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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7122666" data-attributes="member: 12731">So my hunch in posting that GitP thread was right - you are concerned about damage. If so, sorry, but I can't help you. The problem, see, is that even if the spell did do good damage, when would you ever use it? Against brutish monsters where you need to deal massive damage? No, because you're a spellcaster in humanoid form.This spell seems designed for the case when you're facing small foes, the kind of foe you can deal with in melee yourself. But you don't want to spend a level two slot on trivial opponents, and even if you do, there are far better options.The final scenario is when you're surprised to find yourself in melee, but for some reason don't want to spend your action on escape. In order for this scenario to be plausible, you would need to expect the battle to end shortly (or you'd better escape or wildshape or use a real killer spell).So, if the spell was redesigned to last only the one round, we would gain the design space to make it worth our while. The reason it is so crappy is because the damage needs to be dished out in portions over several rounds, and because that kind of spell rightly needs Concentration. Freed from having to calculate multi-round effects, we could up the damage, or perhaps allow you to do a "whirlwind" maneuver with it. Take the latter example: duration until the end of your turn, no Concentration (not to buff the spell but because there isn't Concentration for such short durations), and use your action to attack every foe within reach for the 3d6 dmg. Then the spell ends.This way, I could see an actual goddam use for the spell - when you're surrounded by weak foes, and you expect the spell to actually down some of them (not just deal 10.5 points of damage to them).If you deal this damage to three foes (say you hit three goblins but miss two), it's the same total damage as the regular Flame Blade over three rounds, except you don't need to deal with the crap that is using a crap weapon (no OAs, no EAs, no weapon at all when you fail Conc).</blockquote>

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