. The problem with Crown of Stars is that it requires a separate Bonus Action to make said spell attack. You are not casting a spell as a part of using the Bonus Action to make the spell attack.
Thelonelymagi, that’s a good point, but said warlock used their mystic arcanum to cast Crown of stars, a spell that gives them the ability to deal radiant damage to a target. If I cast guiding bolt, another spell that I think would be affected by Radiant Soul, here is the official text: “A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target.”
Notice that it has you make a ranged spell attack. Would you say that guiding bolt is not affected by Radiant Soul?
Yes Guiding Bolt would trigger Radiant Soul because the spell attack is a part of the same Action as casting the spell. That is the main trigger of Radiant Soul. The problem with Crown of Stars is that it requires a separate Bonus Action to make said spell attack. You are not casting a spell as a part of using the Bonus Action to make the spell attack.
You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets
There is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell. There are two prerequisites to being affected by Radiant Soul. 1. Be a spell & 2. Deal radiant damage. In my book, the motes still count as part of the spell and therefore are affected by Radiant Soul.
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Thelonelymagi, that’s a good point, but said warlock used their mystic arcanum to cast Crown of stars, a spell that gives them the ability to deal radiant damage to a target. If I cast guiding bolt, another spell that I think would be affected by Radiant Soul, here is the official text: “A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target.”
Notice that it has you make a ranged spell attack. Would you say that guiding bolt is not affected by Radiant Soul?
Yes Guiding Bolt would trigger Radiant Soul because the spell attack is a part of the same Action as casting the spell. That is the main trigger of Radiant Soul. The problem with Crown of Stars is that it requires a separate Bonus Action to make said spell attack. You are not casting a spell as a part of using the Bonus Action to make the spell attack.
You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets
There is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell. There are two prerequisites to being affected by Radiant Soul. 1. Be a spell & 2. Deal radiant damage. In my book, the motes still count as part of the spell and therefore are affected by Radiant Soul.
It states: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage.
The keyword here is when. The spell Crown of Stars is cast with an Action. The spell attack is made with a Bonus Action. When the spell is cast with the Action which is when Radiant Soul can be triggered there is no damage is being dealt by the spell hence no bonus damage can be applied.
Does that mean delayed blast fireball wouldn’t be affected either? It takes effect on a turn after the original casting, but it is still a spell that deals fire or radiant damage.
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Does that mean delayed blast fireball wouldn’t be affected either? It takes effect on a turn after the original casting, but it is still a spell that deals fire or radiant damage.
Delayed Blast Fireball would get the bonus damage because the spell only requires 1 Action. I have never been opposed to delayed damage getting the bonus as long as it only took 1 Action.
Crown of Stars being unable to trigger the extra damage is because it requires a separate Bonus Action to make the spell attack in order to do the damage. And the reason is because you can make spell attacks without having to cast a spell. With prime examples being the Magic Stone cantrip and the Star Druids Archer form.
I disagree with lonelymagi's narrow interpretation of the wording. Applying that kind of logic consistently would render features like e.g. leveling up the return damage on Absorb Elements impossible, because the leveled up damage die are added to an attack that is not part of the action of casting that spell.
Why would the "return damage" of Absorb Elements be be rendered impossible? Have you actually read the spell description of Absorb Elements?.
The spell stats: The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on you and storing it for your next melee attack. You have resistance to the triggering damage type until the start of your next turn. Also, the first time you hit with a melee attack on your next turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage of the triggering type, and the spell ends.
The spell states when the damage is applied very clearly in the wording and has no limitations on the damage triggering only when the spell is cast.
Yes, I read the spell. I didn't say the return damage would be rendered impossible. I said the leveled up return damage would be rendered impossible. Here is the exact wording:
"When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the extra damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st."
According to the logic you applied to Radiant Soul (where you claim that the use of the word "when" limits applicability of the damage addition to the same action as the casting of the spell), the leveled up damage can only be applied in the same action as the casting of the spell. Which would render it impossible to apply.
That is obviously not how the creators intended that to be interpreted, and there are many other spells that have similar ramifications. Looking through the spell descriptions, the most consistent interpretation is that "when" is used interchangeably with "if" in many places, which may be less precise than some of us prefer, but is not uncommonly done in the English language.
Yes, I read the spell. I didn't say the return damage would be rendered impossible. I said the leveled up return damage would be rendered impossible. Here is the exact wording:
"When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the extra damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st."
According to the logic you applied to Radiant Soul (where you claim that the use of the word "when" limits applicability of the damage addition to the same action as the casting of the spell), the leveled up damage can only be applied in the same action as the casting of the spell. Which would render it impossible to apply.
That is obviously not how the creators intended that to be interpreted, and there are many other spells that have similar ramifications. Looking through the spell descriptions, the most consistent interpretation is that "when" is used interchangeably with "if" in many places, which may be less precise than some of us prefer, but is not uncommonly done in the English language.
What the heck are you talking about? Why would the level up damage from Absorb Elements be overridden by the damage trigger of Radiant Soul? Absorb Elements has its OWN WORDING in its spell description of when the damage is applied. It has nothing to do with the Radiant Soul ability.
If on the off chance you are trying argue Radiant Soul should add CHA mod damage to Absorb Elements (if you resisted fire damage) then my answer be no. But using higher level spell slots to increase the damage is totally fine because the spells OWNWORDING states when the damage is applied.
Seriously I have no idea why you are trying to tie something that has its own specific interpretation to a situational class ability.
I didn't try to tie or combine Absorb Elements to Radiant Soul in any way (Absorb Elemenys is unavailable to Warlocks, so that point is moot). As signified by my use of "e.g." in my first post, the effect on Absorb Elements is simply an example I used for what happens if the logic you apply to Radiant Soul is applied consistently to spell features. Let me try this to make it more clear:
Thelonelymagi, that’s a good point, but said warlock used their mystic arcanum to cast Crown of stars, a spell that gives them the ability to deal radiant damage to a target. If I cast guiding bolt, another spell that I think would be affected by Radiant Soul, here is the official text: “A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target.”
Notice that it has you make a ranged spell attack. Would you say that guiding bolt is not affected by Radiant Soul?
Yes Guiding Bolt would trigger Radiant Soul because the spell attack is a part of the same Action as casting the spell. That is the main trigger of Radiant Soul. The problem with Crown of Stars is that it requires a separate Bonus Action to make said spell attack. You are not casting a spell as a part of using the Bonus Action to make the spell attack.
You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets
There is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell. There are two prerequisites to being affected by Radiant Soul. 1. Be a spell & 2. Deal radiant damage. In my book, the motes still count as part of the spell and therefore are affected by Radiant Soul.
It states: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage.
The keyword here is when. The spell Crown of Stars is cast with an Action. The spell attack is made with a Bonus Action. When the spell is cast with the Action which is when Radiant Soul can be triggered there is no damage is being dealt by the spell hence no bonus damage can be applied.
Above is the quote of what you said. If the word "when" limits the applicability of the damage addition to the same action in the instance of Radiant Soul, it should do so in all the other instances where the word "when" shows up in the same context, for instance for a leveled up Absorb Elements.
Yes, in Absorb Elements, the spell description has its own wording to describe the timing of damage application. That illustrates my point: your insistence that the absence of such a description for Radiant Soul results in the word "when" necessitating a very specific and narrow interpretation of timing does NOT jibe with the fact that the little word "when" shows up in exactly the same place and context in lots of other spells, where this narrow and specific interpretation is clearly invalidated.
@piaogabriel Ok so from what I can piece together you took my ruling for the very specific case of Radiant Soul's extra damage not applying to Crown of Stars because dealing damage because it requires a additional Bonus Action to make a spell attack. And you somehow apply it to everything that has the word "when". Is that what you are trying to argue?
Then to somehow backup your "argument" you bring up a spell (upcast Absorb Elements) that has little to no interaction with Radiant Soul and somehow try to apply Radiant Soul's very specific trigger to add CHA mod damage when a spell that deals fire or radiant damage is cast. This somehow justifies your argument that my interpretation of the Radiant Soul ability (and I must stress this point I have only being discussing what triggers Radiant Soul and not how spells what in general) somehow screws up spells adding damage during different timings in D&D?
I am struggling to see how you can apply my ruling to ONE SPECIFIC ability to the entirety of spellcasting damage in D&D.
I will try and explain why I would rule the way I did for Crown of Stars and Radiant Soul one more time to try and clear things up. Radiant Soul states: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
The ruling MonksAreGreat70 suggested was and I quote "Crown of Stars has you make a “ranged spell attack”, so yes, it is a spell that deals radiant damage and therefore is compatible with Radiant Soul"
This lead me to argue that just because you make a spell attack does not mean you actually cast a spell. And I have backed that up with examples like Magic Stone and the Star Druids Archer form. This point is important because you can cast a spell without making a spell attack and the reverse is also true which is you can make a spell attack without casting a spell.
With the trigger for Radiant Soul being when a spell is cast, I made the ruling that Crown of Stars would not qualify for the CHA mod because the damage is being dealt by a spell attack using a separate Bonus Action. And not when the spell is being cast which requires a Action.
Now can you tell me why the heck you randomly bought up Absorb Elements and other arguments that have nothing to do with my specific ruling on Radiant Soul and Crown of Stars? I am struggling to see how my specific ruling to ONE specific subclass ability somehow affects every other thing under the sun.
I understood perfectly well why you ruled the way you did. I just disagree with your ruling. And I brought up Absorb Elements as an illustration of why I disagree. Your interpretation is too narrow and specific in my opinion.
Let's try it this way: you argue that "just because you make a spell attack does not mean you actually cast a spell". However, the argument by MonksAreGreat that a you did indeed cast a spell AND that there is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell is perfectly valid. Now you used the way the word "when" is used in the spell description as an argument that that must mean the attack has to be in the same action as casting the spell. I disagree that that's what it means. Looking through how the word "when" is used throughout spell descriptions, it seems pretty clear to me that "when" simply means "if", and NOT "at the exact instance of". And an illustration of why I disagree is that there are plenty of instances of the exact same wording in other spells, like e.g. Absorb Elements, where it clearly means "if", and NOT "at the exact instance of". In my book, it therefore makes sense to apply that same meaning to Radiant Soul: if you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your CHA mod to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets. That's completely independent of when in time that damage roll occurs.
I don't know if that makes it more clear. If you want to rule the way you do in your games, I have zero problem with that. I just don't agree that your interpretation is the only valid one, or the most likely intended one by the creators. That's all.
I understood perfectly well why you ruled the way you did. I just disagree with your ruling. And I brought up Absorb Elements as an illustration of why I disagree. Your interpretation is too narrow and specific in my opinion.
Let's try it this way: you argue that "just because you make a spell attack does not mean you actually cast a spell". However, the argument by MonksAreGreat that a you did indeed cast a spell AND that there is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell is perfectly valid. Now you used the way the word "when" is used in the spell description as an argument that that must mean the attack has to be in the same action as casting the spell. I disagree that that's what it means. Looking through how the word "when" is used throughout spell descriptions, it seems pretty clear to me that "when" simply means "if", and NOT "at the exact instance of". And an illustration of why I disagree is that there are plenty of instances of the exact same wording in other spells, like e.g. Absorb Elements, where it clearly means "if", and NOT "at the exact instance of". In my book, it therefore makes sense to apply that same meaning to Radiant Soul: if you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your CHA mod to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets. That's completely independent of when in time that damage roll occurs.
I don't know if that makes it more clear. If you want to rule the way you do in your games, I have zero problem with that. I just don't agree that your interpretation is the only valid one, or the most likely intended one by the creators. That's all.
The problem with your interpretation is Radiant Soul does not say IF you cast a spell. It clearly state WHEN you cast a spell. Let me throw another example of why timing is important. If you are trying to stop an enemy with Counterspell when do you attempt to do it? Thats right WHEN they cast the spell not when they use their Bonus Action to do something else but at the actual time of casting.
The problem with your interpretation is that you disallow when to be used in the very common meaning of if in a very specific instance, while in lots of instances, it clearly does mean if. Allowing it to mean if with Radiant Soul creates no inconsistencies within the application of the spell.
Your Counterspell example actually further illustrates my point; it states: "You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell...." It does NOTstate: "...when they are casting a spell.." Clearly, the creators wanted to make the timing very explicit for this spell, and notice how they did NOT use when to do so, because when is NOT clearly restricted to mean at the exact instance of / while in the process of.
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Crown of Stars creates stars that you can launch for radiant damage as a bonus action, but does doing the damage count as casting a spell that does radiant damage? If so, it would stack with the Celestial Warlock’s Level 6 Radiant Soul ability, allowing you to add your charisma modifier to one of the attacks.
...right?.
Crown of stars states: You can use a bonus action to send one of the motes streaking toward one creature or object within 120 feet of you. When you do so, make a ranged spell attack
Radiant Soul: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
Crown of Stars has you make a “ranged spell attack”, so yes, it is a spell that deals radiant damage and therefore is compatible with Radiant Soul
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Ok thanks
No I would have to disagree with MonksAreGreat70. Casting spells and making spell attacks are 2 entirely separate things. For example if a team mate casts Magic Stone and gives me a pebble to make a spell attack with it. In no way did I just cast a spell now did I?
So no, spell attacks from Crown of Stars would not trigger the Radiant Soul ability.
Thelonelymagi, that’s a good point, but said warlock used their mystic arcanum to cast Crown of stars, a spell that gives them the ability to deal radiant damage to a target. If I cast guiding bolt, another spell that I think would be affected by Radiant Soul, here is the official text: “A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target.”
Notice that it has you make a ranged spell attack. Would you say that guiding bolt is not affected by Radiant Soul?
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Yes Guiding Bolt would trigger Radiant Soul because the spell attack is a part of the same Action as casting the spell. That is the main trigger of Radiant Soul. The problem with Crown of Stars is that it requires a separate Bonus Action to make said spell attack. You are not casting a spell as a part of using the Bonus Action to make the spell attack.
You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets
There is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell. There are two prerequisites to being affected by Radiant Soul. 1. Be a spell & 2. Deal radiant damage. In my book, the motes still count as part of the spell and therefore are affected by Radiant Soul.
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It states: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage.
The keyword here is when. The spell Crown of Stars is cast with an Action. The spell attack is made with a Bonus Action. When the spell is cast with the Action which is when Radiant Soul can be triggered there is no damage is being dealt by the spell hence no bonus damage can be applied.
Does that mean delayed blast fireball wouldn’t be affected either? It takes effect on a turn after the original casting, but it is still a spell that deals fire or radiant damage.
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Delayed Blast Fireball would get the bonus damage because the spell only requires 1 Action. I have never been opposed to delayed damage getting the bonus as long as it only took 1 Action.
Crown of Stars being unable to trigger the extra damage is because it requires a separate Bonus Action to make the spell attack in order to do the damage. And the reason is because you can make spell attacks without having to cast a spell. With prime examples being the Magic Stone cantrip and the Star Druids Archer form.
Wow. Interesting. Thanks you all.
I disagree with lonelymagi's narrow interpretation of the wording. Applying that kind of logic consistently would render features like e.g. leveling up the return damage on Absorb Elements impossible, because the leveled up damage die are added to an attack that is not part of the action of casting that spell.
Why would the "return damage" of Absorb Elements be be rendered impossible? Have you actually read the spell description of Absorb Elements?.
The spell stats: The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on you and storing it for your next melee attack. You have resistance to the triggering damage type until the start of your next turn. Also, the first time you hit with a melee attack on your next turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage of the triggering type, and the spell ends.
The spell states when the damage is applied very clearly in the wording and has no limitations on the damage triggering only when the spell is cast.
Yes, I read the spell. I didn't say the return damage would be rendered impossible. I said the leveled up return damage would be rendered impossible. Here is the exact wording:
"When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the extra damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st."
According to the logic you applied to Radiant Soul (where you claim that the use of the word "when" limits applicability of the damage addition to the same action as the casting of the spell), the leveled up damage can only be applied in the same action as the casting of the spell. Which would render it impossible to apply.
That is obviously not how the creators intended that to be interpreted, and there are many other spells that have similar ramifications. Looking through the spell descriptions, the most consistent interpretation is that "when" is used interchangeably with "if" in many places, which may be less precise than some of us prefer, but is not uncommonly done in the English language.
What the heck are you talking about? Why would the level up damage from Absorb Elements be overridden by the damage trigger of Radiant Soul? Absorb Elements has its OWN WORDING in its spell description of when the damage is applied. It has nothing to do with the Radiant Soul ability.
If on the off chance you are trying argue Radiant Soul should add CHA mod damage to Absorb Elements (if you resisted fire damage) then my answer be no. But using higher level spell slots to increase the damage is totally fine because the spells OWN WORDING states when the damage is applied.
Seriously I have no idea why you are trying to tie something that has its own specific interpretation to a situational class ability.
I didn't try to tie or combine Absorb Elements to Radiant Soul in any way (Absorb Elemenys is unavailable to Warlocks, so that point is moot). As signified by my use of "e.g." in my first post, the effect on Absorb Elements is simply an example I used for what happens if the logic you apply to Radiant Soul is applied consistently to spell features. Let me try this to make it more clear:
Above is the quote of what you said. If the word "when" limits the applicability of the damage addition to the same action in the instance of Radiant Soul, it should do so in all the other instances where the word "when" shows up in the same context, for instance for a leveled up Absorb Elements.
Yes, in Absorb Elements, the spell description has its own wording to describe the timing of damage application. That illustrates my point: your insistence that the absence of such a description for Radiant Soul results in the word "when" necessitating a very specific and narrow interpretation of timing does NOT jibe with the fact that the little word "when" shows up in exactly the same place and context in lots of other spells, where this narrow and specific interpretation is clearly invalidated.
@piaogabriel Ok so from what I can piece together you took my ruling for the very specific case of Radiant Soul's extra damage not applying to Crown of Stars because dealing damage because it requires a additional Bonus Action to make a spell attack. And you somehow apply it to everything that has the word "when". Is that what you are trying to argue?
Then to somehow backup your "argument" you bring up a spell (upcast Absorb Elements) that has little to no interaction with Radiant Soul and somehow try to apply Radiant Soul's very specific trigger to add CHA mod damage when a spell that deals fire or radiant damage is cast. This somehow justifies your argument that my interpretation of the Radiant Soul ability (and I must stress this point I have only being discussing what triggers Radiant Soul and not how spells what in general) somehow screws up spells adding damage during different timings in D&D?
I am struggling to see how you can apply my ruling to ONE SPECIFIC ability to the entirety of spellcasting damage in D&D.
I will try and explain why I would rule the way I did for Crown of Stars and Radiant Soul one more time to try and clear things up. Radiant Soul states: when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
The ruling MonksAreGreat70 suggested was and I quote "Crown of Stars has you make a “ranged spell attack”, so yes, it is a spell that deals radiant damage and therefore is compatible with Radiant Soul"
This lead me to argue that just because you make a spell attack does not mean you actually cast a spell. And I have backed that up with examples like Magic Stone and the Star Druids Archer form. This point is important because you can cast a spell without making a spell attack and the reverse is also true which is you can make a spell attack without casting a spell.
With the trigger for Radiant Soul being when a spell is cast, I made the ruling that Crown of Stars would not qualify for the CHA mod because the damage is being dealt by a spell attack using a separate Bonus Action. And not when the spell is being cast which requires a Action.
Now can you tell me why the heck you randomly bought up Absorb Elements and other arguments that have nothing to do with my specific ruling on Radiant Soul and Crown of Stars? I am struggling to see how my specific ruling to ONE specific subclass ability somehow affects every other thing under the sun.
I understood perfectly well why you ruled the way you did. I just disagree with your ruling. And I brought up Absorb Elements as an illustration of why I disagree. Your interpretation is too narrow and specific in my opinion.
Let's try it this way: you argue that "just because you make a spell attack does not mean you actually cast a spell". However, the argument by MonksAreGreat that a you did indeed cast a spell AND that there is zero text here that states that the attack has to be the same action as casting the spell is perfectly valid. Now you used the way the word "when" is used in the spell description as an argument that that must mean the attack has to be in the same action as casting the spell. I disagree that that's what it means. Looking through how the word "when" is used throughout spell descriptions, it seems pretty clear to me that "when" simply means "if", and NOT "at the exact instance of". And an illustration of why I disagree is that there are plenty of instances of the exact same wording in other spells, like e.g. Absorb Elements, where it clearly means "if", and NOT "at the exact instance of". In my book, it therefore makes sense to apply that same meaning to Radiant Soul: if you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your CHA mod to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets. That's completely independent of when in time that damage roll occurs.
I don't know if that makes it more clear. If you want to rule the way you do in your games, I have zero problem with that. I just don't agree that your interpretation is the only valid one, or the most likely intended one by the creators. That's all.
The problem with your interpretation is Radiant Soul does not say IF you cast a spell. It clearly state WHEN you cast a spell. Let me throw another example of why timing is important. If you are trying to stop an enemy with Counterspell when do you attempt to do it? Thats right WHEN they cast the spell not when they use their Bonus Action to do something else but at the actual time of casting.
The problem with your interpretation is that you disallow when to be used in the very common meaning of if in a very specific instance, while in lots of instances, it clearly does mean if. Allowing it to mean if with Radiant Soul creates no inconsistencies within the application of the spell.
Your Counterspell example actually further illustrates my point; it states: "You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell...." It does NOT state: "...when they are casting a spell.." Clearly, the creators wanted to make the timing very explicit for this spell, and notice how they did NOT use when to do so, because when is NOT clearly restricted to mean at the exact instance of / while in the process of.