Is Tasha's Caustic Brew a good upcasting candidate?

[Cikomyr2]

So I was thinking for a Warlock. Having a combat-length ability to do line damage of 10d4 per round is.. not too bad against hordes of enemies? That sums to about 22 damage to 3-4 enemies at a time, is that a bad use of a 5th level spell slot?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Looks like that spell is on the Sorcerer, Wizard, and Artificer lists, but not Warlock.

[stoutstien]

So I was thinking for a Warlock. Having a combat-length ability to do line damage of 10d4 per round is.. not too bad against hordes of enemies? That sums to about 22 damage to 3-4 enemies at a time, is that a bad use of a 5th level spell slot?

Problem is cover because it's a dex save in a line. Other than that it's not a bad spell if you can combine it with some way to insure you can get it to stick.

[jojosskul]

As someone mentioned it's not on the Warlock list, BUT it is a fantastic spell for a Sorcerer with Careful. Since it's save or do nothing this joins the likes of Hypnotic Pattern and Fear as spells where Careful completely protects your allies. By having a pretty darn decent low level option that works well with the metamagic, in my opinion it makes Sorcerer builds that optimize for Careful a lot more viable. And whether you're casting the spell at 1st level or 5th, Careful is always just a single sorcery point.

[ftafp]

Tasha's Caustic Brew isn't terrible to upcast, but remember it's not advised that you use it unless you're trying to draw enemy fire. Targets quickly realize it's easier to just attack you instead of scraping the acid off


Problem is cover because it's a dex save in a line. Other than that it's not a bad spell if you can combine it with some way to insure you can get it to stick.

That may be true RAW but remember that there are a lot of tables that don't play it that way because it makes the spells un-fun.

[stoutstien]

That may be true RAW but remember that there are a lot of tables that don't play it that way because it makes the spells un-fun.

And purposely allowing spells to do more than they are attended too is the reason tables run into caster supremacy issues.

[Sherlockpwns]

I'd be against upcasting this spell simply because the BEST case scenario is they lose a turn and take an 'ok' amount of damage, worst case scenario is they save and it does nothing, and middle case scenario is it hits a high value target and some mook removes the acid from them, possibly even before the damage occurs.

In short, it's less of a DPR boost and more CC, only at 5th level there's simply a lot of better CC out there.

That said it's not terrible or anything, as previously pointed out there's some fun things you can do with a sorcerer and this spell. It's pretty unique in that it gives someone the choice between taking damage and losing a turn, and there's probably some argument for upcasting it a little in hopes of having the enemies actually make a difficult decision. E.g. If you can cast 5th level spells odds are enemies at this CR would just take the 2d4 if you cast it at level 1 and use an action to remove it if you cast it at level 5, but upcast to level 3? Which is more dangerous?

To me this is a more interesting question to hit PCs with than to use as PCs though, but hey, may as well make your DM think a bit!

[LudicSavant]

It's an "all or nothing" save rather than save for half. It's a Dex save in a line and thus subject to cover (remember, creatures grant cover to enemies behind them for Dex saves). It can be scraped off as an action (and lesser minions can take that action on behalf of an ally), and the effect is delayed to the start of their turn so they might not take any damage at all if they take advantage of turn order (they can scrape it off each other, or break your Concentration, or the like). Even if they don't, it's still a case of you not knowing whether it'll finish them off (and prevent their turn) until they actually get said turn.

Contrast something like Wall of Fire, which has no save for 2 of its 3 proc conditions, save for half on the initial appearance, has a better (and sculptable) area of effect, can activate multiple times per round, and has utility as a vision blocker. And it does similar damage to Caustic Brew per proc instead of per round.