igor140
2020-12-17, 11:26 AM
The campaign I am running is going to feature several sorcadins of various elements for various plot raisins.
Reading through the descriptions of Pyromancer and Storm Sorcerer (and trying to create my own similar Cryomancer), the wording on their "radial" feature is:
At 1st level, whenever you start casting a spell of 1st level or higher that deals fire damage, fiery magic erupts from you. This eruption causes creatures of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you to take fire damage equal to half your sorcerer level (minimum of 1).
Storm Sorcerer is worded almost identically, and Cryomancer will be as well. Looking at the salient part of searing smite:
The next time you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack during the spell’s duration, your weapon flares with white-hot intensity, and the attack deals an extra 1d6 fire damage to the target and causes the target to ignite in flames.
So, the question is: when does the radial damage of Pyromancer go into effect? RAW, it would seem as if it should happen immediately upon casting. The problem is that these smite spells don't deal damage upon casting; they deal damage upon a subsequent melee hit. So RAI, it seems like it should proc upon when triggering the smite damage (when damage is dealt).
I discussed this with the other DM at our table, and his point was that certain spells like Melf's Minute Meteors, Witchbolt, and Call Lightning are cast once, but deal damage multiple times, so it makes sense to only deal damage upon the actual casting.
My counter to this was that the smite spells only deal damage once before ending, and there is a definitive activation event for these spells. Also, all of the other "repeated damage" spells deal damage upon being cast. To my knowledge, smites are the only direct-damage spells that do basically nothing upon casting, and are only activated later (I'm sure there's an exception or two...).
So which makes more sense? Dealing the radial damage upon the literal casting, or when the damage first takes place?
Reading through the descriptions of Pyromancer and Storm Sorcerer (and trying to create my own similar Cryomancer), the wording on their "radial" feature is:
At 1st level, whenever you start casting a spell of 1st level or higher that deals fire damage, fiery magic erupts from you. This eruption causes creatures of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you to take fire damage equal to half your sorcerer level (minimum of 1).
Storm Sorcerer is worded almost identically, and Cryomancer will be as well. Looking at the salient part of searing smite:
The next time you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack during the spell’s duration, your weapon flares with white-hot intensity, and the attack deals an extra 1d6 fire damage to the target and causes the target to ignite in flames.
So, the question is: when does the radial damage of Pyromancer go into effect? RAW, it would seem as if it should happen immediately upon casting. The problem is that these smite spells don't deal damage upon casting; they deal damage upon a subsequent melee hit. So RAI, it seems like it should proc upon when triggering the smite damage (when damage is dealt).
I discussed this with the other DM at our table, and his point was that certain spells like Melf's Minute Meteors, Witchbolt, and Call Lightning are cast once, but deal damage multiple times, so it makes sense to only deal damage upon the actual casting.
My counter to this was that the smite spells only deal damage once before ending, and there is a definitive activation event for these spells. Also, all of the other "repeated damage" spells deal damage upon being cast. To my knowledge, smites are the only direct-damage spells that do basically nothing upon casting, and are only activated later (I'm sure there's an exception or two...).
So which makes more sense? Dealing the radial damage upon the literal casting, or when the damage first takes place?