New non-fire damage cantrips (PEACH)

[Protato]

I noticed in 5e, there's a real dearth of elemental spells outside of fire, and this is my attempt to write some new cantrips.


Zap
80ft. range, Evocation. Instant A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Lightning damage and has disadvantage on ability checks until the start of your next turn. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level, eleventh level, and seventeenth level. Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Razor Wind
50ft. range, Evocation. V,S. Instant. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 1d8 magical Slashing damage. The damage die is raised to 1d10 if the target has already taken damage. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level (2d8, 2d10), eleventh level (3d8, 3d10), and seventeenth level (4d8, 4d10). Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard.

Crashing Yell
30ft. range, Evocation. V, S. Instant. A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Thunder damage and is Deafened until the start of your next turn. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level (2d8), eleventh level (3d8), and seventeenth level (4d8). Bard.

Bolt of Corrosion
70ft. range, Evocation. V,S. Instant. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 1d8 Acid damage. If the target is a construct, the next attack roll against it has advantage until the start of your next turn. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level (2d8), eleventh level (3d8), and seventeenth level (4d8). Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid.

Psychoshock
30ft. range, Evocation. V,S. Instant. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 2d4 Psychic damage, and the target has disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws until the start of your next turn. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level (3d4), eleventh level (4d4), and seventeenth level (5d4). Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Earth Spike
60ft. range, Conjuration. V, S. Instant. Concentration to a minute. Until the spell ends, a stalagmite fills a 5ft. cube. Any creature in the stalagmite's space when it appears must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d12 damage. The area is considered impassable terrain until the stalagmite dissipates. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level (2d12), eleventh level (3d12), and seventeenth level (4d12). Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Noxious Fume
50ft. range, Conjuration. V, S. Instant. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Poison damage and has disadvantage on perception checks relying on scent until the start of your next turn. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at fifth level (2d8), eleventh level (3d8), and seventeenth level (4d8). Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard.

[JNAProductions]

I noticed in 5e, there's a real dearth of elemental spells outside of fire, and this is my attempt to write some new cantrips.


Zap
80ft. range, Evocation. A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Lightning damage and is Stunned until the start of their next turn. Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Razor Wind
50ft. range, Evocation. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 1d8 magical Slashing damage. The damage die is raised to 1d12 if the target has already taken damage. Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard.

Crashing Yell
30ft. range, Evocation. A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Thunder damage and is Deafened until the start of your next turn. Bard.

Bolt of Corrosion
50ft. range, Evocation. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 1d8 Acid damage. If the target is wearing heavy armor, their AC is reduced by 1, to a maximum of 1 point of reduction.

Psychoshock
30ft. range, Evocation. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 2d4 Psychic damage. Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Earth Spike
60ft. range, Conjuration. Concentration to a minute. Until the spell ends, a stalagmite fills a 5ft. cube. Any creature in the stalagmite's space must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d12 damage. The area is considered impassable terrain until the stalagmite dissipates. Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Induce Poisoning
80ft. range, Enchantment. A target you choose must make a Constitution saving throw. The target takes 1d6 poison damage and is poisoned for one minute. Sorcerer, Druid.

All looks fine, nothing major... Wait...


Induce Poisoning
80ft. range, Enchantment. A target you choose must make a Constitution saving throw. The target takes 1d6 poison damage and is poisoned for one minute. Sorcerer, Druid.

First off, Enchantment? Second off, do you know how powerful Poisoned is? It's really strong. And this gives it, at-will, for one minute, with only one save?

Everything else was fine. This one is ridiculous!

[Protato]

All looks fine, nothing major... Wait...



First off, Enchantment? Second off, do you know how powerful Poisoned is? It's really strong. And this gives it, at-will, for one minute, with only one save?

Everything else was fine. This one is ridiculous!

Ah, my intent is for them to take poison at the start of every turn but I forgot to put that in. I'll also get rid of the starting damage.

[JNAProductions]

Ah, my intent is for them to take poison at the start of every turn but I forgot to put that in. I'll also get rid of the starting damage.

I'd make them take the damage on each failed save, including the first.

Now that it doesn't inflict the condition, seems fine.

[Protato]

I've changed the poison spell, I realized I basically didn't finish writing it. Also changed Enchantment to Conjuration because it manifests inside the target's body.

[JNAProductions]

Did you just add Stunned to Zap?

Because that stops you from taking any actions.

Remove that-maybe have it inflict a -1d4 penalty on all d20 rolls, but definitely not STUNNED.

[Protato]

I didn't just add that, no. I'll give disadvantage on ability checks until the start of your next turn instead.

[KoyukiTei13]

I noticed in 5e, there's a real dearth of elemental spells outside of fire, and this is my attempt to write some new cantrips.


Zap
80ft. range, Evocation. A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Lightning damage and has disadvantage on ability checks until the start of your next turn. Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Razor Wind
50ft. range, Evocation. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 1d8 magical Slashing damage. The damage die is raised to 1d12 if the target has already taken damage. Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard.

Crashing Yell
30ft. range, Evocation. A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Thunder damage and is Deafened until the start of your next turn. Bard.

Bolt of Corrosion
50ft. range, Evocation. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 1d8 Acid damage. If the target is wearing heavy armor, their AC is reduced by 1, to a maximum of 1 point of reduction.

Psychoshock
30ft. range, Evocation. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit the target takes 2d4 Psychic damage. Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Earth Spike
60ft. range, Conjuration. Concentration to a minute. Until the spell ends, a stalagmite fills a 5ft. cube. Any creature in the stalagmite's space must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d12 damage. The area is considered impassable terrain until the stalagmite dissipates. Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer.

Induce Poisoning
80ft. range, Conjuration. Concentration one minute. A target you choose must make a Constitution saving throw on a failed save, the target takes 1d6 Poison damage and poison manifests within the target. The target must make a Constitution saving throw at the start of each of their turns or take an additional 1d4 Poison damage. On a successful save, Concentration is broken and the spell ends.

Ok so, your cantrips are missing some formatting (which is no big deal, really) and some information. Casting time, components, duration (except the two that say "concentration 1 minute") are big things you need for spells. In addition, these cantrips don't scale with level, even though they deal damage. Most damage cantrips scale at 5, 11, and 17.

Also, some of these just look straight better than some of the alternatives in more recent additions to the game. Xanathar's came out with a couple great cantrips like the Toll the Dead cantrip, and there was a whole Unearthed Arcana dedicated to low-level spells/cantrips. Your *Crashing Yell* is pretty much Thunderclap (http://engl393-dnd5th.wikia.com/wiki/Thunderclap), just with higher damage and a condition application to the target.

I really like the idea of Razor Wind so I'll go with this one first (is this based off the pokemon move, btw?):

Razor Wind
Evocation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: instantaneous
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

Choose one target within range and make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 magical slashing damage. If the target is missing any hit points, the damage die increases to 1d10.

At Higher Levels: The spell's damage increases by one at 5th level (2d8/2d10), 11th level (3d8/3d10), and 17th level (4d8/4d10).


Zap
Evocation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: instantaneous
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

A target you choose must succeed a Constitution saving throw. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Lightning damage and has disadvantage on the next attack they make.

At Higher Levels: The spell's damage increases by one damage die at 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).


Earth Spike
Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 round
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

*When you cast this spell, a stalagmite erupts from the ground to fill* a 5ft. cube. Any creature in the stalagmite's space *when it appears* must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d12 damage. The area is considered impassable terrain until the end of the duration when the stalagmite sinks into the ground.

At Higher Levels: This spell's damage increases when you reach higher levels. The spell's damage increases by one damage die at 5th level (2d12), and 11th level (3d12), and 17th level (4d12).

Personally, I don't like the Bolt of Corrosion effect with heavy armor. There isn't really room for a break of bounded accuracy like that, and the reduction doesn't have a time limit where it would 'go back to being un-corroded' (I know that's not how that works, but I feel like a cantrip's effects like that should be temporary).

Induce Poison seems overpowered and not detailed enough. I feel like this is a 1st-level spell based on the poison condition. Poison Spray just uses a Con save to resist the damage.

Also, Psychoshock seems really lackluster for a psychic spell. I feel like another effect would be fitting.

[Protato]

Ok so, your cantrips are missing some formatting (which is no big deal, really) and some information. Casting time, components, duration (except the two that say "concentration 1 minute") are big things you need for spells. In addition, these cantrips don't scale with level, even though they deal damage. Most damage cantrips scale at 5, 11, and 17.

Also, some of these just look straight better than some of the alternatives in more recent additions to the game. Xanathar's came out with a couple great cantrips like the Toll the Dead cantrip, and there was a whole Unearthed Arcana dedicated to low-level spells/cantrips. Your *Crashing Yell* is pretty much Thunderclap (http://engl393-dnd5th.wikia.com/wiki/Thunderclap), just with higher damage and a condition application to the target.

-snip-

Personally, I don't like the Bolt of Corrosion effect with heavy armor. There isn't really room for a break of bounded accuracy like that, and the reduction doesn't have a time limit where it would 'go back to being un-corroded' (I know that's not how that works, but I feel like a cantrip's effects like that should be temporary).

Induce Poison seems overpowered and not detailed enough. I feel like this is a 1st-level spell based on the poison condition. Poison Spray just uses a Con save to resist the damage.

Also, Psychoshock seems really lackluster for a psychic spell. I feel like another effect would be fitting.

I've changed things a little bit. Some things probably aren't totally balanced but they seem more or less okay to me. Induce Poisoning will be used instead as a Level 1 spell, because I plan to make another thread for levelled spells at some point. Crashing Yell is meant to be an alternative to Vicious Mockery. The range is still short and it does fairly low damage, and deafened is probably less good in general versus disadvantage on an attack. I gave Psychoshock a rider, a pretty good one too. I might lower the damage to 1d6 or even 1d4 to compensate. Bolt of Corrosion's damage has been raised but in turn it has no rider, it's basically a differently-typed Firebolt. Zap and Earth Spike have no real change. Other than that and formatting I hope it looks good now. I also might add a poison attack roll cantrip that does direct damage to replace Induce Poison.

[retaliation08]

Induce Poisoning will be used instead as a Level 1 spell, because I plan to make another thread for levelled spells at some point.

So making Induce Poison level 1, makes it like a worse version of Witchbolt, which is largely considered among the worst damage spells in 5e. If you change it to be a level 1 spell, you need to rework it again or no one will really want to use it.

Edit: It's better than Witchbolt in that it doesn't require an action each round to maintain, but it does less damage against a good save and is a more resisted type.

[Protato]

Alright, so I replaced Induce Poison with Noxious Fume, simple attack cantrip, and gave a different rider to Bolt of Corrosion.

[nickl_2000]

Just a curiosity, but is there a reason that the Warlock got no love from any of these spells?