Pure Damage

[1pwny]

I'm homebrewing a class. Basically, I need a bunch of spells (they can be elemental and stuff), which do only damage.

So, no enchantments or divination, or anything, really. I've already done a quick search through the Conjuration spell list, but I was wondering if you guys knew of any others.

If there already has been a thread with this exact same question, please do tell me.

[Rubik]

I'm homebrewing a class. Basically, I need a bunch of spells (they can be elemental and stuff), which do only damage.

So, no enchantments or divination, or anything, really. I've already done a quick search through the Conjuration spell list, but I was wondering if you guys knew of any others.

If there already has been a thread with this exact same question, please do tell me.So, like the warmage, but without any of the useful spells?

[Metahuman1]

I'm kinda with Rubik here, but ok.

Necromancy has some spells that do damage and often have rider effects, such as shivering touch, Nights Caress, Vampiric Touch, and Necromantic Skull Bomb (I think that's the name, does negative energy damage equal to a fire ball spell in an equal sized area that heals undead instead of harms them, and living targets get I think a save to avoid taking 4 negative levels, and repeated castings that deal negative levels stack with one another. 5th level spell in spell compendium if I recall right.).

[Deadline]

I probably shouldn't have to mention it, but almost the entire school of Evocation does straight damage. And by extension, the Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration spells from the Illusion school do as well.

[StreamOfTheSky]

If you restrict it only to spells that do damage, the class is going to suck. Not just for the obvious reasons, but he will also suck at doing damage. Because by your own tenets, spells that buff damage-dealing capabilities like Raging Flame (a mere 1st level spell to increase fire spell damage by +1 per die rolled, and very easy to apply Energy Substitution to) would not make it onto the spell list.

/public service announcement

[NoACWarrior]

Don't forget weapon like spells and multiple round touch spells.

Think of something like darkfire - at 10 CL does 5d6 damage each tough.
Also umbral touch - at any CL does 5d6 damage and has save versus slow.



Lastly don't forget about round based AoE spells.

Like blackfire - does 1d6 per CL every round for minutes per CL
or wall of fire.

[Red Fel]

So, basically, a class-based version of the Mailman (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181)?

Although, as Stream mentions, even the Mailman uses spells that augment his ability to cast damage-dealing spells, in addition to his direct-damage spells. If you're excluding those, the class will suffer for it.

[Kennisiou]

Honestly, even if you want to make a good spell-based damage dealer, that usually involves only a few damage dealing spells and using the rest of your spells to manipulate the action economy or buff yourself/debuff your foes to ensure your spells work (assay spell resistance and true strike for example). The main legwork of dealing damage is less in the spells themselves and more in the metamagic you apply to those spells. It's why the best damage spells tend to be the orb line -- their damage isn't great but they're touch attacks with no save no SR. Stack a metric ton of metamagic on that and it's super strong. Otherwise blaster casters prepare/learn broadly useful utility spells, defensive spells, and mobility spells, since using those give them the space and capability to safely and consistently pump out their tricked out damage spells.

If you really only want to give damage-dealing spells and damage dealing spells only to a class, you'll want to make sure their class features include things that allow them to cast more spells a turn, features that allow them to deal with enemies with high AC/Saves/SR, features that give them some capability to cast their spells safely, and some movement modes. They'll generally wind up weak compared to other casters because even if you improve their ability to deal damage to beyond that of more flexible casters they still only deal damage, while more flexible casters can do much much more than that (even the mailman has a bunch of utility spells to give them out of combat relevance).

[1pwny]

Allow me to clarify something. The spells are not the main focus of the class. The class has a bunch of other cool abilities, and melee stuff. Basically, for ranged combat, I wanted to add in a very limited spell list.

I get all your points, but please don't worry about the class merely throwing around damage-based spells. it does plenty of other things, too.

[Kennisiou]

In that case, I'd probably look at Pathfinder's Cryptic class and its archetypes, as well as the D&D 3.5 class Duskblade and the Pathfinder class Magus, as they all can do similar things to what you want. The idea of a skill-based class with spells to output ranged damage and probably some melee prowess is interesting and fits a common archetype found in other games like Skyrim that a lot of players would be familiar with and probably want to emulate. You'll probably want to look into giving them attack spell channeling with their attacks like the duskblade or magus and even still you'll want to give them a slightly broader spell list than just damage (the idea of having a class that does lots of things is nice, but if you give them magic and make that magic only do one thing while all their class features do another thing it feels a tad disjointed -- probably give them a few spells that compliment their skill usage for example, or something to aid in movement).

[ArqArturo]

If you restrict it only to spells that do damage, the class is going to suck. Not just for the obvious reasons, but he will also suck at doing damage. Because by your own tenets, spells that buff damage-dealing capabilities like Raging Flame (a mere 1st level spell to increase fire spell damage by +1 per die rolled, and very easy to apply Energy Substitution to) would not make it onto the spell list.

/public service announcement

This is why the Warmage needs to branch out from time to time. And, to be honest, you almost never feel bad when doing so.

[Doc_Maynot]

Allow me to clarify something. The spells are not the main focus of the class. The class has a bunch of other cool abilities, and melee stuff. Basically, for ranged combat, I wanted to add in a very limited spell list.

I get all your points, but please don't worry about the class merely throwing around damage-based spells. it does plenty of other things, too.

If this is for Ranged Combat, you could give them access to Eldritch Blast and a few Blast Shapes and Eldritch Essences.
If you feel like it would need to be limited in use, either limit the progression, or make it a number of uses per encounter and make Essences cost more of the daily uses to use. Like Manuevers, or Inspiration.

At the same time though, you might want to change the Save DC stat to one more preferable for the class you are making if CHA wouldn't fit.

[ericgrau]

Only damage and nothing else? Then there is a limit on how many spells can even possibly exist.

Amount of damage.

Each of the 5 energy types plus force, piercing, slashing, bludgeoning, negative and positive.

Line, cone, sphere, cylinder, single target, chained, forked to targets near the first, the ability to split up the damage between chained/forked or to focus it as desired.

Touch (including area spells originating from the caster), close, medium, long range.

Instantaneous, 1 round, round/level, minute/level, 10 min/level, hour/level, permanent.

Allow all combinations. Set up a system for determining the spell level. For example each option might add X to the spell level, where X can be less than 1. Then you round up at the end.

The class might be able to select whatever combination it wants spontaneously, as long as the effective level isn't too high. In that case the cost difference between the energy types shrinks. Because while sonic might be great for bypassing resistances if you have to choose only one, the ability to simultaneously choose between cold, electricity and fire is often nearly as good since few things resist all 3.

You might also associate some energy types with certain shapes and/or ranges for flavor reasons, creating a greater cost if you violate these associations.