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<blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 7322252" data-attributes="member: 6932123"><p>So, Storm Sphere. The wonderful new spell in Xanathar's that seems custom-made for Storm Sorcerers. How does it hold up?</p><p></p><p>Level: 4</p><p></p><p>Area: 20' radius sphere. That's Level 4 in size, so that's fine.</p><p></p><p>Duration: 1 minute = +2 points</p><p></p><p>Causes difficult terrain in the sphere.</p><p></p><p>Causes disadvantage on listen checks within 30' of the sphere, so in a 50' radius overall.</p><p></p><p>Damage: 2d6 bludgeoning damage inside the sphere. That's Level 1 damage.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>So both damage options are Level 1, on a Level 4 spell. That is... pitiful.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p></p><p>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?</p><p></p><p>Edit: Stupidly left off duration from the calculation. Adjusted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kinematics, post: 7322252, member: 6932123"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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