Uller
Adventurer
Exactly. It's really not incredibly useful at first level. But as levels go up, attacks get more frequent and/or more damaging, it's usefulness increases. Same with bless.
Faerie Fire too powerful
Exactly. It's really not incredibly useful at first level. But as levels go up, attacks get more frequent and/or more damaging, it's usefulness increases. Same with bless.
Fanaelialae
Legend
Giants (tree trunks as clubs and boulders)
Dragons
Mages
Three examples of dangerous threats that probably don't use metal weapons or armor.
jgsugden
Legend
During the next combat in which this is used, measure the impact. How many 'otherwise misses' become hits/crits? How many hits elevate to crits? In those circumstances, was another source of advantage available?
Let's say you get 5 enemies in the area of effect. You're likely to see at least 2 make the save. Let's say you arrives and you have a 60% chance to hit, 35% chance to miss and 5% chance to crit. If the blow would be a crit without advantage advantage, it makes no difference. If it would have been a hit without advantage, then you only benefit if the hit becomes a crit (3%). If a miss at the start, it only becomes a hit or crit 65% of that 35% of the time. All in all, we're talking about a roughly 25% chance of an impact per attack. You'll usually need about two or thre attacks to be impacted to equal the damage of a thunderwave of a similar number of targets that save 40% of the time (total 35 damage expected)... That means 8 to 12 attacks on the three of five targets that failed the save... if you maintain concentration that long.
Some combats you'll get more than that benefit. In others, it will make no difference at all. It is less reliable and slower to deliver damage than spells that impart damage right away. This can mean more damage those enemies get to deliver before falling.
All in all, reasonable, but far from overpowered.
Let's say you get 5 enemies in the area of effect. You're likely to see at least 2 make the save. Let's say you arrives and you have a 60% chance to hit, 35% chance to miss and 5% chance to crit. If the blow would be a crit without advantage advantage, it makes no difference. If it would have been a hit without advantage, then you only benefit if the hit becomes a crit (3%). If a miss at the start, it only becomes a hit or crit 65% of that 35% of the time. All in all, we're talking about a roughly 25% chance of an impact per attack. You'll usually need about two or thre attacks to be impacted to equal the damage of a thunderwave of a similar number of targets that save 40% of the time (total 35 damage expected)... That means 8 to 12 attacks on the three of five targets that failed the save... if you maintain concentration that long.
Some combats you'll get more than that benefit. In others, it will make no difference at all. It is less reliable and slower to deliver damage than spells that impart damage right away. This can mean more damage those enemies get to deliver before falling.
All in all, reasonable, but far from overpowered.
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
Shhhh!
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
The most dangerous kinds of giants IMO are fire giants, which do use metal plate armor. (Frost Giants are considerably easier than Fire Giants--worse AC, worse Con saves, worse Athletics, but better movement.) And dragons and mages both do tend to be vulnerable to ranged tactics. Even giants tend to have fairly short range on their boulders, 240' IIRC. Your list is a good list, but between Heat Metal and a powerful ranged component, I still like my odds.
Fanaelialae
Legend
How about enemy archers then? They can match your ranged attacks and heat metal is meaningless to their wooden bows.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
At least they're not armored hobgoblin archers, then, so I have a good shot at winning the archery duel. Though magic tends to be pretty useless in long-range archery duels anyway because most spells don't go much farther than the distance between baseball bases.
Remember, I'm not claiming that Heat Metal is the only spell I use! I'm just saying that the "only works against foes who rely on metal" isn't as much of a limitation as you might think, due to 5E's ranged dominance. It's a pretty good spell. The main problem with it is that it's single-target, but if you can get around that with Magma Mephits it is very much worth using, even if it's just to e.g. make three Frost Giants all drop their axes and/or attack at disadvantage.
Fanaelialae
Legend
Keep in mind I don't really accept the idea of 5e's ranged dominance. While Sharpshooter and a longbow are excellent for engaging an enemy at 600' range, there will be many campaigns where those kind of encounter ranges are exceedingly rare. Simply because not everyone wants to play the equivalent of Sniper: the RPG. My players like to play strategically and tactically smart (depending on the party, they'll arrange ambushes and such when they can). However...
Since my players are sitting next to me, I just asked them if they'd want to play in a party that utilizes those tactics, and their response was, "that's not D&D". I might not go that far, but it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. It's fine if you find efficiency to be fun, but not everyone's, and we play for fun.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Then it's not surprising that you have a different perspective on Heat Metal than I do, right? Different people play the game differently.
devincutler
Explorer
Exactly! Some people play it right...and some people play it wrong.
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