At the end of the casting time, a blizzard of lashing hail and blowing snow appears in a location you choose within range. The area of the storm consists of up to five 10-foot radius cylinders, which you can arrange as you wish, so long as they are all adjacent to each other. Inside of the blizzard area, the following conditions apply:
- The area is heavily obscured.
- The terrain is very difficult terrain: one foot of movement costs 3 feet of speed. Creatures with a flying speed have their speed reduced to 10 feet while in the blizzard, and must make a strength saving throw at the end of each turn, or be knocked out of the air.
- Creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls made while in the blizzard.
- Ranged attacks that pass through at least 5 ft of the blizzard are always at disadvantage, even if it otherwise would have had advantage. If the ranged attack was already at disadvantage, then it can no longer be made.
- If a creature has the multiattack feature, the number of attacks it can make in one turn is reduced by one while in the blizzard's area.
- While inside the blizzard, creatures are unable to make most reactions, such as attacks of opportunity, catch missile, or features that reduce incoming damage. The DM may rule that some reactions can still be made, or that a creature with truesight can still take reactions.
Any creature that enters the area of the blizzard for the first time, or ends their turn inside the blizzard's area, must make a constitution saving throw. They take 6d8 cold damage, or half as much on a successful save. A creature who fails the save three times (it doesn't matter how many times they succeed the save; the failures don't need to be consecutive) begins to freeze. At the end of their next turn, they must make a strength saving throw or become frozen (paralyzed). A frozen creature can't end the condition on itself without help, but they do gain resistance to cold damage while they are frozen.
A creature that spends ten consecutive rounds (a full minute) in the blizzard must make a special constitution saving throw. On a failure, they gain one level of exhaustion. A creature that succeeds on their save must repeat it for every full minute they spend inside the spell's area. A creature can only gain one level of exhaustion this way.
The caster, any creatures that they designate, and any creature with immunity to cold damage avoid some or all of the regular effects of the spell. They don't take damage or gain levels of exhaustion; the area is only lightly obscured for them; they are able to move through the blizzard as though it was only difficult terrain (2 ft of speed for every ft of movement) and their flying speed, if they have one, is reduced to 20 ft instead of 10. They don't have disadvantage on attacks made while inside the blizzard, and they are able to fire a ranged weapon up to 15 ft through the blizzard before disadvantage is imposed. If they have the multiattack feature, they can still make the ordinary number of attacks. They can still take reactions while in the blizzard.
Loosing concentration. If the caster stops concentrating on the spell during the casting time, the spell fails and the spell slot is wasted. If they stop concentrating on the spell after it has been successfully cast, the spell does not immediately disappear but instead fades over the next 1d10 + 2 rounds. However, the caster (and any creatures that they designated) immediately loose any protection that they had against the storm when the caster's concentration is broken.
Casting as a Wizard. This spell can be cast by a wizard, but it requires an additional material component that can't be replaced by a spell focus. In order to cast this spell, a wizard must have a vial of unmelting snow taken from the elemental chaos between the plane of water and the plane of air.
Casting at higher level. For each level above 7th, add one additional 10 ft cylindrical area to the storm.
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