Ice Knife spell question

[othaero]

Am I reading it right:
The target has a chance to take 1d10 piercing and even on a miss possibly take 2d6 cold?

[pwykersotz]

Yep, with a Dex save to negate the AoE damage. It sacrifices a tiny bit on the AoE damage to add some potential extra single target damage compared to Thunderwave.

[Squiddish]

Yes. It is a very good spell for its level.

[RickAllison]

It also gets a unique designation as one of, if not the only, AoE spells that can be used with Twinned Spell. Since it targets a single creature rather than a point like most AoE effects or multiple targets like Lightning Bolt, it fulfills the necessary restrictions for that Metamagic. Not a particularly useful combination, but it is fun! Just like Magic Stone has the unique honor of making a spell attack with a weapon, which qualifies it for such uses as making Sneak Attack with a spell attack. Again, not particularly useful but fun!

[Foxhound438]

yes, but the big balancing factor is the while ice knife has 2 chances to damage you, burning hands will deal damage regardless of whether or not you make the save while with the knife, if you throw it and miss, and then they do a sick backflip to avoid the explosion, they take no damage at all.