A churning storm cloud forms, centered on a point you can see and spreading to a radius of 360 feet. Lightning flashes in the area, thunder booms, and strong winds roar. Each creature under the cloud (no more than 5,000 feet beneath the cloud) when it appears must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d6 thunder damage and becomes deafened for 5 minutes.
Each round you maintain concentration on this spell, the storm produces different effects on your turn.
Round 2. Acidic rain falls from the cloud. Each creature and object under the cloud takes 1d6 acid damage.
Round 3. You call six bolts of lightning from the cloud to strike six creatures or objects of your choice beneath the cloud. A given creature or object can't be struck by more than one bolt. A struck creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Round 4. Hailstones rain down from the cloud. Each creature under the cloud takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
Round 5–10. Gusts and freezing rain assail the area under the cloud. The area becomes difficult terrain and is heavily obscured. Each creature there takes 1d6 cold damage. Ranged weapon attacks in the area are impossible. The wind and rain count as a severe distraction for the purposes of maintaining concentration on spells. Finally, gusts of strong wind (ranging from 20 to 50 miles per hour) automatically disperse fog, mists, and similar phenomena in the area, whether mundane or magical.
So math being a thing I kind of wanted to get an over under on this spell and BOY HOWDY. I initially scoffed at this level 9 spell with such low numbers and after some study I have completely turned my opinion around on it. This spell is nutty because of 3 things. 1 the area of effect and 2 the variety and severity of the damages to not only creatures but objects (structures) as well, and 3 the range is sight, meaning you could technically use this spell with casual freedom, from anywhere without anyone knowing what you were doing. You could obliterate an entire army or city without any warning and all within perfect safety miles away.
Anyways back to the over under, to truly understand this spell a test for max proc rate but average damage. Meaning there is 1 medium creature taking median average damage within every single square of this spells target area. 360/5=72 Creatures radius. Surface area of a circle pi x 72(squared) = 16286 total creatures affected (rounded to nearest whole). Damage dealt to each creature is 11d6 averaged to 38.5. Damage dealt with lightening strikes 60d6 averaged to 210. Total 16286 x 38.5 + 210 = 627221 damage across all targets!
As a comparison doing a similar max proc rate average damage with Meteor Swarm yields 112700 total damage across all targets. Now being fair, Storm deals about 5.5 times the damage and takes 10 times the effort (10 rounds of concentration).
Something I initially forgot to mention is the actual area of the spell can be thousands of feet up in the air, meaning it's out of range of most casters ability to dispel it. Add that on to the fact that you could be very far away, it's unlikely that anyone could counter spell this either. In short this is the kind of thing you don't use on an enemy or even in an encounter, you use this to annihilate an entire region of the map, siege the castle of some horrific dark evil, or perhaps sunder an invading army who arrives on your shores bringing with them the chaos of war, a city who has been warned too many times to halt their rapid expansion and stop destroying woodlands... you decided.
Just wanted to say thank you for your post, I genuinely had a blast reading through it.
Even so, you assume such a densely packed battlefield. So, theoretically it can do an insane amount of damage spread out against a huge number of enemies. Of course, some buildings have resistances and hardness. A stone castle is, I'm afraid, likely not vulnerable to acid and I would say has a hardness of at least 20 if you want to damage it. So, the acid damage simply wont. The hailstorm simply wont. Now you get a total of 10d6 lightning damage to do your siege.
The spell is really cool thematically; and it fits with what you said as a good use in a lot of ways. But, as it is, I would make it an 8th level spell and reduce it's range a bit. For it to be a 9th level spell, the effects, in my opinion, need to be cumulative.
When it comes to turning the tide of battle around, give me meteor swarm any day.
A lightning strike cannot harm the same creature twice. So, with Storm of Vengeance dealing an average damage of 38.5 to a single creature over the course of 10 rounds means an average of 3.85 per creature per turn. Compare that number to meteor swarm, which will deal an average of 120 damage to creatures in one round.
Again, thematically it's sweet - as how you said. But, the spell deserves the scoffing, especially since the recent errata clarified that the effects do not stack.
As a DM, I would totally allow the effects to be cumulative; much more powerful, and much cooler. However, I tend to like my players to be more powerful than the rules typically allow for, so that may just be me. :)
personally, I dream of using this spell one day. But not as a druid. I'd rather do it as a bard. If Dwarven, play Thunderstruck on some bagpipes. If Elven/Half-Elven, play the Song of Storms in whatever way you choose. Hell, whatever race you are, pick a song you think is thematically appropriate and cut loose.
note: Not saying you're required to actually play the songs. Just saying it would be great for RP purposes.
So you'd be playing up a storm? **ducks**
This spell really comes up weak for a 9th level. You might as well end the spell after round 4 seeing as the effects aren't accumulative. I had hoped to use this spell for a druid who focused on spell casting instead of wild shape. But after reading a ruling made by a writer for d&d ill have to homebrew something more fun.
Is it possible to use this spell for weapons meant for different classes?
I have no idea what you mean but this is a Druid spell so only Druids can use it and potentially Bards through picking it at level 17 with magical secrets.
In response to the people saying this spell is weak when used against high-level combat encounters - I don't think this spell is meant for players, at least not primarily. It's for DMs to give to the BBEG.
a commoner has like 4 hp so this could turn a city into a ghost town in a single round
Bruh
This is ... a weird spell. Definitely a BBEG spell for something like a storm god or elder evil to use against the players. The damage is neat, but the Crowd Control and hazards to casters is really where it's at.
Turn 1) Concentration check and Deafness on a failed save. Restrict the players from communicating well (In character. Metagaming would be important to manage if this effect is going to matter).
Turn 2) Concentration checks by all affected creatures, guaranteed damage.
Turn 3) Concentration checks by six affected creatures, guaranteed damage (barring class or "no half damage on save" abilites)
Turn 4) Concentration checks by all affected creatures, guaranteed damage.
Turn 5-10) Concentration checks by all affected creatures, guaranteed damage, ranged weapon attacks in the area are impossible and difficult terrain, heavily obscured and any thing that can be blown away, is.
In a single round meteor swarm deals ~1.79681484 times damage as storm of vengeance.
I just want to say that scientifically, most stone would, in fact, be vulnerable to acid damage because most acids are really effective against 2 things: metal and stone. heck, real life acid rain, which is only weakly acidic and doesn't do any amount of harm to people or plants, corrodes stone statues and edifices over time.
Is the damage considered magical? Like the hail. It's just hail, but hail made from a spell, so if an oathbreaker paladin has resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning damage, would they take full damage from it?
Considering the hail is the result of casting a spell, I would rule it as being treated as magical bludgeoning. It would be up to the DM to make the call of either "Its from a spell so it is magical" or "The magic made the weather but the weather itself is not magical". Unless there is some official ruling on it somewhere I am not aware of, these sort of effects I treat as working consistently with how the DM has been running, so if the precedent of "Magic by some baddie or whoever made some weather and it dealt non-magical damage" was set previously in the campaign I would treat it as non-magical. Its a real "When in doubt, ask the DM" kind of thing.
What does "a severe distraction for the purposes of maintaining concentration on spells" actually do? Is it a DC10 Concentration save, or something else? I couldn't find a definite answer in the PHB or DMG.
As with most instances of resistance to "nonmagical damage", an Oathbreaker is only resistant to such instances when it comes from a weapon attack. This does not apply, magical or not. An Oathbreaker isnt resistant to fall damage or any other B/P/S from non weapons. The only class instance of full resistance to these is a Barbarian, and they are resistant regardless of whether it is magical or not.
Kind of up to the DM? This is my first thought (Environmental concentration constitution saves), but maybe it forces a con save with disadvantage, or just gives con saves disadvantage when other things force the save.