Level
3rd
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
60 ft.
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Evocation
Attack/Save
Ranged
Damage/Effect
Force
You hurl a spear made of magical force at one creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. If it hits, the spear does 3d10 force damage. If the target is a spellcaster, the hit also wipes out one of its available, lowest-level spell slots as if the spell had been expended.
Enhancement: For each spell slot used higher than 3rd level, damage increases by 1d10. When you cast arcane spear using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, a hit also wipes out two of the target’s spell slots instead of one.
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Posted Apr 10, 2020Feels a little underpowered, which is pleasantly surprising for homebrew. An enemy spellcaster losing a low-level slot just isn't very impactful in my experience - in battles where PCs have 3rd level slots, you tend not to see enemy spellcasters even using low-level spells - plus, damage-wise this spell is inferior to other 3rd level spells. Fireball has it beat, and it's an AOE (although fireball is OP, so maybe not the best comparison).
Maybe the spell should eliminate a 3rd level slot instead? And for upscaling, have it eliminate 1 slot higher for each 2 slots its upcast. So a 5th level cast would take out a 4th level slot, a 7th would take out a 5th, and so on. Arguably it would be balanced even if it was a 1-1 scaling, as that would make this spell sort of like a pre-emptive counterspell with the upside of doing damage and the downside of losing clutch potential. Very effective against warlocks. Although, maybe in that case the enemy caster could get a saving throw either instead of an attack roll, or after the attack roll. Just my two cents though, take it with a grain of salt.
Very interesting idea all in all, I like it a lot!