Guardian of Faith

[HamsterKun]

I have a question about the Guardian of Faith spell.

Is it possible to have where you can choose with damage type the guardian inflicts upon summoning? So, for example, you could have it deal Fire, Cold, Lightning, etc., but only one type during the time it’s out. How would you balance that?

[JackPhoenix]

It's not possible by RAW.

However, radiant damage is superior to every other damage type except in very rare circumstances.

[LudicSavant]

I have a question about the Guardian of Faith spell.

Is it possible to have where you can choose with damage type the guardian inflicts upon summoning? So, for example, you could have it deal Fire, Cold, Lightning, etc., but only one type during the time it’s out. How would you balance that?

No, but it wouldn't be unbalanced to houserule it as being any of those damage types (since Radiant is a better damage type than all of them, generally).

[Zetakya]

It shouldn't even require a change in spell type or anything; the only question is why you would do this? The Spell lists it is on (Cleric & several Domains, 2 Paladin Oaths and Celestial Warlock) are all pretty fixated on the Celestial connection.

I could see an "Elemental Guardian" spell being not overpowering, but don't discount the utility value of being able to dial a damage type at will. While Radiant is better than any one other type in general, selectable damage is pretty powerful for leveraging a specific case.

[Chronos]

Yeah, the main reason that Radiant is good is that very few things resist it. But if you have your choice of any of the common elements, very few things will resist that, either, so long as you choose well, and some things will have vulnerabilities that makes the selectable type better.

[Theodoxus]

I'd probably make the energy type random, ala Chaos bolt. That way, you're not picking an energy type that something is specifically vulnerable to - which does make the spell OP.

I'd do something like: When you summon the guardian, it can either deal radiant damage, or you can roll a d6. On a 1, it deals Acid; 2 it deals Cold; 3 it deals Fire, 4 it deals Lightning, 5 it deals Necrotic and 6 it deals Thunder.

But then, I'm a huge fan of the Elemental Chaos... energy damage just seems better when randomized :smallbiggrin:

[Chronos]

Being able to choose your element each time is a slight buff if you know (in-character or through metagaming) what the monster's strengths and weakness are (because you'll target the weaknesses), or a slight debuff if you don't know (because just by guessing, you're more likely to hit a resistance/immunity than a vulnerability). Just having one that it always does (like always fire damage) is a significant debuff, because you're more likely to get resistances/immunities than you would with radiant. Choosing an element randomly is even worse than always doing the same kind, because you can't rely on it: If you know that your spell would do fire damage, and you're fighting a fire elemental, then you'd just choose some other spell, but if you don't know, you might get screwed no matter what you're fighting.