D&D 5E Questions on spell and class balance

This thread will be a collection of spell and class balance questions I have.


1) I'm trying to build a yuki-onna/storm sorcerer with more of a focus on ice spells than lightning spells. (Currently still has a balance of both, because I'm not ready to completely rewrite the subclass.) Along the way, trying to find thematic spells I could use, I discovered Fog of Viscidity in the Elminster's Guide to Magic collection/homebrew, and I realized that it is effectively a snow-based Fog Cloud. Further, it's basically a midpoint between Fog Cloud and Sleet Storm.

As such, I considered an entire line of "winter" spells that focus on this general theme, with the above three, and adding a 'Blizzard' spell above them.

The first question is whether the new spells would be considered balanced for their level, and if not, why not?

The second question would be whether these seem appropriate as part of a set of bonus spells, or if they should just be a line of replacement spells? That is, would a set of bonus spells seem balanced when one line of the spells is just an ever more elaborate version of the same spell? (I know the bonus spells were removed from the Storm Sorcerer, but I just can't see how you can make a functional mage that follows that theme (ie: "storm", rather than, "a few lightning spells") without those extra spells. But that's a separate issue.)


Here's the spell descriptions, including Fog Cloud and Sleet Storm for comparison.

[sblock=Fog Cloud]
Fog Cloud
Level 1 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of fog centered on a point within range. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured. It lasts for the duration or until a wind of moderate or greater speed (at least 10 miles per hour) disperses it.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the radius of the fog cloud increases by 20 feet for each slot level above 1st.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Snow Flurry]
Snow Flurry
Level 2 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You create a 30-foot-radius sphere of swirling snow centered on a point within range. The sphere spreads around corners, and the area is heavily obscured. The snow is thick, and clings to anyone in its area of effect, causing the region to be difficult terrain.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the radius of the snow flurry increases by 30 feet for each slot level above 2nd.
[/sblock]

Changes from Fog Cloud to Snow Flurry:
+10 feet radius
Is difficult terrain


[sblock=Sleet Storm]
Sleet Storm
Level 3 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dust and a few drops of water)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Until the spell ends, freezing rain and sleet fall in a 20-foot-tall cylinder with a 40-foot radius centered on a point you choose within range. The area is heavily obscured, and exposed flames in the area are doused.

The ground in the area is covered with slick ice, making it difficult terrain. When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it falls prone.

If a creature is concentrating in the spell’s area, the creature must make a successful Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or lose concentration.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Blizzard]
Blizzard
Level 4 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dust and a few drops of water)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Until the spell ends, howling winds drive snow throughout a 30-foot-tall cylinder with a 40-foot radius centered on a point you choose within range. The area is heavily obscured, and exposed flames in the area are doused.

The ground in the area is covered with thick snow, and the howling winds deafen anyone within. The entire area is difficult terrain (including for flyers), and physical ranged attacks have disadvantage if they pass in or out of the area. Each turn that a creature affected by the obscure effect attempts to begin a move, it must make a successful Wisdom (Survival) check against your spell save DC or end up moving in a random direction.

When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, it is considered restrained by the accumulating snow drifts, and takes 2d6 cold damage. {Optional: Each turn this spell is maintained, the difficulty of this check increases by 1.}

If a creature is concentrating in the spell’s area, the creature must make a successful Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or lose concentration.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage done is increased by 1d6 for each level above 4th.
[/sblock]

Changes from Sleet Storm to Blizzard:
+10 feet height
Difficult terrain for flyers (in addition to walkers) due to wind+cold
Physical ranged attacks have disadvantage due to wind
Save Str or restrained, instead of save Dex or prone.
Take 2d6 cold damage on failed check.
Can lose sense of direction

Snow Flurry seems fine. It compares well to the 2nd level spell Web. It's got a bigger area than web and creates heavily obscured area rather than lightly obscured. Both create difficult terrain, but web also has the potential to restrain individuals. That said, web is also flammable. That could damage creatures caught in them, but also would allow someone to prematurely end the spell.

As for the other one, I'm not sure. It seems a lot more complicated than most 5e spells in the number of things it does. But a good marker to compare it to would be Control Winds from the Player's Supplement to the Princes of the Apocalypse. The range and area is better, but you gotta choose either disadvantage on ranged attacks and difficult terrain (flyers included), or knock flyers prone. It doesn't give an opportunity for damage or the disruption to concentration.

Hawk Diesel said:

Snow Flurry seems fine. It compares well to the 2nd level spell Web. It's got a bigger area than web and creates heavily obscured area rather than lightly obscured. Both create difficult terrain, but web also has the potential to restrain individuals. That said, web is also flammable. That could damage creatures caught in them, but also would allow someone to prematurely end the spell.

As for the other one, I'm not sure. It seems a lot more complicated than most 5e spells in the number of things it does. But a good marker to compare it to would be Control Winds from the Player's Supplement to the Princes of the Apocalypse. The range and area is better, but you gotta choose either disadvantage on ranged attacks and difficult terrain (flyers included), or knock flyers prone. It doesn't give an opportunity for damage or the disruption to concentration.

Click to expand...

Assuming that's the same Control Winds as in Xanathar's...

It has options of:
1) Disadvantage ranged + difficult terrain (flyers included)
2) Disadvantage ranged + knock down flyers
3) Reduce falling damage

And a duration of 1 hour, with the ability to turn any given effect on or off, including completely halting the spell's effects, and then restarting them.

I could see removing disadvantage on ranged attacks from Blizzard. It doesn't really help the spell.

I could make the damage just be part of the Constitution check that casters would be making anyway, instead of tied to the Str check. That fits better with most cold spells, and doesn't seem as complicated.

It still means that there will be three saves needed every turn for each creature — Survival for direction, Strength for getting stuck, and Constitution for damage/concentration. Plus an extra roll for the random direction if they fail the Survival check. And that really is too much.

It would be nice to combine the Survival and Strength check in some way, but they're really two very separate things. Should probably drop the Survival check, as that's the most complicated, and has the least justification as an effect. Really, it was creeping into adding Confusion to the spell effects, and that would be too much.

Here's a stripped-down rewrite.

[sblock=Blizzard]
Blizzard
Level 4 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dust and a few drops of water)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Until the spell ends, howling winds drive snow throughout a 30-foot-tall cylinder with a 40-foot radius centered on a point you choose within range. The area is heavily obscured, and exposed flames in the area are doused. The ground in the area is covered with thick snow, and the howling winds deafen anyone within. The entire area is difficult terrain (including for flyers).

When a creature starts its turn in the spell's area, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, it is considered restrained for that turn by the accumulating snow. {Optional: Each turn this spell is maintained, the difficulty of this check increases by 1.}

When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Constitution saving through. On a failed save, it takes 2d6 Cold damage, and loses concentration on any spells it is maintaining. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage.


At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage done is increased by 1d6 for each level above 4th.
[/sblock]

Summary of changes from Sleet Storm to Blizzard:
+10 feet height
Difficult terrain for flyers (in addition to walkers) due to wind+cold
Deafens
Save Str or restrained, instead of save Dex or prone.
Take 2d6 cold damage on failed constitution check.

So, looking for a 3rd level non-Fireball AOE damage spell.

I started with Tidal Wave, which is sort of, but not really, Storm Sorcerer territory. I could just reskin it (change the element/description), but I also was looking at the spell creation rules in the DMG. The problem is that the DMG says nothing about how the area of the spell might affect its damage potential.

The quintessential Fireball has a 1250 sq ft area — obscenely large, on top of the overpowered damage it does.

Tidal Wave has a 300 sq ft area, on top of being underpowered compared to the DMG guidelines. (It does an average of 18 damage (4d8) instead of the suggested 21 for an AOE spell.)

I could bump the damage up to 5d8 and be closer to the suggested guidelines, but the real question is, what is a 'typical' area for an AOE? Presumably a smaller area corresponds to higher damage, given that it reaches the limit of a single 5'x5' square, or one person, for the 5d10 damage level.

So looking at the progression of typical AOE sizes for damage spells over the levels, I see:

Cantrip: 5' radius = 225 sq feet
1st: 15' cone = 115 sq ft; 10' radius (self) = 300 sq ft; 15' cube = 225 sq ft
2nd: 10' radius = 300 sq ft
3rd: 30'x10' = 300 sq ft; 10' radius (self) = 300 sq ft; 20' radius (fireball) = 1250 sq ft
4th: 20' radius = 1250 sq ft; 30' radius = 3000 sq ft
5th: 60' cone = 1800 sq ft; 20' radius (duration) = 1250 sq ft; 20' radius (duration) = 1250 sq ft

Overall, it looks like an increase of 5' radius per level, aside from spells that have duration. So a 'normal' AOE size would be:

Cantrip: 5' radius
1st: 5' radius (~100-200 sq ft)
2nd: 10' radius (~300 sq ft)
3rd: 15' radius (~700 sq ft)
4th: 20' radius (~1250 sq ft)
5th: 25' radius (~2000 sq ft)

If Insect Plague is a proper 5th level spell, then adding duration to an AOE damage area drops the spell damage rating 2 levels, and the region size by 1 level. Insect Plague does 4d10, which is a 22 point average, which approximates the 6d6 recommended level for 3rd level spells (average 21). Same for Cloudkill (5d8 = 22.5 avg). So the moving doesn't matter (as long as the caster doesn't control it), but it's still a duration spell.

Both of them are 10 minute duration spells; not sure if that has an effect compared to 1 minute duration concentration spells like Storm Sphere (4th level). Sickening Radiance (4th level) is also a 10 minute duration spell, but with a 30' radius, and the same 4d10 damage as the 5th level spell Insect Plague.

So, additional rules:
1) Self-targeted instead of ranged allows increasing area by one level. (?)
2) Adding a duration reduces area by one level, and reduces damage by two level.


I would consider Sickening Radiance overpowered, and Storm Sphere underpowered (though how it works makes it more complicated). Meanwhile, Fireball has the area of a 4th level spell and the damage of a 5th level spell.


Anyway, back to the original question. Tidal Wave is working on a 2nd level spell AOE size, and doing damage less than a 3rd level spell. Increasing the area to 40'x20' would put it on 3rd level sizing. Increasing the damage to 5d8 puts it on 3rd level damage levels.

I'm not sure about the difference between 1 minute and 10 minute concentration durations, though. Do they even matter, given it requires concentration to maintain? Kind of tempted to say any spell 4th level or higher that uses concentration can get the 10 minute duration as the baseline, but possibly bump up other aspects (such as damage) if the duration is only one minute.


Does this seem like a reasonable approach for balancing AOE spells that do damage?

Continuing the examination of area issues, there are a couple other questions:

1) How does volume factor into things?
2) How does area trade off with damage?

For the first question, all of the regions that I estimated in the above post were areas, not volume, despite being spheres. A fireball doesn't have to be targeted at ground level; you could shoot that griffon rider flying overhead, and get the full sphere volume.

There's also the issue of comparing it with a cylindrical spell. Sleet Storm has a 40' radius and a 20' height. If it were a sphere, that 40' radius would mean that its max height was also 40'. Cylinders are generally designed to be cast at ground level, but even if you cast it on a target in the air, it would still only be 20' high.

In general, height is going to be less valuable than area. While there are some flyers, and targeting flyers is in itself valuable, the vast majority of all encounters (in low to mid levels, anyway) is going to be at ground level.

You also have to consider that, while a single 'square' for a person to occupy is 5' by 5', which gives plenty of room to maneuver, it probably is 10' high. A person is only a couple feet wide, at best, but can easily be 6' to 7' tall. The occupied region of a single person is thus closer to 5'x5'x10'.

Between the two above factors, I would probably divide the height of an AOE region in half in order to get a proper scaling value when combined with area. And in fact, it would likely be easier to compare using map grid 'units': 5'x5'x10' = 1 cubic unit.

Further, circular area doesn't translate well to map grid units, particularly when factoring in that the center point is typically the center of a grid square. A spell that hits everything within 5' of that square hits 9 total squares, whereas calculating it as a circle, it would only hit 3.

So, a little aside for some math.

[sblock=Math]
5' radius = 1 unit radius = 9 unit area
10' radius = 2 unit radius = 21 unit area (4 furthest corners on a square grid excluded)
All further unit radius areas can be approximated by: pi * (1.1*radius)^2

It's not exact, but it's close enough for comparison purposes, since we only want rough scaling.

So area comparison tiers:

1st — 5' = 9 units
2nd — 10' = 21 units
3rd — 15' = 34 units
4th — 20' = 61 units
5th — 25' = 95 units
6th — 30' = 137 units
7th — 35' = 186 units
8th — 40' = 243 units
9th — 45' = 308 units
10th — 50' = 380 units

Cylindrical volumes are easy to extrapolate from that. Just take the area units and multiply by +1 for every 10 feet in height. So, for example, Sleet Storm would use the 40' area (243 units) times 2 for being 20' tall (total of 486 volume units).

Conical I'll just take as area units only, as the vertical aspect is hard to figure or irrelevant. The PHB says the width of the cone is the same as its length, so its area is length time half length. EG: A 15' cone is 3 * 1.5 = 4.5 ⇒ 5 units. A 60' cone is 12 * 6 = 72 units.

Cube is easy enough. Control Winds is a 100' cube, so 400 area units and 4000 volume units. (Non-damaging spells tend to have larger areas.)

And the sphere...

At less than 20' radius, volume matches area * 2.
At 20' radius, you get an extra set of volume units: [ sqrt(20^2 - 10^2) = radius 17 ~= 44 units ] * 2.
At 30' radius, you get two extra sets of volume units: [ sqrt(30^2 - 10^2) = radius 28 ~= 120 units ], [ sqrt(30^2 - 20^2) = radius 22 ~= 74 units ]
At 40' radius, you get three extra sets of volume units: [ sqrt(40^2 - 10^2) = radius 39 ~= 231 units ], [ sqrt(40^2 - 20^2) = radius 35 ~= 186 units ], [ sqrt(40^2 - 30^2) = radius 26 ~= 103 units ]

So volume unit comparisons:

1st — 5' = 9 units hemisphere / 9 units sphere
2nd — 10' = 21 units hemisphere / 42 units sphere
3rd — 15' = 34 units hemisphere / 68 units sphere
4th — 20' = 105 units hemisphere / 210 units sphere
5th — 25' = 139 units hemisphere / 278 units sphere
6th — 30' = 314 units hemisphere / 628 units sphere
7th — 35' = 380 units hemisphere / 760 units sphere
8th — 40' = 763 units hemisphere / 1526 units sphere


Since I want to aim at a set of guidelines, I don't need exact values, and can just use numbers that allow approximating what I want as I change the shapes.

Level — area units / hemisphere units / volume units
1st — 10 / 10 / 10
2nd — 20 / 20 / 40
3rd — 35 / 35 / 70
4th — 60 / 100 / 200
5th — 100 / 150 / 300
6th — 150 / 300 / 600
7th — 200 / 400 / 800
8th — 250 / 500 / 1000
9th — 300 / 750 / 1500
10th — 400 / 1000 / 2000

Area units would be the most important. Hemisphere and Sphere units would be smaller factors. Each area unit approximates the ground area of a sphere with radius 5'xLevel.

Area scaling above 5th level should be taken with a grain of salt. Up to 5th level, each additional level increased the area by a factor of about 1.7. Above 5th level, the above chart increases much more slowly.

It could be that above a 30' radius, the increase should be in increments of 10' instead of 5'. I can't think of any spells that have a 35' radius; only 30' and 40'.

If we focus more on scaling level-to-level, above 5th level the progression would look more like this:

Level — area units / hemisphere units / volume units
1st (5') — 10 / 10 / 10
2nd (10') — 20 / 20 / 40
3rd (15') — 35 / 35 / 70
4th (20') — 60 / 100 / 200
5th (25') — 100 / 150 / 300
6th (30') — 150 / 300 / 600
7th (40') — 250 / 750 / 1500
8th (50') — 400 / 1200 / 2400
9th (60') — 600 / 1800 / 3600
10th (80') — 1000 / 3000 / 6000
11th (100') — 1500 / 5000 / 10000

[/sblock]

Now, back to Tidal Wave. The default spell has an area of 12 units (30'x10' = 6x2 = 12). Its volume is the same, since it's 10' high. That puts it on par with a 1st level spell.

My rework would give it an area of 32 units (40'x20' = 8x4 = 32) or 30 units (50'x15' = 10x3 = 30), which is more on par with a 3rd level spell.


Next, the question of how area and damage trade off with each other.

For this, I'm gonna try a small cheat, and look at Melf's Minute Meteors. [Caveat: The math below this shows that this is not in any way workable.]

With MMM, you get 6 small fireballs that each can damage a 5' radius area, and do 2d6 damage each. You can thus view this as a 2d6 damage AOE that covers 6*9units = 54 units area, or a 12d6 damage AOE that covers a single 5' radius (9 units) area.

2d6 on multiple targets is a 1st level spell, according to the DMG chart. 12d6 is 7th level.

9 unit AOE is a 1st level spell area. 54 units is a 4th level spell area.

So increasing area by 3 levels decreases damage by 6 levels, and vice-versa. Given the relatively small changes in damage per spell level, compared to a relatively large area change, and thus increase in the number of potential targets, I could see a 2:1 ratio for damage vs area. Probably a little less, though, for single-event spells.


If you apply that to, say, Tidal Wave, its 1st level area size (-2 levels) would mean +4 levels in damage (maybe +3 levels). Its original damage was 4d8, which is level 2.5 (possibly reduced because of damage type?). Scaling it up 3 levels to 5.5 would make it 8d8 damage.


valid?

So, using Tidal Wave as an example, given its area (30'x10'), does 8d8 seem reasonable damage for a 3rd level spell?

Actually, before going there, lets look at the spell damage chart, because we do have an upper limit to consider — how much damage a spell does to a single target (limit as area approaches 0).


One thing to note is that level 2 single-target spells are significantly underpowered compared to every other level. For almost all levels, single-target damage is estimated at 30% to 60% higher than area target damage, with an average of 1.486 (excluding level 2). At 2nd level, though, it's under 20%. Increasing single-target damage from 3d10 to 4d10 would fix that inconsistancy, bringing the ratio up to 1.571 like level 1 and cantrips.

I would recommend increasing the crafted target damage for 2nd level single-target spells to 4d10, or 22 points.


Now, given that, we then see that the maximum increase we want to allow to the damage value of an AOE spell is about 50%. So a 4d8 AOE spell should never increase to more than 6d8 damage due to reduced area, because eventually it will reach the point where it's equivalent to a single-target spell.

So based on that, I would increase the damage value for Tidal Wave (assuming it kept its original area) by about 35%. Based off of its original 4d8 damage, I'd change it to 7d6 (18 damage to 24.5 damage). Based off of a standard 3rd level damage rating, I'd change it to 6d8 (21 damage to 27 damage).


Summary

1) Accounting for volume would seem to give more points to consider when balancing a spell, though it appears relatively easy to balance that on a different column of the spell size comparisons.

2) Increasing or decreasing damage in proportion to changes in AOE size seems relatively simple, once you know the limits to work with. Increasing damage with decreasing area should have a limit of +50%, and can be inverted if increasing the AOE size (-33%) [3/2 vs 2/3]. Need to figure out what the limit on size increases are, but not sure how to do that right now.

Errata: 2nd level single-target spells should have a target damage value of 4d10, not 3d10.

Now, looking at duration spells.


AOE spells that are not damaging in nature are either, "Target X creatures that you can see within Y feet", or a concentration effect with a duration (eg: Fog Cloud). Given my interests at the moment, I will be focusing on the concentration-duration spells.

Fog Cloud - Level 1

20' sphere = 60 area units. It's basically always on the ground, so full sphere volume doesn't matter, and it has minimal value for height above one creature unit.

It's level 3 in size. +2 vs spell level.

It has a duration of 1 hour.

It has one special effect:
The area is heavily obscured.

It has one detriment:
It can be dispersed with a moderate wind.


Web - Level 2

20' cube = 16 area units / 32 volume units

It's level 2 in volume. @ spell level

It has a duration of 1 hour.

It has various special effects:
The area is lightly obscured.
Terrain is difficult
Dex or restrained

It has a detriment:
Area is flammable, ending spell and doing damage.


Sleet Storm - Level 3

20' high, 40' radius cylinder = 250 area units / 500 volume units.

It's roughly level 5, maybe 5.5, in pure volume. +2 to +2.5 vs spell level.

It has a duration of 1 minute.

It has five special effects:
Area is heavily obscured
Fires are extinguished
Terrain is difficult
Dex check or fall prone
Con check or lose concentration



If I were to try 'buy' Fog Cloud in points, and making up these point costs as I go along, I'd do:

size 3 = +2 points
duration 1hr = +4 point
heavily obscured = +2 points
dispersed with moderate wind = -2 points (-1 if strong wind)

Total: 6 points (Level + 5, 2*Level + 4, 3*Level + 3)


Then try with Web.

size 2 = 0 points
duration 1hr = +4 points
lightly obscured = +1 point
difficult terrain = +1 point
dex check or restrained (str to escape) = +2
flammable = -1
but does damage = +1

Total: 8 points (Level + 6, 2*Level + 4, 3*Level + 2)


Then try with Sleet Storm.

size 5 = +2 points
duration 1 min = +2 point
heavily obscured = +2 points
difficult terrain = +1 point
extinguish fires = +0.5 points
dex check or prone = +1 point
con check = +1 point

Total: 9.5 points (Level + 6, 2*Level + 3.5, 3*Level + 0)


It's likely that my point choices are off in some respects, but it gives a rough scaling to work from: Level + 5, or 2*Level + 3~4. Can at least get a ballpark figure to work from.


For reference on time, I'm using:

0 = 1 round
+1 = 3 rounds
+2 = 1 minute
+3 = 10 minutes
+4 = 1 hour

And I considered calculating the size relative to spell level, but decided it was easier to just use the size value directly. All it does it add an extra spell level's worth of points, so the scaling remains consistent.


It might even work for damaging spells, where most of the points are allocated to damage and/or area, and leftover points can go to special effects. However I have no idea how to determine how many points to allocate for "doing damage".

Let's try an experiment.

Cloudkill - Level 5

20' sphere = Level 4 in volume
5d8 damage = Level 3 in damage

It has a duration of 10 minutes

Special effects:
Heavily obscured

Detriments:
Dispersed by strong wind


Points:
size -1 = -1 points
heavily obscured = +2
dispersed in strong wind = -1
duration (10 min) = +3
poison damage = +1
damage -2 = +??

Total: 4 + damage

Expected total: Level+5 = 10, 2*Level+3 = 13

Level 3 Damage = 6 or 9 points

However I think the duration affects this more strongly as a damaging spell. So:


Points:
size -1 = -1 points
heavily obscured = +2
dispersed in strong wind = -1
duration (10 min) = +3*2 = +6
poison damage = +1
damage -2 = +??

Total: 7 + damage

Expected total: Level+5 = 10, 2*Level+3 = 13

Level 3 Damage = 3 or 6 points

I could see 1 or 2 points per damage tier.


So, overall, have a methodology of handling spells with duration. A lot of guesswork still involved, but at least can have an idea of if it's close.

Does this seem reasonable?

So going back to Tidal Wave, and a reskin, Avalanche. Also doing Lightning Bolt and Fireball, since they're level 3. We know that Fireball is overpowered, so I expect a high result.


Tidal Wave

Size: 30'x10' = 12 units = Level 1
Damage: 4d8 = 18 pts = Level 2.5
Dex save or knocked prone

Points: -2 (size) +5 (damage 2.5) + 1 (prone effect) = +4


Lightning Bolt

Size: 100'x5' = 20 units = Level 2
Damage: 8d6 = 28 = Level 5
Sets stuff on fire

Points: -1 (size) + 10 (damage 5) + 0.5 (fire) = 9.5


Fireball

Size: 20' radius = 60 units = Level 4
Damage: 8d6 = 28 = Level 5
Sets stuff on fire

Points: +1 (size) + 10 (damage 5) + 0.5 (fire) = 11.5


Avalanche

Size: 40'x20' = 32 units = Level 3
Damage: 5d8 = 22 = Level 3
Dex save or knocked prone

Points: 0 (size) +6 (damage 3) + 1 (prone effect) = +7


If points are 2X+3 (per earlier estimated calculations), then a 3rd level spell should have 9 points to work with. Lightning Bolt is 9.5, which is close enough. That means I should still have a bit of wiggle room on Avalanche.

Realistically, I could see adding a restrained effect for a turn if the creature failed its dex save and fell prone, given all that snow being dumped on top of them. Not sure how many points that would be worth, though. Maybe "restrained until the beginning of its next turn"? That would give a short window of extra advantage, but wouldn't prevent the creature from standing up and acting on its next turn. A mild enough buff that should fit within the boundaries of the spell design.



Avalanche
Level 3 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of water)
Duration: Instantaneous

You conjure up a wave of snow that crashes down on an area within range. The area can be up to 40 feet long, up to 20 feet wide, and up to 10 feet tall. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 bludgeoning damage, is knocked prone, and is restrained until the start of its next turn. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage, and isn't knocked prone or restrained. The snow then melts and fades.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd.



So, does this turn Tidal Wave into a usable and reasonable 3rd level spell?

So, Storm Sphere. The wonderful new spell in Xanathar's that seems custom-made for Storm Sorcerers. How does it hold up?

Level: 4

Area: 20' radius sphere. That's Level 4 in size, so that's fine.

Duration: 1 minute = +2 points

Causes difficult terrain in the sphere.

Causes disadvantage on listen checks within 30' of the sphere, so in a 50' radius overall.

Damage: 2d6 bludgeoning damage inside the sphere. That's Level 1 damage.

Bonus damage: As a bonus action, you can hit a target within 60' of the sphere for 4d6 damage. On a miss, no damage, so it should get the 25% damage bonus. 4d6 is 14 points, which is 25% higher than the 11 points of 2d10 on single target Level 1 damage.

So both damage options are Level 1, on a Level 4 spell. That is... pitiful.

The main problem is, what's the value of hitting a single target as a bonus action for extra damage? Theoretically it's a useful improvement in action economy, but it has to make up for a 12 point (level 4) spell only making use of 6 build points. I very much doubt doing level 1 damage as a bonus action manages that.

What would it take to fix it? Unfortunately, I don't know, because I don't know how to price the bonus damage. I can try a guess, though.

If you got rid of the bonus damage, you would expect the base sphere damage to be worth 8 points (since it uses 4 in the base description), which is tier 4 — 7d6. You'll expect most of the damage to come from the bonus attacks, though, because enemies will move out of the AOE pretty quickly.

If you price the bonus attack opportunity at 2 points before adding the damage to it, you could split the remaining points as damage level 1/level 2 (2 points for AOE, 2 points for bonus action, 4 points for bonus damage) — 2d6 AOE/5d10 bonus lightning bolts (25% higher than default level 2 because a missed bolt does no damage). Might possibly take a penalty because of the extra range, though. I could see scaling it back to 2d6 AOE/4d10 bonus bolts.


So is that workable, or is that verging on overpowered? How can you have the effect of Storm Sphere (which is really cool) and still do decent damage?

Edit: Stupidly left off duration from the calculation. Adjusted.

More refinements.

* Got rid of the 3 round duration tier. Couldn't find any spells at that duration. Can make it an extra +0.5 cost if it ever shows up.
* Adjusted the duration costs (+1 for 1 round, +2 for 1 minute, etc).
* Added a -2 bonus for Concentration, as that's a pretty significant penalty to using spells. This also conveniently makes a 1 minute concentration spell a 0 cost parameter, which would explain why they're so common.
* Reworked the area/volume totals. Only affects higher end spells.
* Because of the above changes, readjusted (again) the points available to a spell to 2*Level+3.

Things are beginning to fit together better, and better match existing spells.

Edit: Figured out another bit of variance on the points, that should have been obvious: Points = 1 (min required) + 2*Level + #spell component types used (VSM).
Edit2: Fixed damage table to be linear, instead of the approximation from the DMG.

Question on Gust

Spell description:

Transmutation

Level: Cantrip
Casting time: 1 Action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You seize the air and compel it to create one of the following effects at a point you can see within range:
• One Medium or smaller creature that you choose must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you.
• You create a small blast of air capable of moving one object that is neither held nor carried and that weighs no more than 5 pounds. The object is pushed up to 10 feet away from you. It isn’t pushed with enough force to cause damage.
• You create a harmless sensory affect using air, such as causing leaves to rustle, wind to slam shutters shut, or your clothing to ripple in a breeze.


From my own assessment, and every evaluation of it that I've read in various guides, it's generally considered a pretty crap spell even for a cantrip. The harmless sensory effect is a half-hearted Prestidigitation. Object movement is a fraction of a Mage Hand (limited to only moving away from you, and only 10 feet instead of 30, and 5 pounds instead of 10). The shove effect is the opposite of Lightning Lure, but only moving the target 5 feet instead of 10, away from you instead of towards you, and not doing any damage.

What I considered was making the shove effect equivalent to the combat Shove maneuver: a choice of either pushing someone 5 feet, or knocking them prone. The question is whether that would be considered unbalanced for a cantrip.

Frostbite can do damage and give a target disadvantage on their next attack. Ray of Frost does damage and reduces movement. Since Gust doesn't do damage, knocking someone off their feet does not seem out of line. It seems appropriate for a "messing with people" effect outside combat, and a debuff in combat.

There would still be the strength save, and the size limit. Probably limited to non-flying creatures (eg: can't knock a flying pixie prone, but could shove her away).


I'd appreciate any comments on whether this seems like a reasonable addition to the Gust cantrip.