Choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range. You cause the object to glow red-hot. Any creature in physical contact with the object takes 2d8 fire damage when you cast the spell. Until the spell ends, you can use a bonus action on each of your subsequent turns to cause this damage again.
If a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn’t drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd.
* - (a piece of iron and a flame)
Don't worry, it doesn't have to be worn nor carried to be affected by the spell! In order to take damage, the creature must be in contact with the object, thats all.
... so many people are really dumb when it comes to this spell. As apparently no one commenting has ever warn armor. You are not in physical contact with it. While you maybe wearing it it does not touch any part of the skin.
If you would rule someone can cast this on a spear tip and not be effected, or on any piece of metal and be able to pick it up with let's say oven mits or armored gloves and not take damage No one wearing any heavy armor would be effected.
Further while thus is a magical effect it is not magical damage and does infact follow burn damage rules. So that brings the next point in question how does any Smith work with metal then? They wear gloves? I'll tell you right now a gambeson worn under armor is far thicker than this gloves.
What would actually happen.
You cast heat metal on friendly paladin.
He runs and grapples the enemy.
Enemy takes damage while grappled.
If you were to cast heat metal on an object someone was in physical contact with rings, necklace or them holding something metal in their bare hands then yes it takes effect
If I heated up the head of an axe would it gain the fire damage
Is there a size limit on the object
So my DM is doing a hunger games event in our campaign, and my friend wants to kill me, so can I use heat metal on his armor? (he has plate) if I am on a tree. Another thing I want to know is if I can use heat metal on my barbarian teammate's axe. If I can, will I need to focus on heating it, she focus, or both. Last thing, does an arrowhead count as metal, because I want to know if I can heat my teammate's arrow and have an arrow sticking in someone
RAW yes, it’s allowed
Please note the word in bold. People claiming they can "enhance" their weapons are not understanding this part. While the weapon may be red-hot, there are intervals where it is not being augmented by these actions. Even if you were to strike a creature with a weapon that is under this effect, the damage only occurs at these timing intervals. The wielder is not making attacks on your turn when you either cast or use a bonus action to cause the damage to occur.
If someone wants to have it be enchanted on a dagger and leave it stuck in the body then this is fine as the caster can then cast/use bonus action to trigger the damage but the dagger can no longer be used for attacks.
It's a concentration spell. So the most immediate way to end the damage is to attack the spellcaster
How does it work with chain?
Absolute zero physically can't be created IRL, it's so cold, so that doesn't really matter here, although that might be different in D&D. Plus, you'd have to move the heat you're taking out of the metal somewhere- Basically casting Heat Metal on something else nearby. Chill Metal would most likely be a higher-spell slot counterpart to Heat Metal, which does less damage but lets you simultaneously cast Heat Metal, and do the damage of both as a bonus action.
Also, about absolute zero- It literally cannot be created IRL. Machines give off some energy no matter what, so you can't create it artificially unless you have a coldening device that uses no friction. The closest you could get is black holes, but even those don't work because of the factor of Hawking radiation- Black holes give off a miniscule amount of heat and energy, meaning they can't create absolute zero either.
Best thing to cast on your Iron Golem
I don't read this as the object being made red hot for the entire duration. Instead, the object pulses red hot at the casting of the spell, and when the bonus action is used on the caster's turn. Outside of those moments, the object is not red hot and does not cause damage. That instantaneous moment of damage may also not be enough to do secondary effects, like light wooden things on fire, and since the spell does not say that, I don't think it would work that way either, RAW. It may still be OP, but I think there are many fewer situations where it would actually work than most people think.
DM: you encounter a group of slavers. One of them grins humorlessly, showing a mouthful of gold teeth. "It looks like we got some fresh mea- Druid: I cast heat metal. DM: O_O
Considering that the rules say "Any creature in physical contact with the object takes 2d8 fire damage" this spell should be ineffective against metal armour, because the descriptions of all metal armour types mention an underlayer of cloth or leather beneath the metal.
Have two druids cast it one after the other so it's a constant spell
Yes, but that cloth or leather may burn easy. It may tank some of the fire damage before hitting the creature. In any case its up to the DM how they want to handle it.
gonna use this on a prosthetic arm
For anyone that says that it takes 5 or 10 minutes to take off armor is wrong. That is the amount of time to put on the armor. It takes 1 (medium) or 5 (heavy) minutes to take off armor.
I would rule that if the target moves out of range, then the bonus action cannot be used to re-apply the damage, as it should have the same range restriction.
cast it on a gold tooth