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Heat Metal Spell. Unfair to Heavy Armor Wearers?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8727216" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>The key issue you didn't mention there is that it's Concentration-based.</p><p></p><p>So if you can break their Concentration, the spell is gone.</p><p></p><p>And the vast majority of enemies who cast this spell, are fairly easy to break Concentration on. I can't think of any enemies with Advantage on CON saves, or similar stuff that would protect their Concentration the way some PC casters can do it too.</p><p></p><p>As for the "running away" strategy, the issue that's massively sub-optimal, tactically. You're abandoning all your buddies to get killed, in the hopes that maybe you do enough damage to kill a PC. If you stuck around, you could still do damage, still cause a distraction, and so on. Your side's overall performance would be much, much higher. It's essentially a 1:1 sacrifice <em>at best</em>. It's very likely, with magic in the equation on the PC side, that you don't kill them. Fire Resistance (the most common resistance, fairly routinely possessed by PCs) or Absorb Elements (a level 1 spell) both halve the damage, and turn it from a 90 HP murderer to a 45 HP "ouch but I lived" scenario (pretty sure there are CR1 monsters that with a crit or three can do 45 damage in a single round, let alone ten). Dispel Magic stops it dead.</p><p></p><p>On top of that, running away is hard in D&D, unless you just bomb it immediately. And again, if you do, you effectively died for purposes of that combat. You will have no further impact beyond that 2d8/round damage, when if you'd stuck around, you could do 2d8/round + whatever attacks you made (plus people trying to kill you so letting the other enemies live longer).</p><p></p><p>I've used it from NPCs, but never had it last more than two rounds, because PCs always, without fail, break Concentration on the caster. They jump on it. And NPCs running from PCs is like the mailman running from a dog. They will chase. They will throw EVERYTHING they've got into catching you, and every ranged weapon and spell will IMMEDIATELY target your butt for running. (This is because players know any NPC who runs during combat is very severely "up to no good", and thus goes to the top of the "aggro list" lol)</p><p></p><p>Breaking Concentration is extremely easy - damage, various conditions, or death all break it. So I don't find it to be the huge threat it in theory could be.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah exactly. We're playing an tabletop RPG with a DM for a reason. If you can stand in a lake or pond like an overheated Battlemech, you're going to make a lot of bubbles, but you shouldn't be taking damage from this, and I like the idea of making Control Flames more useful this way lol.</p><p></p><p>I've personally found the spell to be a death warrant for the NPC who casts it, so I do have NPCs cast it on heavy armour wearers, but only if I accept the NPC likely won't live to see the next round.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8727216, member: 18"] The key issue you didn't mention there is that it's Concentration-based. So if you can break their Concentration, the spell is gone. And the vast majority of enemies who cast this spell, are fairly easy to break Concentration on. I can't think of any enemies with Advantage on CON saves, or similar stuff that would protect their Concentration the way some PC casters can do it too. As for the "running away" strategy, the issue that's massively sub-optimal, tactically. You're abandoning all your buddies to get killed, in the hopes that maybe you do enough damage to kill a PC. If you stuck around, you could still do damage, still cause a distraction, and so on. Your side's overall performance would be much, much higher. It's essentially a 1:1 sacrifice [I]at best[/I]. It's very likely, with magic in the equation on the PC side, that you don't kill them. Fire Resistance (the most common resistance, fairly routinely possessed by PCs) or Absorb Elements (a level 1 spell) both halve the damage, and turn it from a 90 HP murderer to a 45 HP "ouch but I lived" scenario (pretty sure there are CR1 monsters that with a crit or three can do 45 damage in a single round, let alone ten). Dispel Magic stops it dead. On top of that, running away is hard in D&D, unless you just bomb it immediately. And again, if you do, you effectively died for purposes of that combat. You will have no further impact beyond that 2d8/round damage, when if you'd stuck around, you could do 2d8/round + whatever attacks you made (plus people trying to kill you so letting the other enemies live longer). I've used it from NPCs, but never had it last more than two rounds, because PCs always, without fail, break Concentration on the caster. They jump on it. And NPCs running from PCs is like the mailman running from a dog. They will chase. They will throw EVERYTHING they've got into catching you, and every ranged weapon and spell will IMMEDIATELY target your butt for running. (This is because players know any NPC who runs during combat is very severely "up to no good", and thus goes to the top of the "aggro list" lol) Breaking Concentration is extremely easy - damage, various conditions, or death all break it. So I don't find it to be the huge threat it in theory could be. Yeah exactly. We're playing an tabletop RPG with a DM for a reason. If you can stand in a lake or pond like an overheated Battlemech, you're going to make a lot of bubbles, but you shouldn't be taking damage from this, and I like the idea of making Control Flames more useful this way lol. I've personally found the spell to be a death warrant for the NPC who casts it, so I do have NPCs cast it on heavy armour wearers, but only if I accept the NPC likely won't live to see the next round. [/QUOTE]
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