D&D 5E Elemental Evil companion spells underwhelming?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Yeah, ADHW is pretty terrible, we'd noted it as needing a buff in the "Power Gamer's Guide to Elemental Evil". The best suggestion I saw was to add a level of exhaustion if you failed the save and increase the area of effect, as a 30' cube isn't even as big as fireball. Snilloc's Snowball Storm also seems on the weak side compared to Shatter (3d6 vs 3d8 damage, 5' radius vs 10').

 

[doctorhook]

I had my own misgivings about the power levels too. I really love the flavour some of these spells add, but their usefulness is kinda tricky. For example, create bonfire is a pretty sweet cantrip...but it requires concentration, meaning you won't wanna use it anytime you've got something bigger running.

 

[lkj]

I read through a bunch of them. All of the ones I read seem weak to me.

I am guessing it is to avoid power creep.

Earth tremor: 10' radius self. Dex save or 1d6 dmg and knocked prone. That area is difficult ground.

Thunderwave: 15' cube self. Con save 2d8 dmg pushed 10 ft away. Objects are also pushed away.

Thunderwave has a much better area of effect and 9 vs 3.5 dmg. The rider is weaker but I don't think that makes up for its other failings. If I want to debuff enemies there are better 1st level spells for that.

Without judging any other attributes-- Unless I'm misreading something, the earth tremor has a larger area effect. If I remember thunderwave right, that 15ft cube is 15 ft across in total (going away from you in one direction). A 10 ft radius circle is 20 ft across. Also, it blasts out in every direction rather than having to pick one.

AD

 

[Shadowdweller00]

I had my own misgivings about the power levels too. I really love the flavour some of these spells add, but their usefulness is kinda tricky. For example, create bonfire is a pretty sweet cantrip...but it requires concentration, meaning you won't wanna use it anytime you've got something bigger running.

That is true. But at least as a cantrip it autoscales; other low-level damage spells become increasingly useless. Burning Hands for example is decent at low level, not so great at level 5, and almost completely useless at level 11+.

 

[abirdcall]

Without judging any other attributes-- Unless I'm misreading something, the earth tremor has a larger area effect. If I remember thunderwave right, that 15ft cube is 15 ft across in total (going away from you in one direction). A 10 ft radius circle is 20 ft across. Also, it blasts out in every direction rather than having to pick one.

AD

The area of effect is better, not bigger. Thunderwave goes farther and it is much easier to direct it to hit only enemies. Earth Tremor is harder to use without hitting and hindering your allies.

 

[doctorhook]

That is true. But at least as a cantrip it autoscales; other low-level damage spells become increasingly useless. Burning Hands for example is decent at low level, not so great at level 5, and almost completely useless at level 11+.

Good point. But burning hands will always be a great stirge-swarm killer!

 

[Shadowdweller00]

1d6 damage is piddly enough that the main use I forsee for the Earth Tremor spell would be as a 1 turn debuff (prone). Maybe occasionally you would use it to create lasting difficult terrain (for example - around a campsite)...but that's much more circumstantial. Mind you the pushing effect of Thunderwave is great in the right circumstances, but pretty circumstantial all the same itself. Thunderwave is pretty loud (heard up to 300 feet away)...but I'm not sure a localized earthquake would be all that much better.

 

[lkj]

The area of effect is better, not bigger. Thunderwave goes farther and it is much easier to direct it to hit only enemies. Earth Tremor is harder to use without hitting and hindering your allies.

Ah. Understood. I'd argue it's situationally better. But you may well be right that thunderwave works in more situations. It came to mind because one of my players-- who keeps his caster back away from the melee-- wanted to use thunderwave to blast all his opponents back from him when he got crowded by enemies as an aid to escape. In this case the earth tremor spell would have been perfect (whereas thunderwave was not).

AD

 

[abirdcall]

Ah. Understood. I'd argue it's situationally better. But you may well be right that thunderwave works in more situations. It came to mind because one of my players-- who keeps his caster back away from the melee-- wanted to use thunderwave to blast all his opponents back from him when he got crowded by enemies as an aid to escape. In this case the earth tremor spell would have been perfect (whereas thunderwave was not).

AD

Keep in mind that being prone doesn't stop you from getting attacks of opportunity. The terrain is also difficult to the caster and because it surrounds them it makes it hard for them to escape.

 

[famousringo]

Some of the spells stink, some are great, and many are highly situational.

So it's just like every other spell list in the history of DnD.

Shadowdweller00 listed some of the best ones. I also like Watery Sphere, Storm Sphere, Melf's Meteors, Ice Knife, Frostbite, Magic Stone and Gust.