Spell Tweaks Vol.1

[mina]

A set of spell change proposals after a little discussing in the mechanics channel.

Great Thunderclap
Caster Level(s): Wizard / Sorcerer 7
Innate Level: 7
School: Evocation
Descriptor(s): Sonic
Component(s): Verbal, Somatic
Range: Medium
Area of Effect / Target: Gargantuan
Duration: Instant
Save: Fortitude
Spell Resistance: No
You create a loud noise equivalent to a peal of thunder and its accompanying shock wave. The spell has three effects. First, all creatures in the area must make will saves to avoid being stunned for 1 round. Second, the creatures must make fortitude saves or be deafened for 1 minute. Third, they must make reflex saves or fall prone.
The spell deals 1d8 sonic damage for every 2 caster levels (up to a maximum of 10d8) to every creature in the area of effect. Creatures caught in the blast must make a Fortitude save to avoid being stunned  for 1d3 rounds.

Reasons for the change: Currently, Great Thunderclap has a niche use for hitting spell warded casters prone for a short period of time, but otherwise has very limited utility. The idea is to slightly reduce its crowd control abilities in exchange for doing sonic damage per its descriptor. Since evocation already has a pure damage spell in Delayed Blast Fireball, the idea with Thunderclap would be that its blast can't be evaded, but in exchange it does correspondingly less damage with a maximum damage of 10d8. The stun duration being 1d3 is to make it slightly useful as a crowd control spell, but no so much that it supercedes any of the pure CC spells at that same level like Mass Hold Person or Hiss of Sleep.

Delayed Blast Fireball
Caster Level(s): Wizard / Sorcerer 7
Innate Level: 7
School: Evocation
Descriptor(s): Fire
Component(s): Verbal, Somatic
Range: Medium Long
Area of Effect / Target: Huge
Duration: 15 Rounds
Save: Reflex 1/2
Spell Resistance: Yes

The caster creates a small, magical zone that can detect the passage of enemy creatures. When the field is activated, it explodes, doing 1d61d8 points of fire damage per caster level to all within the area of effect, to a maximum of 20d620d8.

Reasons for the changes: Delayed Blast Fireball occupies a slightly odd position in the damage hierarchy of blasty spells - it has less range than fireball and the damage cap actually makes it less effective than an Empowered Firebrand when using a 7th level slot. This makes it a little hard to use in most situations so the proposed tweak is to just give it slightly more damage by boosting it to doing d8 damage dice (comparable to Horrid Wilting at 8th level that caps at 25d8 - a 5 dice gap between the two spells given a 1 spell level difference seems fair) - and increasing the effective range to match Fireball so that it has a bit more flexibility.

Alternatives can include a feature that was added in 5th Edition's version of the spell is that it gains additional damage the longer it takes to explode, but I think that might add more complications from the heartbeat script side (since the game treats it as a persistent AOE until someone steps on it and triggers it). So I think the simple tweak is a little more elegant as a solution.

Prismatic Spray
Caster Level(s): Cleric 7; Wizard / Sorcerer 7
Innate Level: 7
School: Evocation
Descriptor(s): Special
Component(s): Verbal, Somatic
Range: Short
Area of Effect / Target: 11 meter cone
Duration: Instant
Save: Special
Spell Resistance: Yes

All creatures within the area of effect randomly experience 1 or 2 of the following effects:

20 10d8 fire damage (reflex) Caster Takes 1/10th of this damage as feedback damage
40 15d8 acid damage (reflex) Caster Takes 1/10th of this damage as feedback damage
80 25d8 electrical damage (reflex) Caster Takes 1/10th of this damage as feedback damage
Struck with bebilith venom poison (fortitude)
Petrified (fortitude)
Insanity (permanent confusion) (will vs. mind-affecting)
Struck dead (will vs. death magic)

Reasons for changes: Just a straight up damage boost and an additional element of randomness to the spell overall but also make the effects a little more powerful to justify using it instead of a more reliable spell.

Meteor Swarm
Caster Level(s): Wizard / Sorcerer 9
Innate Level: 9
School: Evocation
Descriptor(s): Fire
Component(s): Verbal, Somatic
Range: Personal
Area of Effect / Target: Colossal
Duration: Instant
Save: Reflex 1/2
Spell Resistance: Yes

The spell causes everything within the area of effect to be pummeled by incoming meteors. All those caught in the destruction take 1d6 1d8 points of fire damage per caster level and 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage per every 4 caster levels. (No cap on the number of damage dice granted)

Reasons for change: Meteor Swarm is a great spell in terms of VFX, but it's severely lacking in terms of damage (does the same as the 7th level base DBF or 6th level Chain Lightning), has the weakness of making your character run to the target location, and requires being in the middle of a group of enemies to do damage. The goal here is to drag its damage output to something worthy of dropping a giant meteor on someone's head. The combination of physical and fire damage is meant to reflect the fact that it's an exploding flaming meteor landing around the targets. Since damage reduction usually just soaks most physical damage from spells, the ratio of 4:1 on fire:physical is to make sure it doesn't end up being an inadvertent nerf.

Here's an alternate version that might be just as fun:

Meteor Swarm
Caster Level(s): Wizard / Sorcerer 9
Innate Level: 9
School: Evocation
Descriptor(s): Fire
Component(s): Verbal, Somatic
Range: Personal
Area of Effect / Target: Colossal
Duration: Instant
Save: None.
Spell Resistance: Yes

The spell causes everything within the area of effect to be pummeled by incoming meteors. All those caught in the destruction take 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level.
You create a swarm of burning meteors (2 per caster level up to 40) that rains down upon enemies around you. Each meteor randomly targets a hostile creature. If there are more hostile creatures than meteors, the meteors will target the creatures closest to you. If there are more meteors than hostile creatures, random targets will be hit by multiple meteors. Each meteor does 2d6 fire damage and 1d6 bludgeoning damage.

This is essentially a variant of the Missile Storm or Ball Lightning spells, except instead of force missiles you drop meteors on people's heads. - This version is inspired by how "Meteor" works in Final Fantasy V onward - a set number of meteors that are scattered around the hostile targets you're facing. I do, however, think this would probably be too powerful if you could hit a single target with all 40  meteors so if anyone likes this one - I'd also suggest capping the number of meteors any single target can be hit with at 15 to 20.