Fire archomental

[Cleon]

Fair points - ok made its range 100/400 ft.
Maegera is gargantuan in the rules (odd as Imix is Huge, oh well)

Works for me.

I like the idea of it costing Firepower to hurl more than one bolt/round maybe

I was thinking its Fireball power could also cost Firepower.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Okay, so each splitting of fireball costs 1 Firepower (base of zero)?

 

[Cleon]

Okay, so each splitting of fireball costs 1 Firepower (base of zero)?

Since splitting the fireball splits the damage dice between them I wouldn't have it cost Firepower since it doesn't increase the total damage. Indeed, splitting a 2X damage fireball into two X damage fireballs would do half the damage to each target per fireball.

Instead, I'd have a standard low-powered fireball that costs a token amount of Firepower and a high-powered fireball that does 6d6 more damage. I picked 6d6 since it neatly divided into a single +6d6 fireball, two +3d6 fireballs or three +2d6 fireballs.

Speaking of multiple fireballs, if a target is covered by the radius of more than one of the fireballs in the burst I was thinking about adding the damage together and have it make one Dexterity save to half that total. It'd be less fiddly than having it saving for each fireball separately.

However upon reflection, multiple saves would justify a slight Firepower cost for splitting the fireballs as it'd make it harder for the target to avoid damage.

So if the Multiattack averages 162 DPR we want the Fireballs to be around half that at 81.

Which suggests a low-powered attack of one 63 (18d6) fireball, two 31 (9d6) balls or three 21 (6d6) balls and the high-powered attack of 84 (24d6), two 42 (8d6) or three 28 (8d6).

Hmm… perhaps we should call it something different than Fireball. Firevolley, Firepeppers, Fireburst, Firestorm, or whatever.

One of those names was not a serious suggestion.

 

[Casimir Liber]

"Fireball swarm"? - I do like the mechanics so worded to:

Fireball(s). the archomental casts fireball (spell save DC 19) with 63 (18d6) base damage. It can also split the attack into two 31 (9d6) or three 21 (6d6) fireballs. The archomental can expend 1 firepower to boost the attack to launch a single fireball doing 84 (24d6) damage, two 42 (8d6) or three 28 (8d6) fireballs.

 

[Cleon]

"Fireball swarm"? - I do like the mechanics so worded to:

Fireball(s). the archomental casts fireball (spell save DC 19) with 63 (18d6) base damage. It can also split the attack into two 31 (9d6) or three 21 (6d6) fireballs. The archomental can expend 1 firepower to boost the attack to launch a single fireball doing 84 (24d6) damage, two 42 (8d6) or three 28 (8d6) fireballs.

I'd rather remove the references to the spell. It also seems a bit cheap making the enhanced version cost half as much Firepower as Incendiary Resistance or Quench Magic does. I was thinking the enhanced fireball would be a way for it to burn off all its its excess firepower when it exceeds 10 points. The maximum it can have is 13 (10 points plus the 3 points it gains that round) so if the enhanced fireswarm cost, say 4 Firepower it could throw one and reduce its Firepower to 9.

So maybe 2 Firepower for a regular fireswarm, 4 Firepower for the enhanced version?

Also, I think it needs at some Firepower abilities that costs 1 Firepower. Currently it only has Bolt as an option, but we haven't giving it the Legendary Action to burn away effects upon itself yet, which I reckon might cost 1 Firepower. I also wondered about giving it a Bonus Action ability called Stoke Aura or the like that allows it to expand the radius of its Fire Aura and damage opponents or targets that thought they were at a safe distance from it. I wouldn't have it increase the damage as that'd throw off the DPR calculations.

Alternatively/Additionally we could have its Smoke Cloud cost Firepower as well as Legendary Actions.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Stoke Aura sounds like a good use for 1 firepower - increase range/no extra damage

2/4 firepower for fireswarm looks ok

 

[Casimir Liber]

Added as bonus action:

Stoke Aura. The fire archomental can boost the range of its Fire Aura to 60 feet for the cost of 1 firepower.

also incorporated the 2/4 firepower for fireswam

 

[Cleon]

Added as bonus action:

Stoke Aura. The fire archomental can boost the range of its Fire Aura to 60 feet for the cost of 1 firepower.

also incorporated the 2/4 firepower for fireswam

I was going to make the cost variable, like 1 Firepower per X feet increase of the Fire Aura radius, maybe up to a maximum of Y Firepower for 30+Y×X feet.

If it was always 1 Firepower, than a Firemental with 12 or 13 Firepower would be unable to bring its Firepower down to 10 on its turn with Stoke Aura alone.

Like so:

Stoke Aura (Costs 1 to 3 Firepower) #1. The fire archomental uses its bonus action to increase the area its Fire Aura covers. The aura's range increases to 60 feet for 1 point of Firepower, 90 feet for 2 points, or 120 feet for 3 points.​

Or have it so each point of Firepower increases the surface area affected by more-or-less a set number. If one Firepower makes a 30 foot radius go to 60 feet that's four times the area, meaning one point could be worth three times the base 30 foot area which implies two points would be seven times the area and three points ten times the area. Which works out to… 79.2 feet radius or 94.86 radius.

Suggesting…

Stoke Aura (Costs 1 to 3 Firepower). #2 The fire archomental uses its bonus action to increase the area its Fire Aura covers. The aura's range increases to 60 feet for 1 point of Firepower, 80 feet for 2 points, or 100 feet for 3 points.​

​

Stoke Aura (Costs 1 to 3 Firepower). #3 The fire archomental uses its bonus action to increase the area its Fire Aura covers. The aura's range increases to 60 feet for 1 point of Firepower, 75 feet for 2 points, or 90 feet for 3 points.​

Depending on whether I round up to the nearest 10 feet or round down to the nearest 5 feet.

 

[Casimir Liber]

10 feet easier mechanically as less fiddly. So I'd go with #2

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok so where were we...this looks like this now: