D&D 5E How on earth is this balanced?! Twilight cleric, more in-play evidence

[ECMO3]

The purple worm can swallow the barbarian, and that will block Aura of Life's line of effect. Unless the worm swallows the cleric too before the barbarian dies.

RAW it does not block Aura of Life:

"Life-preserving energy radiates from you in an aura with a 30-foot radius. Until the spell ends, the aura moves with you, centered on you. Each non-hostile creature in the aura (including you) has resistance to necrotic damage, and its hit point maximum can’t be reduced. In addition, a non-hostile, living creature regains 1 hit point when it starts its turn in the aura with 0 hit points."

Nothing in there says it is blocked by cover or requires sight. It is actually better if the Barbarian gets swallowed. Since he is 3rd level, if he is not swallowed there is a minute chance he could actually be killed with a really lucky crit. If he is swallowed he goes to 0 every turn and is back up to swing (with disadvantage) next turn. With 100 turns to kill the purple worm, he will eventually get there.

The point is this - this spell is WAY, WAY, WAY more powerful than twilight sanctuary when it comes to keeping allies from being killed. It is not even close and keep in mind we are talking about a ridiculous case here, a single 3rd level character. Put that on a 7th level Party (still generally woefully overmatched) and you will beat that purple worm almost always. He needs to be extremely lucky to win a fight. Do the same with twilight sanctuary and it will be a TPK. And I have never seen anyone suggest that aura of life is OP.

While I am at it, I will note a lot of players will do better inside a purple worm then outside of it (assuming they survive the bite) due to spells like protection from energy and absorb elements.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

RAW it does not block Aura of Life:

"Life-preserving energy radiates from you in an aura with a 30-foot radius. Until the spell ends, the aura moves with you, centered on you. Each non-hostile creature in the aura (including you) has resistance to necrotic damage, and its hit point maximum can’t be reduced. In addition, a non-hostile, living creature regains 1 hit point when it starts its turn in the aura with 0 hit points."

Nothing in there says it is blocked by cover or requires sight. It is actually better if the Barbarian gets swallowed. Since he is 3rd level, if he is not swallowed there is a minute chance he could actually be killed with a really lucky crit. If he is swallowed he goes to 0 every turn and is back up to swing (with disadvantage) next turn. With 100 turns to kill the purple worm, he will eventually get there.

You have to read ALL the rules, not just spell descriptions.
"A spell's effect expands in straight lines from the point of origin. If no unblocked straight line extends from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn't included in the spell's area. To block one of these imaginary lines, an obstruction must provide total cover."

 

[Gabriel879]

They are a good group actually. A dwarf Paladin, a dwarf Transmuter, a human Twilight cleric and a human rogue. Just finished the first chapter.

My main concern is that the rogue will fall behind but she is focusing on ranged which can be quite strong so a good magical bow and a selection of arrows will help. I’m thinking a +1 bow that lets you fire two arrows instead of one at a time.

Watch that bow, I had one almost identical, except it wasn't a +1, in a campaign once, I was a dex fighter though, and was able to put out 4 arrows per turn, 8 if I used my action surge. While she is a rogue now, she can dip 2 points and have sneak attack as well.

 

[Gabriel879]

They are a good group actually. A dwarf Paladin, a dwarf Transmuter, a human Twilight cleric and a human rogue. Just finished the first chapter.

My main concern is that the rogue will fall behind but she is focusing on ranged which can be quite strong so a good magical bow and a selection of arrows will help. I’m thinking a +1 bow that lets you fire two arrows instead of one at a time.

Watch that bow, I had one almost identical, except it wasn't a +1, in a campaign once, I was a dex fighter though, and was able to put out 4 arrows per turn, 8 if I used my action surge. While she is a rogue now, she can dip 2 points and have sneak attack as well.

 

[Gabriel879]

Yes you do. That's the rule. I've heard it said here on the boards by all kinds of players for years. If it's in the game DMs have no choice but to use them, they aren't allowed to say 'No' to their players. And you can't change the rules you think don't work, because that's you doing WotC's job for them, and you shouldn't be doing that because you aren't the one getting paid to do so. So no, Twilight domain stays cause WotC published it and now everyone has to use it. That's the way the game works.

I have to disagree, and I am currently playing a twilight cleric. The DM can ban what he wishes for his campaign, similar to races not native to his campaign. That being said it's not nearly as OP as some people are suggesting. It does help keep our team alive, but I've still lost 2 team mates since making mine, and we lost 4 PC before. Though we are playing Icewind Dale, so magic items are minimum at best, not a ton of gold so not using healing potions unless we absolutely have to as a reward is typically 60gp split between the party so have to complete 3+ quests for one potion ect.

 

[ECMO3]

4 Elven fighters(samurai) with elven accuracy and sharpshooter, +3 bows,
Action surge 4×8 attacks with advantage, 630 damage on average from 600ft, vs. AC22

It is actually 373 damage on average unless I am missing something:

+6 attack bonus to hit AC22 with advantage is base 25% chance of hitting, with elven accuracy (1-0.75^3) = 57.8125% chance of hitting

Damage per hit --> 4.5 base +5 dex +10 sharpshooter + 0.64 crit with elven accuracy = 20.14 damage per hit

32 attacks * 20.14 damage per hit * 57,8125% chance of hitt = 372.59

 

[ECMO3]

nm

 

[ECMO3]

You have to read ALL the rules, not just spell descriptions.
"A spell's effect expands in straight lines from the point of origin. If no unblocked straight line extends from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn't included in the spell's area. To block one of these imaginary lines, an obstruction must provide total cover."

This is not in agreement with the rules on total cover:

A target with total cover can’t be targeted directly by an attack or a spell, although some spells can reach such a target by including it in an area of effect. A target has total cover if it is completely concealed by an obstacle.

So a target that has total cover is not in a spell area of effect, but it can be in a spells area of effect?

RAW this is inconsistent, I believe RAI this is intended to cover spells with a specific geographic area of effect. It mentions burning hands and cone of cold and states: "spell’s description specifies its area of effect, which typically has one of five different shapes: cone, cube, cylinder, line, or sphere". Aura of life does not specify any of these shapes.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I have to disagree, and I am currently playing a twilight cleric. The DM can ban what he wishes for his campaign, similar to races not native to his campaign. That being said it's not nearly as OP as some people are suggesting. It does help keep our team alive, but I've still lost 2 team mates since making mine, and we lost 4 PC before. Though we are playing Icewind Dale, so magic items are minimum at best, not a ton of gold so not using healing potions unless we absolutely have to as a reward is typically 60gp split between the party so have to complete 3+ quests for one potion ect.

Heh heh... my post was sarcasm, so we actually are in agreement here.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

This is not in agreement with the rules on total cover:

A target with total cover can’t be targeted directly by an attack or a spell, although some spells can reach such a target by including it in an area of effect. A target has total cover if it is completely concealed by an obstacle.

So a target that has total cover is not in a spell area of effect, but it can be in a spells area of effect?

RAW this is inconsistent, I believe RAI this is intended to cover spells with a specific geographic area of effect. It mentions burning hands and cone of cold and states: "spell’s description specifies its area of effect, which typically has one of five different shapes: cone, cube, cylinder, line, or sphere". Aura of life does not specify any of these shapes.

I think that refers to situations where the target has total cover from the caster, but the caster is still able to hit the target by placing a spell behind or besides the cover so that there's no obstruction between the target and the spell's origin of effect. As well as spells such as Fireball that explicitly spread around cover.

With this reading the RAW is consistent, and I believe it is RAI as well.