New Spells: Three Lightning Evocations
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Links: PDF | D&D Beyond: Electric Interdiction, Fingers of Lightning, Jolt of Pain
Art Credit: http://www.artofmtg.com/art/stormchaser-mage/
Today’s preview may be shocking, but no amount of resistance will stop us from amplifying these new electric spells! Both evocation wizards and lightning sorcerers can come together to rejoice over these three lightning evocations which span the gamut from low to high-level, each bearing some individual effects that separate them from other spells. Each of these spells fills an important niche by arriving at a spell level where no published lightning spells currently exist.
Jolt of Pain fills a number of important niches. Not only does it provide a lightning spell at 2nd-level for sorcerers, it also gives arcane casters a 2nd-level counter to other spellcasters, as well as giving evocation wizards a single-target damaging spell at that level. Like many spell attacks, this spell is risky, as a miss means no damage at all instead of something like half damage. Even if you don’t care about lightning damage or evocations, jolt of pain still offers a way to break concentration on even the toughest of casters (unless they’re immune to the effects of magical pain, like the Winter Cleric). As a DM, you can get a lot of value out of putting this spell on enemy casters. Even a weak mage can threaten the prospects of battle for a high-level spellcaster when they’re wielding this agonizing electricity!
Designed as a sort of “mass lightning bolt”, Fingers of Lightning is a relatively simple area damage spell with a unique twist that sets it apart from the lightning bolt spell that it is based on. The spellcaster wields five distinct lightning bolts at the same time, blasting them outward in an arc and distributing them precisely as they wish. The caster can use this spell as a more controlled and wider-area cone of cold, with lightning damage instead of cold (and a little less of it), or they can use it to blast a single line area as a more potent, 5th-level version of lightning bolt. And if you’re looking to start many fires at once, this lightning makes it easy to do so even if your targets are widely dispersed. This spell was named long before frost fingers released, but we’re so pleased with the idea that we’re still not changing it!
Helping to fill out the complete dearth of lightning spells after the 6th-level chain lightning, the 8th-level Electric Interdiction might look a little weak on the damage side before the implications of being a reaction spell are fully considered. This spell is cast as a reaction, owing to the incredible speed that sudden lightning allows. Unlike a bonus action spell, having a reaction casting time enables a spell to be coupled with another non-cantrip spell from the same spellcaster in the same round, enabling incredible damage in a single round if the caster burns two high-level spell slots in a row. Despite that, the main draw of this spell may be the secondary effect, which the target must fail both saving throws to be subjected to, making it relatively unlikely. But negating an enemy’s entire action as a reaction (rather than requiring pro-active choices) is massively powerful. Consider the caster interrupting a dragon’s breath weapon, a beholder’s eye lasers, or a demon lord’s teleportation. The sheer variety of uses makes the spell powerful and attractive, even when compared with the raw power of other 8th-level spells, but its risky nature should prevent it from being imbalanced.
Links: PDF | D&D Beyond: Electric Interdiction, Fingers of Lightning, Jolt of Pain
