New Spells: Cold Snap & Frost Armor
This content can now be found at its most updated version in The Elements and Beyond, a free 246-page compendium that you can download right here, filled with 23 subclasses, 8 spellcasting feats, 134 spells, 213 spell variants, 85 monsters, 30 magic items, 4 races plus 12 new subraces each with racial feats, and even more goodies for both players and DMs!
Links: PDF | D&D Beyond: Cold Snap, Frost Armor
“No, I’m not cold. I am the cold.“
Cold damage is probably the second-most common damage type after fire damage, and one of the most common for a spellcaster to specialize in, PC or NPC. Despite a small wealth of options for mages looking to wield the frigid powers of ice and winter, there are many levels where spellcasters have zero options at all for cold damage spells! These spells are designed to fill some of the empty niches for ice magic.
Despite 3rd-level spells boasting such potent magicks as fireball, fly, and lightning bolt, the only spell even thematically related to ice at 3rd-level is sleet storm, and while that spell coats a battlefield in slippery ice, it doesn’t actually deal any cold damage. Cold Snap was designed to fulfill not only the missing niche of a 3rd-level cold spell, but also to give spellcasters a 3rd-level choice for a single-target only spell that focuses on instantaneous damage. At 1st-level there is chromatic orb, at 2nd-level mages have scorching ray, and at 4th-level they can blast a single target with blight. Now a spellcaster who just gained their 3rd-level slots and wants to deal the most hurt to a single target has a new option in the form of this spell, which also carries some extra utility when a group needs to cross a watery chasm or even a pit of lava! The freezing option for cold snap is based on the freezing option for shape water, an official cantrip that only freezes a 5-foot cube, and only freezes water. Cold snap, of course, affects a larger area, and can be used to freeze other liquids too, much like how water walk enables walking on other liquids.
The second spell, Frost Armor, should be recognizable to any fans of DotA, Warcraft 3, or World of Warcraft — the characteristic defensive spell of the Lich and/or Frost Mage now graces the spell lists of Dungeons and Dragons characters, matching another other wizard-only spell at 4th-level, fire shield, which also triggers when enemies attack the warded target with melee attacks. Instead of dealing damage like fire shield does, frost armor applies the same debuffs to attackers as the Chilling ability of the soon-to-be-previewed Ice Elemental. Unlike fire shield, frost armor can be cast on other targets, but it comes with the tradeoff of the spell requiring concentration. The ability to cast the spell on an already defensive target, such as a paladin or a fighter, gives the spell extra potency.
Both of these spells also appear on the spell list for the Hydromancer spell specialization feat. That means the spellcaster casting one of these spells gains special benefits from the feat because its on the feat’s list, and the spell also activate the feat's special abilities. These feats are designed, among other things, to unify thematic concepts that can stretch across multiple damage types, making other forms of conventional specialization (such as damage type synergies) less resonant for these things. While the two spells today are both cold spells, the spells on the Hydromancer list don’t all deal the same type of damage. Some water spells deal cold damage or care about cold resistance like Frost Armor does, but some deal bludgeoning or even fire damage (when conjuring steam), and the feat enables a spellcaster to focus on something like water magic without focusing on a particular damage type.
Links: PDF | D&D Beyond: Cold Snap, Frost Armor
