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Yorae
2011-02-05, 10:14 PM
I'm looking for a very specific type of spell -- confusingly, throughout all my books, I've not been able to find anything worth casting like this...

Are there any spells that cause negative energy damage in an area (preferably an actual area, like a burst, rather than just multiple creatures)? I found the 3rd level spell Negative Energy Burst in Tome and Blood, but it only deals 1d8 +10 maximum, which is pretty puny past lower levels.

LansXero
2011-02-05, 10:55 PM
Isnt there a feat that lets you do that? Would energy substitution work, maybe?

Jallorn
2011-02-05, 11:01 PM
Negative Energy is not an energy type in the sense that Cold or Fire are.

However, the metamagic feat Lord of the Uttercold allows you to make half of a spells damage Negative Energy if the spell deals Cold damage. It has no modification to the spell level too. It requires Energy Substitution (Cold) to take it.

Yorae
2011-02-06, 12:00 AM
Lord of the Uttercold is a pretty good, but is there any way to do this without spending feats?

Thurbane
2011-02-06, 02:53 AM
Junglerazer (SC) - Druid 3, Src/Wiz 3, 1d10 damage/level (10d10 max) in a 120 ft line. Only affects fey, vermin & plants, though.

Saint GoH
2011-02-06, 03:20 AM
Doesn't dread necromancer have something like this as a class ability?

Yorae
2011-02-06, 03:21 AM
The only thing I've found so far other than the above is another that has severe situational restrictions:

Blackwater Taint, which deals 1d6 / 2 CL, deals 1 negative level (save for half dmg + no negative level) and also desecrates the area. Pretty nice! Did I mention it only works underwater? .... yeah. -_-

Yorae
2011-02-06, 03:26 AM
Doesn't dread necromancer have something like this as a class ability?

Looked this up... yep, they get one. 5ft. radius burst from caster, 1d4/ per CLASS level, with a will for half... and only 4 times/day at 18th level. Wow, is that underwhelming. Puny radius, low damage, applicable save, and very low uses per day.

Greenish
2011-02-06, 03:43 AM
Looked this up... yep, they get one. 5ft. radius burst from caster, 1d4/ per CLASS level, with a will for half... and only 4 times/day at 18th level. Wow, is that underwhelming. Puny radius, low damage, applicable save, and very low uses per day.That's WotC for you. Mind, Dread Necromancer is actually a good class…

Aharon
2011-02-06, 03:48 AM
I'm pretty sure there was such a spell in a Dragon, the one that detailed the worship of the Greyhawk godess of magic. I don't remember the specifics, though.

Yorae
2011-02-06, 05:08 AM
I'm pretty sure there was such a spell in a Dragon, the one that detailed the worship of the Greyhawk godess of magic. I don't remember the specifics, though.

I'd be very interested in seeing this, but I'm not sure which goddess this would be. Greyhawk shares a lot of "standard" deities, so it's hard to figure out which one in order to figure out which issue of Dragon to look in. You're sure it was a goddess? Couldn't be Boccob, then... maybe Wee Jas? There are a lot of deities of magic.

Are you sure it was Greyhawk? Maybe it was Forgotten Realms? That would make more sense, since it had a very significant single goddess of magic, Mystra (well, the second Mystra, the first Mystra was male).

Darrin
2011-02-06, 06:53 AM
Are there any spells that cause negative energy damage in an area (preferably an actual area, like a burst, rather than just multiple creatures)?

Necrotic Skull Bomb (Champions of Ruin), but that deals energy drain (levels) rather than damage. 20' burst, but Fort save negates.

Aharon
2011-02-06, 07:03 AM
It's in the article about Boccob in issue 338, but I misremembered; it's single target :smallannoyed:

Tyndmyr
2011-02-06, 10:26 AM
Looked this up... yep, they get one. 5ft. radius burst from caster, 1d4/ per CLASS level, with a will for half... and only 4 times/day at 18th level. Wow, is that underwhelming. Puny radius, low damage, applicable save, and very low uses per day.

Granted, it's essentially an AoE heal for their minions, and damage for whoever they're fighting.

While I agree it's underwhelming for pure damage, it's a solid option for them.

Aharon
2011-02-07, 11:02 AM
Talking about the Dread Necromancer made me remember:

Mass Harm is a 20ft. radius burst centered on the caster. The downside: It's rather bad for its level and specificity (Dread Necromancer 9).

Darklady2831
2011-02-07, 11:09 AM
Custom Negative Energy Fireball?

Thats all I can think of.

Yorae
2011-02-07, 12:32 PM
Custom Negative Energy Fireball?

Thats all I can think of.

Custom as in homebrew?

Edit: Spell research, maybe?

Malbordeus
2011-02-08, 08:27 AM
personally I use the DN ability for getting rid of flanking by mook minions., second, theres a reasonable chance of the enemies taking a -2 penalty due to the fear aura, and third D4/level is about the same as D8/2 levels produced by unholy blight/Holy smite and the ilk. which is far from poor when you dont have to expend spellslots to use it. also supernatural ability. can anyone say grapple?

however on to the matter at hand... when designing your negativity energy bomb, please remember negative energies propensity for will saves and D8's as damage. problem with the burst is that many DM's will find it overpowered unless they are abusing undead. and if your abusing undead as a player, theres no way in hell a dm will give you a one-sided fireball. i'd suggest you consider the cold based corpsecrafter feat and then just spam cone of cold or energy sub'd fireballs.

and then my brain kicked in. Mass inflicts? light and moderate are fairly poor however.