New spell - Find Weakness

[Darth Credence]

I want to create a spell to allow the caster to find weaknesses in the target, and I'm wondering what level it should be. The spell will create a ball of energy that hits any target within a 60 foot range. It does 1 point of damage of each of acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, radiant, and thunder. With that damage, if something is resistant to a damage type, they will take no damage from it, and if they are vulnerable they will take 2 points. The caster will know how much damage it took from each type.

Assuming no vulnerabilities or resistances, that's a guaranteed 9 points of damage. That ends up being pretty close to magic missile at first level. I would like it to have an additional ball when upcast, perhaps with every other level. I'm inclined to make it a 2nd level spell that gets an additional ball every other level, so 2nd = 9 damage, 4th = 18, 6th = 27, and 8th = 36. Magic missile should average 14, 21, 28, and 35 at the same levels, so it is weaker at lower levels. But the point is not primarily to do damage, it is to allow the caster to find a weakness to exploit.

Any thoughts on this? I don't think it's overpowered, but I don't know if it is underpowered.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[MrStabby]

Before diving in... is there a reason to not use a divination approach that just tells you what the weaknesses are?

[Darth Credence]

Not really. Just because it sounded like a fun spell if I could balance it.

[MrStabby]

Yeah, at level 2 this should be fine. I would even boost it a bit.



You got me thinking about how I would do a spell with this name.

I was thinking a wizard spell that tells you the weaknesses/resitances of an enemy and lets you swap a spell with one in your spellbook.

[Darth Credence]

Thanks for the look. I think I'll run with it, with the understanding for the player that we have a look at it again after a little while to see how it's working.