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)
"Dying outright" means you've taken enough damage past 0 that it exceeds your max HP. In those cases, you do not make death saving throughs, you die outright. So for example, if you have 10 hp out of 100, but you take 111 damage, you just die right there, no saving throughs. In the case of Relentless Rage and similar features, you see after the calculations that you'd go to 0 hp but not take enough damage to die outright, you then make your saving throw and if you succeed, instead of reaching 0 hp, you stop at 1 hp instead, so you never actually reach 0 hp to actually turn to dust, your force of will prevents it.
Also, I think a distinction between something like firebolt or ray of frost and disintegrate is that while the first two *can* be used on objects, the spell never specifically points them out for that use. Other spells, such as Light, specifically say they're used on objects, and Disintegrate does as well, these spells cannot be Twinned.
They are a pile of dust. There is no surviving after being turned into a pile of dust.
You definitely could. Also that would be ridiculously overpowered. Pretty much double instant kill.
Nothing!
Yes, they would be at zero and disintegrated.
A good spell to have handy, either as a player or as the BBEG, when the wall of force and forcecage spells start coming out. Just be sure to have some way to obscure vision to prevent the inevitable counterspell.
Why is this not Evocation?
Matter manipulation, textbook Transmutation school
Me: “Have the BBEG make a Dex Save”
DM: “14”
Me: “Ok he fails. He takes… 77 Force damage”
DM: 0-0
Party Ranger: “Why do you have that?”
You saved the Nat One you rolled on Portent, so there is no successful save. Wahahah!
A tiny hut counts as creation of magical force, doesn’t it? It should be automatically disintegrated
But a tiny hut scuttling away like a crab is hilarious
Super OP
The maximum damage is 100 force, which easily knocks out other 6th level spells. Secondly, there are 5 creatures with resistance or immunity to force damage. 5. IN. THE. ENTIRE. GAME.
(They’re the lesser and greater Star Spawn Emissary from VRGtR with resistance, the normal Helmed Horror from MM and the reduced threat one from DiT, and the Scaladar from DotMM with immunity.)
If you do get a failed save, through a diviner’s Portent or luck, you’re guaranteed 46 force. It scales very nicely, most spells only give you one or two extra damage dice per slot but Disintegrate gives you three. At 9th level, that’s 19d6+40, or a maximum of 154 force.
Even Tarrasques have a hard time with this. Their Dexterity score is 11 (+0) and they aren’t proficient in DEX saves. Sure, they have magic resistance, but a character fighting a Tarrasque is level 20. If said character has used their ability score improvements right, their Spell Save DC is 19 or possibly higher. That means the Tarrasque needs a Nat 20 or 19 to avoid all that damage. Even with advantage on saves that’s tricky, and someone could easily use Wild Magic Sorcerer’s Bend Luck to drop the score if they succeed on the save. Basically they need a 20, and a d4 roll of 1 to stop this. Most OP spell ever.
Edit: just make sure you burn through Legendary Resistance first. If you spend your 9th-level slot only to have it “Noped”, you’ll feel really stupid and disappointed. On the bright side, you’ll also want to kill it more.
Probably should make the save using the machine's dex mod, if it fails by less than 5 the machine loses a wheel or a weapon or wall (DM's choice).
If it fails by more than 5 the machine is rendered immobile. For example, the front half of the machine is just completely gone.
Someone explain to me why this is a DEX save (with complete avoidance on success) and not a CON save. In previous editions, this had a save based on CON and half damage on a successful save. I haven't seen this spell work in 5E for numerous casters (kind of a running joke - it leaves nothing...to be desired). I've even had players just say, "Nope, not worth it."
the reason being is because as anyone who read the spell will tell you, the spell has a projectile that has to strike its victim to kill it:
"A thin green ray springs from your pointing finger to a target that you can see within range."
From a strictly rules standpoint, constitution represents your characters fortitude, endurance, and metabolism. None of these things are in any way capable of making you resilient to being disintegrated into dust which implies a molecular break down in every cell in your body. The whole point of disintegrate is that your body is literally being vaporized. Constitution will help you soak up more damage, resist disease/poison/intoxication, in short, your body's latent ability to ward off damage or foreign substances/pathogens that could be harmful to your body. I believe your entire body being atomized in an instant is neither a poison, disease, intoxication, or otherwise a biological threat. Saying constitution is the stat to save with against disintegrate is about as sensical as saying you'd use your fortitude to determine if you survive sitting on a nuclear bomb as it detonates. Though then again, you could survive taking no damage from a 9th level fireball spell that was centered on you simply because the evasion ability exists even though you dont actually move so what do i know
Yes, I read the description, but I've been playing D&D since 1976 and it's been a constitution-based save (at least since saves have been based on ability scores) in all previous editions. Disintegration is a body-affecting spell, not a dodging spell. It should be testing constitution, not dexterity.
The damage should be mitigated by Resistance / Immunity to Force damages and devices granting the same, such as Broach of Shielding (Ex.: While wearing this brooch, you have resistance to force damage, and you have immunity to damage from the magic missile spell.).
I am pretty sure the most efficient way to counter Rage Beyond Death is a level one sleep spell, at least once they have zero hp.
Hey guys, I am a fairly new DM and a player in my campaign took this spell. I was wondering, how would you rule and describe the target being hit by the spell if he is a large or smaller, but doesn't drop to 0 hp. I mean, if the spell hits a medium creature for example and does 70 damage, but after that the creature is at 10 hp for example.