Fun fact, if you play on a grid you can start casting a spell from a corner (point). So effectively it can increase in area size to 10ft wide line.

"BEHOLD THE PRIMORDIAL FORCE OF NATURE"

-my tempest cleric, killing the BBEG with lightning bolt 

Edit: he multiclassed into wizard

you'd think it would be lvl 4 it's so awsome!

If you are in an aquatic campaign, would this be better than Fireball? Fireball has better AoE but enemies will resist it if you fight underwater. In other words, which is better: AoE or full damage?

Like fireball except you can cast it when the fighter and Paladin are both standing in melee. Also, giant beam of lightning is objectively cooler than an explosion, I don't care what you say. 

Underwater, I would expect it to blossom out into a nice 50' radius "Lightning Ball".  And, recall that the bolt starts *AT YOU*, the "Lightning Ball" would be *centered* ON YOU!  ouch!

With lightning comes thunder?

tempest domain can't cast this

I really with this just said "a line" and not "5' wide". Drawing a line on a grid is simple... it hits everything it touches. But drawing a f'-wide line on a grid is not something that most software permits. We spent way to much time today trying to understand the impact.

A question was asked in our game. Does Lightning Bolt project light when cast. And if so, would that light dispel Darkness spells (as the spell is higher than a level 2 Darkness spell)? 

As homebrew I would say it´s legit. But creatures (friends and foes) within 10ft of the bolt have to make a saving throw or being blinded for 1 turn.

This spell is better than fireball for the very simple reason of having superior material components. I don’t want to use bat poop to cast my spells. 

Quote from Derlon_Lashwind >>

SUPER op for a level 3 spell.

 TOTALY AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 This is worse than fireball, as it's AOE is harder to use to its full potential.  Damage type isn't much better.  Also, this spell is balenced by the fact that it doesn't have any additional effects besides dealing damage (similar to fireball).  It succeeds at what it is supposed to do, but doesn't really do anything else.   

An excellent spell, with potentially more damage output than fireball if you fire it at the right angle

It's a crime that this isn't available for Tempest Clerics

I feel like this spell is more for DM's to use rather than players. For a player you would take fireball almost every time over lightning bolt due to the bigger area and ease of hitting more enemies.

But as a DM, not hitting all your players with a 8d6 is actually good otherwise they may just all fall over. As a villan, casting a fireball that doesn't hit all the party members does not make sense and your players might feel like you are pulling your punches. But with lightning bolt, you will hit at most 2, maybe 3 if they are silly enough to stand in a line. Also it feels much more thematic for a villan to use lightning like Palpatine. This is my go to spell for spellcasters when I need a flashy single target spell and I can just upcast it when I need more damage.

Quote from Hargin >>

A question was asked in our game. Does Lightning Bolt project light when cast. And if so, would that light dispel Darkness spells (as the spell is higher than a level 2 Darkness spell)? 

the only sure thing the description enforces about illumination is that this spell ignites unattended objects such as a potential handful of popcorn/dry leaves/etc you've spread with your object interaction while dealing no damage to objects unlike 7th level delayed blast fireball, 9th level meteor swarm, etc, you might want 3rd level fireball if you need the effect around corners, beware of friendly or disrupting fire in close quarters combat, knocking creatures out of 3rd level hypnotic pattern and such, by the way a dungeon master might rule that the ignited objects shed nonmagical light since the spell's duration is instantaneous, furthermore, if you need to dispel 2nd level darkness, note that you're going to need 3rd level dispel magic otherwise a 3rd level or higher spell's light will only illuminate but never dispel 2nd level darkness unless specific spell description says it does or dungeon master rules it to better serve the narrative they're weaving with players; a magic item such as lantern of revealing could provide durable, magical illumination like an upcast of continual flame or similar stuff, beware of venturing underwater depending on the source though, especially if your creatures aren't natural born/reincarnated/etc nonmagical amphibians; many adventurers take their breathing privilege for granted

Cheers for that. 

This should be added to the cleric's tempest domain spell list, considering the domain is all about thunder and lightning damage. It basically turns you into Thor, so the addition of Lightning Bolt would be perfect.

Compared to Fireball, it may be harder to catch large numbers of enemies with it, but it’s also less likely to hurt your allies, can hit multiple enemies even if they’re more than 40 feet apart, and uses a damage type that is resisted and immuned less.

Especially better if the targets are in water, as being submerged in water gives you Fire Damage resistance.