Level
9th
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
60 ft
Components
V
Duration
Instantaneous
School
Enchantment
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Control (...)
You utter a word of power that can compel one creature you can see within range to die instantly. If the creature you choose has 100 hit points or fewer, it dies. Otherwise, the spell has no effect.
Can you guess the words for Power Word Kill?
AVADA KEDAVRA!
No saves, no rolls, just your body turns cold and you hit the floor.
It said nothing about max hp. I think they meant 100 current hp
Would this kill a Raging Beyond Death zealot barbarian who was under 100 hp?
consider a lich, very powerful and common BBEG has 135 hitpoints. you only have to do 35 points of damage to it to get in range of this spell. Ignores legendary resistances damage resistances, everything. If your spellcaster goes towards the end of initiative they could kill them on first round
why can warlocks learn this if they never get 9th level spell slots?
Mystic Arcanum allows them to select one 9th-level spell, and this spell is on the list they can choose from
it means if there current hit points are 100 or lower
As stated, if a creature has more than 100 hit points, such as a kraken, it will be unaffected. If it has 100 hit points or less, the die
True, unless, somehow, you happen to have over 100 hit points, which is quite impressive
Possible Casting Word:
”AMONGUS”
if the targeted creature can’t take the Among Us posts anymore.
Difference of 80 HP, and Divine Word gives a Cha Save.
I expect that the Power Word and Divine Word spells are supposed to be Words of Creation (or maybe Dark Speech); words so powerful and fundamental that they can shape or unmake reality. It's not the act of hearing the word that kills you, it's the act of it being spoken.
Just in case anyone wants a side order of lore to go along with their main course of suddenly dead character.
Dodging legendary resistances is its only real perk. But you have spells that get close to 100 damage even when they save. It is a pretty weak spell for 9th level. Its a spell that never translated well from 1e/2e where they had casting times. The very large perk of power word spells in 1/2e is they had a casting time of 1, most spells had a casting time of their spell level. Which meant most 6+ level spells were going to be the last thing happening in the round giving your enemies a pretty big window to interrupt you. And in a world where 1 hp of damage automatically disrupted the casting of a spell thats pretty big.
I guess at least for enchanters it isn't that bad.Still I kind of feel if they weren't going to make the HP window higher than the average damage from a meteor swarm they should have given it a perk like its a bonus action cast, heck reaction maybe.
the latter
"simp" - last thing tiamat heard before death
Not necessarily true. Our L4 party with zero of those spells stumbled into a lich in POTA that is legit in the book in the place where you are supposed to be, but you're just supposed to somehow know it's a lich (which a L4 party wouldn't) and not mess with him. He of course had PWK. DM had to roll that one back real fast.
So, can this spell only be used once in total, or does it have a charge/limit per day?
You can use it as long as you have a spell slot to do it. However even at level 20 you only have one ninth level spell slot so it is only a once per day/rest thing.
Avada Kadavra!