D&D 5E Your thoughts on these homebrew spells

[BacchusNL]

Hey people,

I've been working on these variations to Healing Word and Mass Healing Word for a bit to fit the Tiefling Divine Soul i'm currently playing in Storm King's Thunder and could use some input on them before presenting them to my DM.
The basic idea behind them was that;
-I wanted to avoid the "whack-a-mole" idea behind people going down and then popping back up with a single healing word. I'm not gonna knock it (and I'm super happy our Bard can do it) but I wanted to try something diffrent.
-I wanted to make spells that echoed the "power at a cost"-theme of my character and be used regularly to reinforce that theme.
-Be on par with Healing Word (or other good lvl 1 spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Faerie Fire ect) as far as late-game scaling goes. Something that makes it worth using those lvl 1 spell slots when you already have your lvl 3-4 spells.

So this is what I came up with;

Sigil of Dis

1st level evocation

• Casting Time : reaction
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Classes:
• As you call out words infused with burning determination, a creature you can see within range is branded as a shimmering bulwark of molten steel forms around it. A creature being targeted by an attack or spell target takes 1d4 fire damage. It then gains temporary hitpoints equal to 2d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
• At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 1st.

Royal Sigil of Dis

3rd level evocation

• Casting Time : reaction
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Classes:
• As you call out words infused with the burning determination of a Royal Hellsmith of the Iron City, creatures you can see within range are branded as a shimmering bulwark of molten steel forms around them. Up to 5 creatures being targeted by a spell or attack take 2d4 fire damage. They then gain temporary hitpoints equal to 4d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
• At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 3rd.

The Level 6 Divine Soul feature Empowered Healing would then get replaced with Empowered Sigils (1 sorc point to maximize dice rolls on Sigil damage).

The biggest thing I'm trying to work out is wether or not they are fair as reactions instead of bonus actions, obviously the biggest change from Healing Word, and how these spells compare to other similiar effects like Aid, Mantle of Inspiration, Inspiring Leader, Counterpell on a Fireball effect ect. in terms of cost (both in spell slots and in oppurtunity) and effective healing. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this!

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Generally a spell or ability usable as a Reaction should give the specific circumstances in which that reaction is triggered.
"When a creature that you can see is hit by an attack" would be a typical example.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

So, let's say you roll a 3 on the 1d4, using the 1st level Sigil of Dis, and you got a +4 on the spellcasting ability modifier.

The target loses 3+4=7 hp, but gains 14 temporary hp.

For a level 1 spell that seems reasonable.

I would work a little on the exact choice of words. Spells usually describe the flavoring first, and then the effect. Also, unless the fire damage itself somehow also has beneficial effects, I would allow for two separate rolls, one for damage and one for temporary HP.

As you call out words infused with burning determination, a creature you can see within range is branded as a shimmering bulwark of molten steel forms around it. The target takes 1d4 fire damage. It then gains temporary hitpoints equal to 2d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier.

That's my 2 cp.

 

[BacchusNL]

Generally a spell or ability usable as a Reaction should give the specific circumstances in which that reaction is triggered.
"When a creature that you can see is hit by an attack" would be a typical example.

Very true, I definatly should have updated that wording when I switched to reaction. What are peoples knee-jerk reactions when they read the numbers + effect though? Does it seem too spammable and opressive? Would you be psyched to have someone in your party providing the effect? Do you think there will be scaling issues?

For clarity here are the numbers as they stand at level 8;
lvl 1 Sigil + 1 sorc point; reduce damage on an attack by 8
lvl 2 Sigil + 1 sorc point; reduce damage on an attack by 12
lvl 3 Mass Sigil + 1 sorc point; Reduce damage from an attack on up to 5 creatures by 12 (I aimed for ~50% of a fireball)

 

[BacchusNL]

So, let's say you roll a 3 on the 1d4, using the 1st level Sigil of Dis, and you got a +4 on the spellcasting ability modifier.

The target loses 3+4=7 hp, but gains 14 temporary hp.

For a level 1 spell that seems reasonable.

I would work a little on the exact choice of words. Spells usually describe the flavoring first, and then the effect. Also, unless the fire damage itself somehow also has beneficial effects, I would allow for two separate rolls, one for damage and one for temporary HP.

As you call out words infused with burning determination, a creature you can see within range is branded as a shimmering bulwark of molten steel forms around it. The target takes 1d4 fire damage. It then gains temporary hitpoints equal to 2d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier.

That's my 2 cp.

yeah, I can get behind that idea. My DM does like fitting in dice rolls where he can, plus it would give the other player agency over the reward he is getting by letting them roll for the temp hp dice, instead of just saying "you take x less damage on that attack".

 

[Coroc]

Hey people,

I've been working on these variations to Healing Word and Mass Healing Word for a bit to fit the Tiefling Divine Soul i'm currently playing in Storm King's Thunder and could use some input on them before presenting them to my DM.
The basic idea behind them was that;
-I wanted to avoid the "whack-a-mole" idea behind people going down and then popping back up with a single healing word. I'm not gonna knock it (and I'm super happy our Bard can do it) but I wanted to try something diffrent.
-I wanted to make spells that echoed the "power at a cost"-theme of my character and be used regularly to reinforce that theme.
-Be on par with Healing Word (or other good lvl 1 spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Faerie Fire ect) as far as late-game scaling goes. Something that makes it worth using those lvl 1 spell slots when you already have your lvl 3-4 spells.

So this is what I came up with;

Sigil of Dis

1st level evocation

• Casting Time : reaction
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Classes:
• As you call out words infused with burning determination, a creature you can see within range is branded for 1d4 fire damage and gain temporary hitpoints equal to twice that amount + your spellcasting ability modifier as a shimmering bulwark of molten steel forms around them.
• At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 1st.

Royal Sigil of Dis

3rd level evocation

• Casting Time : reaction
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Classes:
• As you call out words infused with the burning determination of the Royal Hellsmiths of the Iron City, up to five creatures of your choice that you can see within range are branded for 2d4 fire damage and gain temporary hitpoints equal to twice that amount + your spellcasting ability modifier as a shimmering bulwark of molten steel forms around them.
• At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 3rd.

The Level 6 Divine Soul feature Empowered Healing would then get replaced with Empowered Sigils (1 sorc point to maximize dice rolls on Sigil damage).

The biggest thing I'm trying to work out is wether or not they are fair as reactions instead of bonus actions, obviously the biggest change from Healing Word, and how these spells compare to other similiar effects like Aid, Mantle of Inspiration, Inspiring Leader, Counterpell on a Fireball effect ect. in terms of cost (both in spell slots and in oppurtunity) and effective healing. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this!

Not ok as a reaction, else it is ok.

But as a question: What if a creature is downed by the initial branding because he is at < 1d4 HP? Then you got your undesired whack-a-mole game on turbo, no? Also the creatures should be willing, else a save is required to balance things out.

I mean you might find it cool to brand your companion PCs and hirelings with the edgy Dis tattoo, but others might want to object for unwanted body modifications no?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

So, where these spells are powerful are when someone is downed.

If they are already at 0 HP and you do 7 damage, all you do is cause them a failed death save. And then they gain a full 14 hit points.

So unless you are doing a game where death saves stack between rests, it's still better to wait for them to drop.

Ninja'd by @Coroc (by 45 minutes. I should read posts more carefully)

 

[BacchusNL]

This spell was specificly designed to be used before people go down, not after the fact.

If someone is downed and you cast a Sigil on them they take a death save and get x amount of >temporary< hp. As far as I know (and atleast how we play it) temporary hitpoints does nothing to get a person back up if they are downed.

 

[dregntael]

I believe this would be very exploitable as a source of temporary HP before the start of a battle, especially when combined with efficient out-of-combat healing such as healing spirit, prayer of healing, goodberry, or even just hit dice. If you intend it to be used as a source of in-combat damage prevention, then I'd suggest adding a trigger such as "when an enemy deals damage to an ally within range, as a reaction you can ...". Otherwise I really like the mechanics and flavor of these spells, well done!

 

[BacchusNL]

I believe this would be very exploitable as a source of temporary HP before the start of a battle, especially when combined with efficient out-of-combat healing such as healing spirit, prayer of healing, goodberry, or even just hit dice. If you intend it to be used as a source of in-combat damage prevention, then I'd suggest adding a trigger such as "when an enemy deals damage to an ally within range, as a reaction you can ...". Otherwise I really like the mechanics and flavor of these spells, well done!

Yeah, they are ment more as a in-the-moment protection spell. A bit like the Shield spell but then with temporary HP instead of AC (and targateble on other people). I can see if I can tweek the language to reflect that better. I'm not sure it's really exploitable, there are other pre-battle spells like Aid that have similiar effects (plus it all costs recources) I also really like how this spell interacts with things like Fire Resistance or absorb elements, giving a benefit to people who have those features or are willing to spend the recources (My tiefling doesnt have his innate fire resistance btw, I gave that up for some other stuff. I might earn it back later though which should be dope) . But your comment makes total sense from a flavour-PoV so I'll work it in

i've edited the spells in the original post to fix their wording and better reflect their intented use.
Technicly speaking though the current version would not protect against a fireball or breath attack, right? Since those spells don't have a specific target, just an area of effect? What would be the right wording if I wanted to include those kind of effects?