Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Balancing a Homebrew AoE Stun Spell
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Esker" data-source="post: 7569736" data-attributes="member: 6966824"><p>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."</p><p></p><p>Ways this is stronger than hypnotic pattern:</p><p>(a) not concentration</p><p>(b) stunned vs incapacitated</p><p>(c) INT save vs WIS save</p><p>(d) condition grants a save on damage instead of being automatically broken</p><p>(e) can be used on creatures immune to charm</p><p></p><p>Ways this is weaker than hypnotic pattern:</p><p>(a) only lasts one round, making it more of a damage amplification and prevention spell than a "divide-and-conquer" spell</p><p></p><p>Compare to fireball, it is stronger in that</p><p>(a) It targets INT vs DEX</p><p>(b) It causes missed turns, thus preventing potentially a lot of damage</p><p>(c) It is good against arbitrarily high CR enemies</p><p></p><p>but weaker in that</p><p>(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.)</p><p>(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</p><p>(c) It does nothing on a save</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Esker, post: 7569736, member: 6966824"] 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? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Balancing a Homebrew AoE Stun Spell
Top