New Spells: Swelling Storm and Variants
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!
“Can you feel it? A storm is coming.”
Art Credit: https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=382225
From The Elements and Beyond, we have a new area damage spell and its many damage variants with a relatively simple concept: a spell that deals damage in an area over time that can also grow larger over time. After tinkering with some lower-level versions, we decided on the 6th-level slot for a number of reasons, including the paucity of area damage-over-time spells at that spell level (compare with say 2nd-level which already has flaming sphere, or 8th-level which already has incendiary cloud).
The resulting spell, Swelling Storm, can be used as a basic fire-and-forget spell that deals effective lightning damage in an area (with the added effect of light obscurement) without requiring any upkeep, or you can continue investing your action each round, growing the spell’s area larger and increasing the damage dealt on that turn as well. Because swelling storm is such a relatively simple, resonant, and unique spell, we felt like giving a variant of it to many different damage types. Some of these damage types are generally much harder to find monsters that are resistant to them, and spells that deal those damage types tend to deal a little less damage (see melf’s acid arrow), so those damage variants for swelling storm also deal a little less damage.
Of these damage variants, only encroaching blizzard and spreading cinders are appearing on a spell specialization list for a feat in The Elements and Beyond — on the Hydromancer and Pyromancer lists respectively, of course. Neither swelling storm nor thunderous chords appear on the Aeromancer list, because that spell list doesn’t consider lightning damage to be sufficient to gain entry on the list — spells must focus on wind magic, not just sonic or electric magic.
PDF Link | D&D Beyond Links: Swelling Storm, Encroaching Blizzard, Psychic Maelstrom, Solar Approach, Spreading Cinders, Swelling Acid Storm, Thunderous Chords, Twilight Dawn
