A Thought On Call Lightning

[CrusaderJoe]

So for Call Lightning (and AoE spells) there is only one damage roll per casting of the spell? Correct? I'm pretty sure about this but I can be wrong.

So (cha/wis build, a Favored Soul character) Sorcerer 12/Druid 5/Cleric 2 will have call lightning, tempest for max lightning damage 1/day, and then lots of sorcery points for heighten spell metamagic and other fun. Using a 9th level slot (and stormy conditions) you could deal 10d10 damage to any creature within 5' of a point (let's say 4 creatures).

Give a creature disadvantage on the save and if it fails (or one of the four fails) you can use channel divinity to deal 100 damage (+5 cha).

This could potentially be 420 points of damage if all creatures fail their save. Assuming you roll one damage per spell, the channel divity would apply to all.

I'm looking for ruling RAW or CRAW (or CRAI) that goes against potentially dealing 420 lightning damage with a Call Lightning (again, 105/creature on a failed save).

-10 damage/creature in normal conditions but I'm looking at potential.

Background: My friend is DMing a campaign, the Favored Soul will probably use this at some point. My friend wanted to know if it was legal or not. I said yes, but I would ask around.

[Galen]

Seems legit. However, on level 20, 105 damage to 4 creatures once per day is hardly gamebreaking. I mean, look at the hit points of most creatures you're expected to fight at that level ...

[CrusaderJoe]

Seems legit. However, on level 20, 105 damage to 4 creatures once per day is hardly gamebreaking. I mean, look at the hit points of most creatures you're expected to fight at that level ...

Yeah I know, but it is like 4 PWKills with one action, which is what I think the DM has an issue with.

[Envyus]

The thing that makes Call Lighting Good is that it can be used round after round if you keep concentrating on it.

[JFahy]

Yeah I know, but it is like 4 PWKills with one action, which is what I think the DM has an issue with.

If a group is fighting a level 20 caster and has four of their combatants in a 10x10' square, they're in urgent need of retraining. Don't think of it as Power Word: Kill, think of it as Remedial Tactics 101. :smallwink:

[CrusaderJoe]

If a group is fighting a level 20 caster and has four of their combatants in a 10x10' square, they're in urgent need of retraining. Don't think of it as Power Word: Kill, think of it as Remedial Tactics 101. :smallwink:

The party has tons of way of moving creatures around, between the Warlock, Fighter, and Druid they will get most things in a group unless the DM fiats it somehow.

[SharkForce]

The party has tons of way of moving creatures around, between the Warlock, Fighter, and Druid they will get most things in a group unless the DM fiats it somehow.

at which point it can hardly be considered to be all on the call lightning spell, now, can it?

if it takes 4 people cooperating to get everyone into position so that you can drop a nuke, it is now 4 character's worth of abilities that went into that ability.

[Chronos]

Keep in mind: This character will have one very potent trick, but they'll also be severely limited in other ways: Most notably, they won't have access to any 7th, 8th, or 9th-level spells (just lower spells up-slotted). And this one very potent trick will very often not work at all: You can't cast Call Lightning if you don't have enough room for the storm cloud to form, such as in most dungeons. Plus, of course, the possibility of lightning immunity, evasion, enemies you can't locate that precisely, etc.

[Myzz]

The good news on Call Lightening... it does not take forever to cast now. But you do get it at level 3 and can rank it up to be better (as you pointed out in OP).

Bad news... It hits at most 9 Creatures (very liberal use of squares) and only 7 if you use Hexes. In addition the original 60 ft section is static and can't be moved, but you can choose a new point within that every turn. Burns Concentration to maintain AND an Action to use...

Compared to Meteor Swarm, which is a comparable level that your pulling off this one trick... 20d6 Fire and 20d6 Bludgeoning also a dex save for half. So on a save thats 10d6 fire and 10d6 bludgeoning (excepting those that have Evasion). Which is 70 dmg average on a successfull save. An 18th level Wild Magic Sorcerer can Empower the spell to reroll 1's to boost that average up, and can use Spell Bombardment to add another d6 (as long as 1 of those 40d6 rolled a 1).

Meteor Swarm effects a 40 ft radius sphere, which will affect 219 squares as a minimum (thats leaving out many of the partial squares and using the 5-10-5-10 diagonal variant rule vs the RAW all sq are 5ft across including diagonal)...

So, if there is an army of medium sized creatures running at you... Meteor will do more dmg for that 9th level slot than Call Lightening Amped up, it will effect more creatures quicker... It would take 24 rounds of Call Lightening to achieve the same effect on squares. And after the first use, you likely wont get a full 9 per action again so...

IF there was a medium creature in each of those 219 squares and they all saved and Meteor Swarm did average damage even with the use of sorcery points, that's 219x70 dmg = 15,330 dmg...

Is it a good, neat trick... sure. But if your point is to do as much dmg as possible to a large force with a 9th level spell slot, then Meteor Swarm is the answer...

[Chronos]

And you can use that Meteor Swarm from miles away, and it's actually four 40' radius spheres, which you can arrange however you'd like within range. You could blast four armies approaching from four different directions, if you chose, and still have time to eat lunch before they got to you.

[Myzz]

And you can use that Meteor Swarm from miles away, and it's actually four 40' radius spheres, which you can arrange however you'd like within range. You could blast four armies approaching from four different directions, if you chose, and still have time to eat lunch before they got to you.

OMG how did I miss the 4 orbs part... LOL I guess I got blinded by the 40d6, your gonna be rolling to each 40 ft orb.

SO take the numbers I posted above and quadruple them... lol

<60k+ dmg with all 880'ish people making their save>

[Demonic Spoon]

The thing that makes PWK powerful is that it's unavoidable except by having >100 hitpoints. You can't get immunity or resistance to its damage type, you don't get a save to reduce the damage - you just die, end of story.

Meteor swarm is is going to a lot more damage in a single round, with a larger AOE (albeit less controllable). I'm going to agree with the consensus of "Cool and useful, but not overpowered".