A thin green ray springs from your pointing finger to a target that you can see within range. The target can be a creature, an object, or a creation of magical force, such as the wall created by wall of force.
A creature targeted by this spell must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 10d6 + 40 force damage. The target is disintegrated if this damage leaves it with 0 hit points.
A disintegrated creature and everything it is wearing and carrying, except magic items, are reduced to a pile of fine gray dust. The creature can be restored to life only by means of a true resurrection or a wish spell.
This spell automatically disintegrates a Large or smaller nonmagical object or a creation of magical force. If the target is a Huge or larger object or creation of force, this spell disintegrates a 10-foot- cube portion of it. A magic item is unaffected by this spell.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the damage increases by 3d6 for each slot level above 6th.
* - (a lodestone and a pinch of dust)
I was wondering how this would work with the Sorcerer's Twinned Spell Metamagic. I imagine you could use it to target two creatures, but what about two objects?
Going by RAW, twinned spell specifically says it works on spells that target one creature, so it would not be able to target two objects instead.
So it would require your GM's/Gaming Group's approval /a house rule if you wanted to modify it to hit two objects as well.
Tip: If you are a sorcerer, Heightened Spell and Empowered Spell can be useful.
This spell can be a good way to make a hole. Disintegrate the floor bellow your foes and use something like Cloudkill there.
nothing says a zealot barbarian rage beyond death is stopped by a disintegrate that barbarian is now a very very angry cloud of dust
Twinned spell metamagic works only on spells that can target only one creature. Since it can also target objects, it doesn't apply. (Yes, the rules are that stupidly picky. It's dumb but there it is).
One of my players accidentally tricked a powerful mage into disintegrating a bird. The bird was the guy’s friend though.
Creatures large or larger should have disadvantage on the save. They're such a big target!
by this logic no single target damage spell can be twinned, since you can also throw chaos bolts and rays of frost at objects if you choose.
Works 100% with twin metamagic.
Kill 2 objects or Creatures, you name it.
Chaos bolt can have multiple targets = cant be twinned.
Nothing says twin spell cant target objects. It kills objects like you never seen.
Disintegrate cant innately target more than one victim, no chance. No one wants to have survive sorcerer twin Disintegrate but That’s life
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/491947450559627284/746856712182562816/unknown.png
Couldn't you use metamagic extend spell to make it go further in range?
yes you can
To me, this is not a combat spell but to be used for assassination. Target an unconscious enemy for an auto fail on Dex save. Prestidigitate the resulting sand/ash and teleport/dimension door/misty step/invisibility away.
I dont think so, at high enough levels I dont think it would absolutely kill them, though, this may be a 1 hit kill for zealot. I gues dms choice towards yes it would? Any one else?
This spell is a single target attack. Why is this not an attack roll?
Attack rolls in a very broad way, are usually easier to succeed on than an enemy failing a saving throw. An attack roll is going to be an average of 10.5 + proficiency + spellcasting ability (around 19.5 average at the level you get disintegrate), vs the target's AC, which is likely going to be lower than 19. Whereas your save DC is going to be 8 + proficiency + spellcasting ability (probably 17 at this level), vs the target's Dexterity save. The target's save is going to vary a lot depending on the creature, but along with thing likes magic resistance being common at this level, I'd say it's more likely they'll succeed on the saving throw than you would miss your attack roll.
With this in mind, almost all high level spells (6th-level and up) require a target's saving throw rather than your attack roll, exceptions being: blade of disaster, crown of stars, and Mordenkainen's sword, all of which notably allow multiple attacks over the duration. I believe it helps to normalise spell damage at that level and provide some affect even if the spell fails, usually being full damage on a failed save or half damage on a success, without the erratic effect of being able to land a critical hit. Disintegrate is similar to an attack since it does no damage on a successful save, however it has a decent damage increase to account for this. If it was able to critically hit, then it has the potential to be randomly kind of bonkers. In addition, a really great part about this spell is the disintegration factor and the ability to destroy creations of magical force!
Anyway, hope this helps to explain at least a bit about why this spell is likely not an attack roll, it's all my opinion though.
I also love the fact this has the "control" tag, I get that the tag is likely for its ability to disintegrate things and magical force, but when I first saw it I imagined it had the control tag purely because you can say things like, "just put the money in the bag, and nobody gets disintegrated".