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

[darjr]

"I cast heat metal... ON MYSELF!!"

Swipe!

 

[Seramus]

Heat Metal is why druids don't wear metal armor.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

A level 20 Fighter with his +3 adamantine Plate armor can get clowned on by a level 3 druid, might even die against 3-4 of them. I'd say it's definitely unfair, at least most magic needs to be higher level to make a Fighter useless with no counter.

 

[Voadam]

The bard in my game has it and has used it on things like an Iron Cobra. Since a different PC is a robot (reskinned warforged) and it is a converted Iron Gods game with a lot of robots and metal constructs I wanted some rulings that would be fair both ways whether turned on PCs or used frequently against NPCs and that would be interesting tactically and narratively. I ruled that turning metal creatures hot works but it means their physical attacks do bonus heat damage.

I have not used it as a DM against a PC, none of the NPC/monsters I have used so far in 5e have had it that I was aware of.

 

[overgeeked]

To be fair, I can see an impartial DM making the opposite ruling I make in both cases. Magic-magic interactions, especially, can be tricky to get any kind of table consensus around if the participants have different mental models of how the spells function.

Oh, sure. For example, I wouldn't let control flames do anything as there's no flames to control. But any cold-based spells would reduce or neutralize the heat damage for a time, maybe damage vs damage...chill touch would reduce the heat damage by the amount of cold damage...and if the cold damage is greater, the target would take the remaining cold damage. But submerging would work.

 

[Quickleaf]

Heat Metal is a 1 action casting 2nd level concentration spell which damages someone holding or wearing a manufactured metal object.

It has a range of 60 feet. Which will be relevant to this conversation.

It does 2d8 fire damage each round the caster uses a bonus action to cause that damage. It lasts for up to 1 minute. So over 10 rounds that's about 90 HP damage. <snip>

The spell is frequently cast on PCs wearing heavy armor.

How do others find this spell to be in their games?

It's potent.

And for that reason it is NOT frequently cast on PCs in my games.

Just because a rule is in the game, does NOT mean that the rule will produce fun gameplay. Finger of death is another example of a spell I'm cautious about how I use against PCs.

When I include something that has a mental "yellow flag" for me, such as heat metal, I try to think more holistically about the scene. Maybe I can put a cool pond here which a character suffering heat metal could jump into for relief? Maybe they're in an alchemist or wizard lab and there are jars of rust monster pheromones which could rapidly dissolve armor blazing from heat metal? Maybe there's a teleporter trap which strips a creature of their gear and sends them to the ochre jelly massage chamber naked? Or maybe the PCs have a nice clear shot to the war machine engine that the spellcaster thinks they're safe within, and a strong enough hit could cause the machine to go haywire, interrupting the spellcaster NPC's concentration?

 

[darjr]

Note this bit about concentration.

The DM might also decide that certain environmental phenomena, such as a wave crashing over you while you’re on a storm-tossed ship, require you to succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell.

It is a bit of leeway that DMs can use.

 

[Reynard]

A level 20 Fighter with his +3 adamantine Plate armor can get clowned on by a level 3 druid, might even die against 3-4 of them. I'd say it's definitely unfair, at least most magic needs to be higher level to make a Fighter useless with no counter.

I am having some difficulty mustering up sympathy for the 20th level fighter in this case. I don't know how someone so devoid of guile or tactical acumen could have achieved 20th level.

 

[Mistwell]

And yet, not a single PC that can wear heavy armor opts not to wear heavy armor.

This is definitely not my experience at all. Your clerics all have a 15 or higher strength for instance? Almost zero PCs in our games wear heavy armor when they have proficiency in it. Almost all wear light armor with a high Dex, or medium armor with a 14 dex, or no armor with a class feature to increase AC. Heavy armor, with its high strength requirement, reduced speed and reduced stealth checks and high cost, is virtually absent from our games.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

I am having some difficulty mustering up sympathy for the 20th level fighter in this case. I don't know how someone so devoid of guile or tactical acumen could have achieved 20th level.

What tactics do you suggest?