D&D 5E Heat Metal Spell. Unfair to Heavy Armor Wearers?

[TwoSix]

Yep. It would work, but its too long to use it in combat efficiently. And it may require more than one casting since it repairs a single broken strap, tear or hole per minute. But if it can save your life, its worth the small investment.

If it makes your armor able to be repaired in a few minutes after you cut all the straps to get it off quickly, it's more than worth it.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

If it makes your armor able to be repaired in a few minutes after you cut all the straps to get it off quickly, it's more than worth it.

But you are still armor-less for the rest of the fight. A dude wearing heavy armor who dumped Dex would have an AC of 10-ish. I can see it as a fair trade-off.

 

[TwoSix]

But you are still armor-less for the rest of the fight. A dude wearing heavy armor who dumped Dex would have an AC of 10-ish. I can see it as a fair trade-off.

Oh yea, I'm fine with it.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Oh yea, I'm fine with it.

Especially when, in the end, all of that to counter....a 2nd level spell! Who needs 9th level spell?!

 

[CleverNickName]

If it makes your armor able to be repaired in a few minutes after you cut all the straps to get it off quickly, it's more than worth it.

Once, I let a character use their Misty Step spell Fey Step ability to teleport out of their armor so that they could rescue someone who was drowning. I don't see why I wouldn't allow it to escape from Heat Metal.

Spoiler: The full story

Okay so the party's tank was an eladrin paladin, who wore full plate everywhere he went. Probably even wore it to bed, if he could get away with it. Anyway, it came to pass that the party found themselves aboard a ship, and under attack by a giant squid. During the battle, the heavily-armored cleric fell overboard and sank like a rock!

You could have cut the tension at the table with a knife. Everyone was straining to think of a way to rescue the cleric, but nobody had any good ideas...how could they save the cleric without also putting themselves in peril? The paladin's player asked me, "Can I use my Fey Step ability to 'bamf' over to where he fell, but leave my armor behind?" I thought this was a clever and creative use of the spell racial ability, so I allowed it.

EDIT: Forgive my faulty memory; it was the eladrin's racial ability, not a spell.

 

[James Gasik]

Once, I let a character use their Misty Step spell Fey Step ability to teleport out of their armor so that they could rescue someone who was drowning. I don't see why I wouldn't allow it to escape from Heat Metal.

Spoiler: The full story

Okay so the party's tank was an eladrin paladin, who wore full plate everywhere he went. Probably even wore it to bed, if he could get away with it. Anyway, it came to pass that the party found themselves aboard a ship, and under attack by a giant squid. During the battle, the heavily-armored cleric fell overboard and sank like a rock!

You could have cut the tension at the table with a knife. Everyone was straining to think of a way to rescue the cleric, but nobody had any good ideas...how could they save the cleric without also putting themselves in peril? The paladin's player asked me, "Can I use my Fey Step ability to 'bamf' over to where he fell, but leave my armor behind?" I thought this was a clever and creative use of the spell racial ability, so I allowed it.

That's some nice rule of cool. I always hated the rules for donning/doffing armor, realistic or no. Especially with all the times you find yourself treading water unexpectedly in D&D.

 

[jgsugden]

When I see threads like this one I wonder if people actually have play experience with the spell in 5E, or if they're assuming what it would be like in play because a lot of the arguments I see in threads like this do not match my experiences.

If your caster runs away to make sure they can continue to deal the damage, they're out of the fight. You're diminishing that enemy force by 1 spellcaster. If they stay close enough to be effective, they're often caught up and their concetration can be broken.

Don't get me wrong. There are ways this can be devastating. I had an NPC druid betray a PC and cast a 5th level version (5d8) on a PC when they were out out on their own. The PC fighter was 10th level and had ~90 hps. On the same turn they cast it, the Moon Druid turned into a giant badger and dug 10 feet down into the ground (leaving no tunnel). The fighter was taking 22 damage per turn, roughly, and had no way to get out of the armor quickly, and no way to get at the druid. They had to be inventive to get back to allies fast (and to draw their allies to them) while trying to stay on their feet through healing and RP based ways to cool the armor off (I allowed diving into water to give them some small reduction in the damage).

However, this was not something we'd see in combat. This was a well executed use of the spell as an assassination technique. In combat, that druid either would have been out of the fight (and as they could cast 5th level spells, tthey'd have been a significant percentage of the firepower in the battle), or they'd have been targets for breaking concentration.

If you're really worried about this type of thing, I do have a common magic item in my campaigns that PCs often buy: Doff Tokens. They're a version of Quaal's Feather Tokens that clips onto armor and allows the wearer to use up the token to doff the armor as a bonus action.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I'll add that another issue with this spell is most of the armors it would work against have a cloth-type under armor beneath it, which would offer some protection against the fire damage IMO.

Frankly, I think the amount of damage is unreasonable for what the spell actually does. After all, the disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks while in the armor is already very significant.

I could see the 2d8 damage initially, but not on subsequent rounds.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mention it in the first sentence, which you quoted.
It's why running away is more potent - it means you cannot break their concentration. Or at least not easily.

Sorry I meant that you didn't take time to discuss breaking it, which is a huge part of why Heat Metal is limited in power, I should have been clearer.

And running away is, as I noted, effectively deleting yourself from the encounter except for that spell. The spell is balanced in the context of a fight. I mean, let look at some monsters which can cast Heat Metal (please feel free to add your own examples).

Magma Mephit - Magma Mephit - This is guy is basically the best-case scenario for "heat metal and run" - not only is he low-level, but he can fly, so could "run" straight up. He also does relatively low damage, though he does have fire breath and explodes on death. He can cast Heat Metal, but it's 1/day. He does average 5 damage a round on a hit, can sometimes firebreath for 7 in an area, and explodes for 7.

So this good for the hit-and-run. However the round you cast it, even if you win initiative, best case you're only getting 30ft away, and that means you are likely within missile/spell range for 2 rounds, minimum, and good luck surviving with 11 AC and 22 HP lol.

Lizardfolk Shaman - Monster Manual - Nearly as flimsy as a Mephit in humanoid form, but has an absolute ton of spells (including multiple casts of Heat Metal), and can turn into a crocodile, so if you run you've given up a significant part of the encounter value. Also Conjure Animals is probably a much, much better use of your Concentration the Heat Metal.

In a swamp they could run away pretty well though with swim speed in both forms.

Babau - Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse - Well obviously this guy doesn't want to run away. He does more damage than Heat Metal and he can also cast spells and use Weakening Gaze.

I guess what we're seeing is that Magma Mephits are massive jerks who could definitely pull this stuff and murder a low-level PC. But looking on Beyond at monsters I find when I search for Heat Metal I'm not seeing any other good candidates for cast-and-run. So this seems more like a "nerf Magma Mephits" issue than anything else.

 

[Amrûnril]

Frankly, I think the amount of damage is unreasonable for what the spell actually does. After all, the disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks while in the armor is already very significant.

I think this is a key point. Imagine there was a 2nd level spell that imposed disadvantage of all of a target's attacks, while itself requiring no attack or saving throw. I think most people would consider that spell to be overpowered. Heat Metal does exactly that to armored targets, so it really says something about the spell's damage potential that the disadvantage effect seems like an afterthought.

Niche abilities do have some leeway to be more effective than generalist ones (not that fighting armored opponents is a particularly narrow niche). Even with such allowances, though, Heat Metal's power against armored targets seems absurd to the point of being a worldbuilding problem in any setting where PC spellcasting abilities are even somewhat common.