Esker
Hero
I'd like to homebrew a 3rd level "God Wizard" counterpart to fireball: a non-concentration AoE that debuffs instead of doing damage. I am thinking something along the lines of a "psychic blast" whose mechanics are something like: "Each creature in a X radius from a point you can see in range must make an INT save. A creature with an intelligence of 2 or lower can't be affected by this spell. On a failure the creature is stunned until the beginning of your next turn. If a creature takes damage they can repeat the save, ending the effect for that creature on a success."
Ways this is stronger than hypnotic pattern:
(a) not concentration
(b) stunned vs incapacitated
(c) INT save vs WIS save
(d) condition grants a save on damage instead of being automatically broken
(e) can be used on creatures immune to charm
Ways this is weaker than hypnotic pattern:
(a) only lasts one round, making it more of a damage amplification and prevention spell than a "divide-and-conquer" spell
Compare to fireball, it is stronger in that
(a) It targets INT vs DEX
(b) It causes missed turns, thus preventing potentially a lot of damage
(c) It is good against arbitrarily high CR enemies
but weaker in that
(a) It would be hard for the damage amplification afforded by one round of stunned to match 8d6 per creature (Yes, you can cast this to set up another caster's fireball causing auto-fail on the save, but just casting two fireballs does the same damage in the absolute worst case. You can also use it to cause faerie fire to auto-succeed, but this would be pretty inefficient too.)
(b) It doesn't really facilitate clearing mooks, since mooks are usually easy to hit anyway and people still have to spend their following turns attacking the mooks
(c) It does nothing on a save
Compare also to the monk's stunning strike, which costs less (1 ki point << 3rd level spell slot), doesn't use an action, and lets the monk benefit from the condition on their next turn; but targets CON and only affects one creature. Of course I know many people think stunning strike is OP already so maybe that's not such a useful comparison.
Compare also to synaptic static which also targets INT and also doesn't require concentration. It is 5th level and has a weaker debuff, but does 8d6 psychic damage and the debuff lasts until they save (rare for a non-concentration spell).
Since hypnotic pattern is the strongest 3rd level combat spell in most contexts, I think this is on balance probably a bit OP, as most homebrew ideas are in first draft.
So what do you think? Is there a radius greater than zero at which this spell is balanced? If so, what radius? If not, what would you change to keep it 3rd level?
Ways this is stronger than hypnotic pattern:
(a) not concentration
(b) stunned vs incapacitated
(c) INT save vs WIS save
(d) condition grants a save on damage instead of being automatically broken
(e) can be used on creatures immune to charm
Ways this is weaker than hypnotic pattern:
(a) only lasts one round, making it more of a damage amplification and prevention spell than a "divide-and-conquer" spell
Compare to fireball, it is stronger in that
(a) It targets INT vs DEX
(b) It causes missed turns, thus preventing potentially a lot of damage
(c) It is good against arbitrarily high CR enemies
but weaker in that
(a) It would be hard for the damage amplification afforded by one round of stunned to match 8d6 per creature (Yes, you can cast this to set up another caster's fireball causing auto-fail on the save, but just casting two fireballs does the same damage in the absolute worst case. You can also use it to cause faerie fire to auto-succeed, but this would be pretty inefficient too.)
(b) It doesn't really facilitate clearing mooks, since mooks are usually easy to hit anyway and people still have to spend their following turns attacking the mooks
(c) It does nothing on a save
Compare also to the monk's stunning strike, which costs less (1 ki point << 3rd level spell slot), doesn't use an action, and lets the monk benefit from the condition on their next turn; but targets CON and only affects one creature. Of course I know many people think stunning strike is OP already so maybe that's not such a useful comparison.
Compare also to synaptic static which also targets INT and also doesn't require concentration. It is 5th level and has a weaker debuff, but does 8d6 psychic damage and the debuff lasts until they save (rare for a non-concentration spell).
Since hypnotic pattern is the strongest 3rd level combat spell in most contexts, I think this is on balance probably a bit OP, as most homebrew ideas are in first draft.
So what do you think? Is there a radius greater than zero at which this spell is balanced? If so, what radius? If not, what would you change to keep it 3rd level?