how does the flashfrost feat work

[Baby Gary]

I have a simple question, does it only deal damage once or does it deal damage every round? I am under the impression that is deals damage every round but my DM says that it doesn't. I am planning on using this for Fell Drain so it is rather important

[ColorBlindNinja]

Hard to say, the feat is pretty poorly worded.

I'd say yes, but I could see a DM ruling otherwise.

[AvatarVecna]

The portion of Flash Frost that references damage makes no mention of duration; the "1 round" part is in regards to the Balance stuff that comes after it. The damage portion of Flash Frost has the same duration as the rest of the spell. Regardless of whether that is what the metamagic was meant to do, that's what it does.

So, if you use a CL 11 "Cone Of Cold" with Flash Frost in a 6th lvl slot (instantaneous damage), the damage becomes 11d8+10, because the level of Cone Of Cold is 5 regardless of the slot it's used in via metamagic unless Heighten Spell is involved. Similarly, using CL 13 "Acid Fog" with both Energy Substitution (Cold) and Flash Frost, it'll deal 2d6+12 cold damage per turn to those within it.

EDIT: Ultimately, though, if your DM says "that's not how I interpret it", you're probably not going to change their mind very easily.

[Nifft]

The intent appears to be that there is an instantaneous effect which hinders movement for 1 turn and does a little extra damage.

The actual wording appears ambiguous.

However, even at its most nerfed, it's still quite usable -- hindering movement for 1 round while also dealing damage can be pretty great for a GOD-Wizard or BFC-Druid.