call lighting
- Thread starter Kaamoz
- Start date
Herpes Cineplex
First Post
Well, the 3.5 SRD says that Call Lightning takes 1 round to cast, and immediately calls down a 3d6 bolt of lightning at the end of casting (and once per round thereafter, for up to 1min/level), and it gives you one bolt per caster level up to a maximum of 10 bolts. They also let you cast it underground and indoors now.
So apparently you are not alone: when they were revising for 3.5, someone else thought that the original 3.0 version needed a lot of help.
Now, the original 3.0 version did more damage, but yes, the 10 minutes between bolts made it a little weak as far as combat spells went. It was good for doing 1d10 points of electrical damage per caster level on one round of an outdoors combat on a stormy day when you knew you were going to be fighting at least 10 minutes in advance, and maybe after that you could go zap a couple of buildings over the course of the next hour. Not all that impressive.
It was used all of twice by the druid in our old hacky-slashy FR game, and it was okay. Nothing to write home about, but not completely embarrassing as a damage-dealing spell went; it was like a more damaging Lightning Bolt spell with a bunch of weird restrictions on it.
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and there are probably much better 3rd-level druid spells to take in 3.0
ryan
So apparently you are not alone: when they were revising for 3.5, someone else thought that the original 3.0 version needed a lot of help.
Now, the original 3.0 version did more damage, but yes, the 10 minutes between bolts made it a little weak as far as combat spells went. It was good for doing 1d10 points of electrical damage per caster level on one round of an outdoors combat on a stormy day when you knew you were going to be fighting at least 10 minutes in advance, and maybe after that you could go zap a couple of buildings over the course of the next hour. Not all that impressive.
It was used all of twice by the druid in our old hacky-slashy FR game, and it was okay. Nothing to write home about, but not completely embarrassing as a damage-dealing spell went; it was like a more damaging Lightning Bolt spell with a bunch of weird restrictions on it.
--
and there are probably much better 3rd-level druid spells to take in 3.0
ryan
It should be noted that the bolt does 3d10 in stormy outdoor conditions, but its still useful indoors for 3d6. Its not necessarily a lot of damage either way, but it lasts for minutes and a bolt can be called with a standard action each round. Its not nearly as devastating as the 3.0 version, but its certainly more useful. Unfortunately it generally will only hit one target in 3.5 unlike the 3.0 bolt.
In a 3.0 game I played in I used this three times to take out Enemy Bases. We had two Clerics of a Storm God(custom Domain) and we both cast this spell. WIth the range of 400+40/lvl we would stand up on a hill and Blast the Main buildings with Two bolts. Then Hide. The enemy would get out and look around at the storm ( Weather COntrol) and think nothing of it till 10 minutes latter Blam two mre bolts. After about the third time they would start heading out of teh encampment and thats when we would attack and draw them back to the camp. During the fight two more bolts would take out large groups as they were sofened up by arrows and other spells + fighters.
Now in 3.5 its even more deadly. You can do the same thing but from them each round. Tho you dont have the great 10' radus effect that 3.0 had but you can get your whole alotment of bolts out.
Now in 3.5 its even more deadly. You can do the same thing but from them each round. Tho you dont have the great 10' radus effect that 3.0 had but you can get your whole alotment of bolts out.
youspoonybard
First Post
The new Call Lightning is like Produce Flame, or Flame Blade.
It basically gives you a 3d6/10 or 5d6/10 4-target blast for a combat. You can ignore AC, although you can't ignore evasion.
I think it's very useful. Average damage on 3d10 is 16.5 (if you're using a scimitar, even with 2 hits and assuming you hit on both you'd need a +6.5 str bonus to damage to get that much average damage). Moreover, with Control Winds (Druid 5), you can almost always pop the 5d10 Call Lightning Storm out, for 27.5 average damage a round.
Consistant damage on high-AC tanks is nice.
In general:
The 3.0 version was excellent on an infusion, or in very limited circumstances.
The 3.5 versions are spells I would prepare every day.
It basically gives you a 3d6/10 or 5d6/10 4-target blast for a combat. You can ignore AC, although you can't ignore evasion.
I think it's very useful. Average damage on 3d10 is 16.5 (if you're using a scimitar, even with 2 hits and assuming you hit on both you'd need a +6.5 str bonus to damage to get that much average damage). Moreover, with Control Winds (Druid 5), you can almost always pop the 5d10 Call Lightning Storm out, for 27.5 average damage a round.
Consistant damage on high-AC tanks is nice.
In general:
The 3.0 version was excellent on an infusion, or in very limited circumstances.
The 3.5 versions are spells I would prepare every day.
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
youspoonybard said:
Beat me to it
Of course, it's even better in multiple infusions.
-Hyp.
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Newbie said:
Uh... in both 3E and 3.5, it specifically states a standard action to call a bolt...
-Hyp.
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