A churning storm cloud forms, centered on a point you can see and spreading to a radius of 360 feet. Lightning flashes in the area, thunder booms, and strong winds roar. Each creature under the cloud (no more than 5,000 feet beneath the cloud) when it appears must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d6 thunder damage and becomes deafened for 5 minutes.
Each round you maintain concentration on this spell, the storm produces different effects on your turn.
Round 2. Acidic rain falls from the cloud. Each creature and object under the cloud takes 1d6 acid damage.
Round 3. You call six bolts of lightning from the cloud to strike six creatures or objects of your choice beneath the cloud. A given creature or object can't be struck by more than one bolt. A struck creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Round 4. Hailstones rain down from the cloud. Each creature under the cloud takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
Round 5–10. Gusts and freezing rain assail the area under the cloud. The area becomes difficult terrain and is heavily obscured. Each creature there takes 1d6 cold damage. Ranged weapon attacks in the area are impossible. The wind and rain count as a severe distraction for the purposes of maintaining concentration on spells. Finally, gusts of strong wind (ranging from 20 to 50 miles per hour) automatically disperse fog, mists, and similar phenomena in the area, whether mundane or magical.
If my my players ever use this I'll just double the damage for the spell tbh.
the way I see it, you deal more damage than a fireball (using magical damage types that have little to no resistance) to everything w/in 720 feet of the center. this is in addition to the lightning bolts, deafened, and no ranged weapon attacks.
One of the less well known triggers that can cause rolling of concentration checks is any "severe distraction" that your DM chooses, a lot of groups forget about it and only roll concentration when damage is taken. Severe storms are an ideal example of a severe distraction, and in this case the spell specifically triggers concentration checks in this way, meaning casters in the area need to roll for concentration every turn simply for being in the area, in addition to any checks they take due to damage.
I need to read what the errata was about effects not being cumulative, so if anybody has a link that would be great. You need to think about this more from a Nature and mass area point of view, not so much as I'm going to siege a castle point of view and punch holes through things. Imagine an army in tents spread out before your forest, hit them with this before you attack or during the storm, depending on the stage and your planning. Imagine the CHAOS in the army hit by this. Nobody can hear orders, lightning is falling down on their leaders, acid and ice are hitting Soldiers and objects, nowhere to run, tents provide little to no protection, deaths begin to mount. Enemies appear and attack you, ranged attacks don't work against them, your casters can't concentrate. UTTER CHAOS in your army. Now Imagine the same being applied to a fleet approaching your coast, an armada of flying creatures approaching. Yes even a castle or village would give shelter, but the effects and chaos would be real. Imagine the effect on crops, livestock, and other crucial stockpiles.
The reality is in mass fights with huge armies, fleets, castles, or other things like that, calculating 1,235,500 damage done, then the next person doing a paltry 887,976 damage instead is pointless. You have no REAL way to apply any of those numbers to people, buildings, vehicles, or objects. So in the end it comes down to a good DM using what a spell does, applying its damage when possible, but also using the flavor and chaos when possible. Yes Meteor Swarm can smash huge holes in walls, castles, and kill big creatures and chunks of men. Yet when done, that damage is localized to 4 spots, Ships, flyers, other groups of enemies will still be ready to fight. Meteor Swarm does what it is supposed too, and Storm of Vengeance used and ran properly by a GM should really be called Storm of Chaos, because that is a much better description.
I like the last idea you suggested. That seems like EXACTLY the thing an archdruid would do. Though, many druids are inherently nonviolent (Circle of The Moon being an exception), all druids would eventually get infuriated of giving the city too many warnings. You had your chance, noble. Now it's time to see everything you worked so hard to protect and expand slowly fall to ruin. I never wanted to do this, but I must for the forest and all the creatures that dwell within it.
Depending on how your DM runs the game, this spell may or may not be super effective against objects or structures. I know the lightning bolts will set most of buildings on fire, and the acid could slowly melt the frame of the structure away. The Strong Wind could blow down unsecure objects and loose structures, but that's up to the DM. Some DMs may allow the hailstones to deal damage to structures, even though it says it only affects creatures.
Each lightning bolt does 10d6 damage and can only affect one creature. So you can't deal 60d6 damage with the lightning bolts.
The errata is small but a major change:
"Each round you maintain concentration on this spell, the storm produces different effects on your turn."
Initially was:
"Each round you maintain concentration on this spell, the storm produces additional effects on your turn."
I don't know what they changed it.
If a Druid had a crystal ball, could they scry an area and then cast this spell? In other words, could they look at a point with a concentration spell and then in that moment cast another concentration spell on that point before their concentration on the first spell ends?
How would the Round 5-10 effect interact with Oath of the Open Sea paladin's Marine Layer? For reference:
As an action, you channel the sea to create a thick cloud of fog that surrounds you for 20 feet in all directions. The fog moves with you, remaining centered on you and making its area heavily obscured. You and each creature within 5 feet of you instead treat the area as lightly obscured. This fog lasts for 10 minutes, spreads around corners, and cannot be dispersed unless you choose to end this effect (no action required).
Though this is magical, would is it magical enough to override a 9th level spell?
I think you could play this one of two ways. If the Storm of Vengeance is already in rounds 5-10, the Marine Layer fog never forms, as it is broken up. If not already in rounds 5-10, you could play it whichever way suits you best. Either the Marine layer fog forms, helping hide you from the storm, or it is torn apart by the ferocity of the storm. I think I would rule that the Storm of Vengeance would over power it, as it is a 9th level spell and the Channel Divinity feature is available to a 3rd level paladin, but I think it could be great either way!
How about this version of storm of vengeance. There are some small differences (reading wise) here and there so be sure to read carefully.
Compare it to the actual Storm of Vengeance.
9th-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Sight
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 3 minute
A churning storm cloud forms, centered on a point you can see and spreading to a radius of 360 feet. Lightning flashes in the area, thunder booms, and strong winds roar. Each creature under the cloud (no more than 5,000 feet beneath the cloud) when it appears must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d6 thunder damage and becomes deafened for 5 minutes.
Each round you maintain concentration on this spell, the storm produces different effects on your turn.
You can move the cloud 100 feet in one direction as an action.
Storm of Vengeance After Round 1
Round #
Effect
2
Acidic rain and ashfall rains down from the cloud. Each creature and object under the cloud takes 1d6 acid damage and 2d4 fire damage.
3
You call six bolts of lightning from the cloud to strike six creatures or objects of your choice beneath the cloud. A given creature or object can’t be struck by more than one bolt. A struck creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Creatures within 5 feet of a struck creature or object must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 4d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
4
Hailstones rain down from the cloud. A creature takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage and 4d4 cold damage.
Hailstones turn the storm’s area of effect into difficult terrain.
5-26
Gusts and freezing rain assail the area under the cloud. The area becomes difficult terrain and is heavily obscured. Each creature there takes 1d6 cold damage. Ranged weapon attacks in the area are impossible. The wind and rain count as a severe distraction for the purposes of maintaining concentration on spells. Finally, gusts of strong wind (ranging from 20 to 50 miles per hour) automatically disperse fog, mists, and similar phenomena in the area whether mundane or magical.
First I would like to explain the ashfall effect of second round: From what I understand, storm of vengeance is supposed to be as if you were conjuring up a small hurricane. So after some research on how to add a type of fire damage effect to it (for the reason that it already has every other elemental type, acid, cold, lightning, and thunder, but not fire). I came across volcanic eruptions and how they work. From the research I gathered, volcanic eruptions can cause a kind of acid rain affect as well as ashfall (of course). So I figured since you are the one casting the spell, you could ideally cast the effects of volcanic eruption (in the cloud/storm aspects).
Now you might think to yourself that this is a little far fetched. Until you look at the incendiary cloud spell. Which is pretty much the same concept on a smaller scale. Not to mention you are a druid with the ability to make natural phenomena happen (Tsunami, Earthquake, Control Weather, etc.) so it kind of makes it feel like you're combining volcanic eruption effects (cloud/storm wise) with a hurricane. Which I personally think that makes storm a vengeance sound like an even cooler and more powerful spell.
Next the Lightning and Hailstones revision: I actually got the ideas for these revisions from two spells that are actually in the druid spell list. Call Lighting (3rd level spell), and Ice Storm (4th level spell). After looking at call lightning, I simply thought to myself that "if a creature could take damage from being next to the lightning strike, shouldn't that same rule apply to the lightning of storm of vengeance especially since it's a ninth level spell?" so I added it with some small changes (which may need some fixing, so let me know). And "if ice storm could cause both bludgeoning and cold damage it only makes sense that the hailstones of storm of vengeance should be able to do the same." so I added it with some changes. I get that some people might think that adding difficult terrain from the hailstones might be a bit weird, but ideally the hailstorms would fall to the ground and stay there I would think which is one reason why I added it. I also added it for the purpose that you can move the cloud 100 feet in any direction as an action (which I will talk about below soon).
I did try to tone down the damage of these effects for the reason that people are always saying that storm of vengeance is supposed to be an "army killing" spell not a "deal a lot of high damage" spell. Though I admit this was a little difficult to do with the lightning effects.
And now the Duration and Moving the Cloud: I've heard a lot of people talk about how the duration should be longer, especially for a 9th level spell and I agree. I thought for a while of either making it 10 minutes or one hour long. But after realizing how much damage just 10 minutes could do, this would be an absolutely overkill spell even against bosses, (it would just take longer to kill them as well), and I think with all the other effects I added to the spell, 3 minutes seemed reasonable (but tell me what you think). I got the idea of being able to move the cloud from the Reddit user (Linxbolt18) who previously talked about the other users storm of vengeance revision. In fact they were the inspiration behind me putting forth an effort to revision this spell once and for all, as I had been floating around some ideas but never put anything out there about it. So credit goes to them for this revision as well.
Please tell me your guys's thoughts on this revision.
Lots of people are saying this spell is bad for very elaborate reasons, I just don't like the ally damaging. That's it.