Level
1st
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
Sight
Components
M *
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Necromancy
Attack/Save
Ranged
Damage/Effect
Combat (...)
If you see exposed flesh of any creature that has blood you can forcibly tear open a wound by causing blood to erupt from their body.
Deal 1d8+3 necrotic damage on a successful ranged spell attack, if you hit the same target (must be of medium size or smaller) three times with this spell they have disadvantage with all Constitution Saving Throws.
* - (Small vial of same type of blood, not consumed.)
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted May 11, 2018Why is the damage bonus (+3) static rather than spellcasting ability? Dealing 1d8+3 to a single target is.. really poor damage, even for a 1st level spell. Any reason this isn't closer to ray of sickness? Moreover, nothing about it seems like a "ray" sort of spell. Why is this a ranged spell attack and not a saving throw?
Keeping track of how many times each target has been hit with this spell is going to be really annoying in any fight with more than 3 enemies. Is the debuff effect (though it isn't typed as a curse, disease or anything else you could cleanse) triggered by the number of times they've been damaged by a particular caster, or just by this spell. Since there's no way to remove the penalty, does it ever wear off? With a duration of instantaneous it doesn't seem like dispel magic would do it. This is a first level spell that seems like it can cause permanent disadvantage if you can tag someone three times with it.
I think there's an interesting niche here if the spell deals 2d8 necrotic damage with a constitution saving throw for half, and the save is made at disadvantage if the target
is missing any of its hit points. This spell should have no effect on undead or constructs. Add and up-casting option and you have a fairly potent single target damage spell for necromancers that doesn't displace blight.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted May 13, 2018I made it ranged because I have a player who's relatively new to the game who wanted something like a ray of sickness but with a different kind of flavour, I nerfed the damage a little after playing as because it is a guaranteed hit it was just a bit too strong.
The debuff is there simply because the spell causes you to lose a lot of blood but I didn't really know how I wanted to do it, was thinking of only making it apply if cast at level three or higher as well as adding scaling damage, or maybe having a constitution saving throw for anemia however I haven't gotten to a point in the campaign where that's an issue so I haven't done it yet.
I'll do a 'Blood Torrent' spell with the changes you suggest for more universal use.