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

[Reynard]

Close. A rogue can use advantage on the rogue's attacks for sneak attacks. The target having disadvantage on their attacks does not itself enable the rogue to sneak attack.

Heat metal gives the target disadvantage on their attacks, not advantage on attacks against the target.

Ah. Right. I got all excited.

 

[Oofta]

If you're really so concerned about this problem, @Mistwell, then there's a relatively simple fix:

Let a creature wearing heavy armor "vent" heat, at the cost of being Incapacitated until the start of their next turn (possibly having them pass a save to do so?) Should they fail the save, they can then choose whether to take the damage, or take one level of exhaustion; any exhaustion caused by this spell can be removed by recuperating during a short or long rest and using up one use of a Healer's Kit (two uses if no one has Healer's Kit proficiency.) TL;DR: You can spend your turn cooling off (and doing nothing else) if you pass a save; if you fail it, you can take the damage or take some exhaustion, which can be removed by rubbing on some aloe vera.

That way, the spell still has a sting, but people with heavy armor have a chance to do something about it. It becomes very effective crowd control against armored targets, or damage if . If you still feel that's "unfair" to creatures in metal armor, adding a range or sight requirement

So your solution to taking damage and disadvantage is to ... skip your turn and still be penalized? In many cases the disadvantage is worse than the damage.

 

[Oofta]

I will in a moment give you our first experence with it

yup that is the trade off


so my example... a PC Druid (the first we saw was 3 campaigns into 5e) was one of 3 PCs (we had split a 6 person party...not that it was smart of us) and the group I was with (I was a PC) had the druid and came across 4 knights (not even MM stats, but those+) and my buddy cast it on one, then turned into a bear, and attacked another. Now the heat metal did NOT last the whole fight, it went down on round 3 due to a failed concentration check... but for 3 rounds that knight was taking damage, AND had disadvantage to his attacks... we started the fight assuming we were dead. We ended it slightly hurt and amazed at how well that spell did. SO we looked it up and found wizards could learn it too... not the very next fight but 1 about a level latter was against 2 giant warriors... and our blade singer and our Druid (now all6 of us togather) cast it and stayed back to snipe with cantrips and other damage spells while the other 4 of us engaged creatures now taking multi d8 damage every round that auto had disadvantage to attack us back...

and THAT is why it got moved to MAD along with counter spell, not the first time but once we tried to plan to use it again it became apparant how broken it could be,

Similar to my experience. A lot of opponents are human or one of the "main" races so enemies with metal armor are common.

The disadvantage is worse than the damage. The NPC can't hit, is easily tripped or shoved, etc. If the bard did it, they just run away from the fight spamming vicious mockery from a safe distance. It's a go-to boring tactic.

 

[Voadam]

Also this is not just a heavy armor issue. The spell explicitly applies to medium metal armor as well so chain shirts for the stealthy ones and scale mail for the AC maximizing ones. Armored barbarians, non-heavy armor clerics, valor bards, rangers, and all mountain dwarves out of the PH.

"Choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range."

 

[Reynard]

Also this is not just a heavy armor issue. The spell explicitly applies to medium metal armor as well so chain shirts for the stealthy ones and scale mail for the AC maximizing ones. Armored barbarians, non-heavy armor clerics, valor bards, rangers, and all mountain dwarves out of the PH.

"Choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range."

What's weird to me is that objects being worn or carried almost always allow for a save by the owner. Shatter, as an example.

 

[CleverNickName]

Also this is not just a heavy armor issue. The spell explicitly applies to medium metal armor as well so chain shirts for the stealthy ones and scale mail for the AC maximizing ones. Armored barbarians, non-heavy armor clerics, valor bards, rangers, and all mountain dwarves out of the PH.

"Choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range."

Yes, exactly. From the wording of the spell, it's pretty clear that the developers intended this spell to specifically target armor-wearing opponents. Targeting an opponent's armor or weapon isn't an exploit or a bug, it's the Rule-As-Intended.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

It also doesn't have a size limit, so that Storm Giant's scale mail is fair game as well.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Similar to my experience. A lot of opponents are human or one of the "main" races so enemies with metal armor are common.

The disadvantage is worse than the damage. The NPC can't hit, is easily tripped or shoved, etc. If the bard did it, they just run away from the fight spamming vicious mockery from a safe distance. It's a go-to boring tactic.

yeah... not just human but PC races are more or less the bulk of what I throw (yeah you get a dragon or a medusa or a eldritch horror here or there but you get humans elves orcs and kobolds a lot more)

 

[Reynard]

On the subject of fairness: does it become "unfair" if a PC has this spell and the GM does not use humanoid enemies or others that would be relatively easy to target with it (goblinoids that wear bone armor or whatever).

 

[iserith]

On the subject of fairness: does it become "unfair" if a PC has this spell and the GM does not use humanoid enemies or others that would be relatively easy to target with it (goblinoids that wear bone armor or whatever).

No, but I would find it weird for someone to continuously prepare spells that have been shown to have no use in a given campaign.