Fiery Mobility Spells [PEACH]

[WarrentheHero]

Hello all! I'm starting up a new campaign and one of my players wants to be a movement-based Pyromancer Sorcerer, and simply taking spells like Jump, Longstrider, and Fly and flavoring them as fire-based isn't enough for him, so I drew up a list of new homebrew spells that serve to further expand on the fire archetype. I tried not to make these above the curve of other spells of their level, certainly not the best-in-level spells, but may have the missed the mark. There's also a bonus cantrip that isn't related to fire but is an effect that he still thinks is neat so I wrote that up too. There's a small typo where I excluded Sorcerer from the class list for that spell. Also, Jet Step is nearly a carbon-copy of Zephyr Strike. This is intentional; it allows for the Advantage Attack to work on weapon and spell attacks and does less bonus damage as a trade. Otherwise it's a pure reskin.

Please have a look and tell me what you think!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_MuFLAOgOQkBHl23AP28-5bmXa9RnLby/view?usp=sharing

[Funkeel]

Ok, you definitely need to add a few Caveats to Wildfire Flight. As it is written, I can wildfire flight into Scorching Ray to have each hit for 6d6 fire damage. That's just not OK. I would honestly remove the bonus damage entirely. Also, the proximity fire damage on this 4th-level spell is higher than investiture of Flame, a 6th-level spell. I know they definitely aren't equivalent, but just a note.

What I would do with this spell is duct-tape it and Jet Step together, since they accomplish the same thing thematically. I would make wildfire step have the hover and jump buffs because why not, but then I would give it straight immunity to opportunity attacks. Finally, I would make the proximity damage only apply on your turn when you move into and out of a creature's space. The damage would be quite low, but this now encourages you to RP as a homing missile and move around as many enemies as possible before arriving at your target. It basically makes an area spell out of you. Plus, you spread around like wildfire, making the name more sense.

As for the original jet step, just make Zephyr deal fire damage, but it should probably stay a melee attack because otherwise, getting the movement bonus is way too easy. I'd call this new Zephyr strike with a worse damage type "Ignition Strike."

Volcanic Ascent is basically perfect, and I'm stealing it. No notes.

One quick clarification: You should probably say "Immediately" after impact for the fire dagger rather than "shortly." "Immediately" makes it clear that you can throw it again with an extra attack or something.

Blazing Pursuit is a good idea but needs a bit of rewording. I believe "the target" refers to the creature you hit, but you might want to make that more clear. Perhaps describe the spell as "Branding" the creature you hit somehow. Also, you legally have to call it "Hot Pursuit" because that's basically a perfect pun. Also, why is it on the Bard spell list? It fits the homebrew Bard subclass I made and posted on the forums and wouldn't mind some feedback on very well, but Bard doesn't have any other fire spells.

In fact, the spell lists are a bit weird in general. Bladesinger Wizards and Eldritch knights would love blazing pursuit, so slap that on the Wizard list. They'd also probably like Volcanic Ascent and Wildfire Flight as well. Also, Volcanic ascent could be flavored as a rocket jump for Artificer, so you got to let them have it as well.

Also one more idea: Some kind of spell where you teleport in a line and the line deals damage might be cool. Maybe call it "Phoenix Step"

[WarrentheHero]

Ok, you definitely need to add a few Caveats to Wildfire Flight. As it is written, I can wildfire flight into Scorching Ray to have each hit for 6d6 fire damage. That's just not OK. I would honestly remove the bonus damage entirely. Also, the proximity fire damage on this 4th-level spell is higher than investiture of Flame, a 6th-level spell. I know they definitely aren't equivalent, but just a note.
Thank you for the feedback. The damage assessment I did for Wildfire Flight is based around the fact that it's an action to cast, and Concentration. But on the turn you cast it it does no damage, it just gives you mobility. So whatever buff to damage it gives on your second turn has to be worth two Actions, and has to be worth whatver damage was inflicted to your party when you hypothetically could have just killed people. So I looked to Fireball: One Fireball is 8d6 for a 3rd-level spell. And since Wildfire Flight boosts attack damage, I looked at Scorching Ray of course as well, a total of 6d6 over three attacks. So if you spent your two turns just blasting people, it would be 14d6 damage (total spell level: 5). You could also just Fireball twice or FB+SR (total spell level: 6) for 16d6. Wildfire Flight + SR offers 18d6 (total spell level: 6), so it is above the curve on the damage output of FB+SR or double-FB, but it also effects far fewer targets. It could be lowered to +3d6 to make for a total of 15d6, or even +2d6 for a total of 12d6, but at the end of the day, I wanted to make this a spell that does damage, which means it must be competetive with Fireball.

It worth noting that Wildfire lasts for longer than 2 rounds, but they impact of damage over those extra rounds is pretty limited. Most fights (should) take 4-5 rounds, so while you could look at Wildfire and say "it gives you 40d6 extra damage!", that's only over its entire minute, which won't happen.

The proximity-damage I honestly considered more of a flavor win than anything; enemies have to end their turn next to you, so it's fully up to them whether they take the damage or not, and if you're using Wildfire Flight, you're probably using the mobility to get away and then cast ranged-attack spells, so the enemy will rarely actually be within 5 feet of you, especially if you have a frontline. And if you're using Wildfire to boost your melee ability, you're probably going to be taking a lot of attacks anyway, threatening Concentration.

Overall, I think that you're right that the damage numbers might be a bit too high, but I don't think it's anything super super crazy. I'll probably bring the on-hit boost down to 3d6 and the proximity damage to 2d6. I also don't consider Investiture of Flame to really be worth a 6th-level slot at all so while I looked at it when designing this spell, I didn't factor it as a ceiling to the capailities of Wildfire Step. It's just bad. Maybe it should be 5th level.


As for the original jet step, just make Zephyr deal fire damage, but it should probably stay a melee attack because otherwise, getting the movement bonus is way too easy. I'd call this new Zephyr strike with a worse damage type "Ignition Strike."
Yeah like I said, Jet Step is a clone of Zephyr Strike. The reason it does lower damage with a worse damage type is exactly because I'm allowing it to work for ranged non-weapon attacks as well as weapon attacks. It's more versatile than its originator and it buffs a more powerful action (ranged spell attack), so it only makes sense to lower the rest of the spell's output. But Zephyr Strike doesn't upcast and Jet Step does, so that's something, I guess. I did notice though that I had a typo with Jet Step: the damage boost should be 1d6, not 1d4. The At Higher Levels entry lists the correct damage die.


Volcanic Ascent is basically perfect, and I'm stealing it. No notes.
Thank you! That one was kinda easy to write, actually; it just showed up as I put the words down, like it was obvious from the start what to do.


One quick clarification: You should probably say "Immediately" after impact for the fire dagger rather than "shortly." "Immediately" makes it clear that you can throw it again with an extra attack or something.
You are correct.


Blazing Pursuit is a good idea but needs a bit of rewording. I believe "the target" refers to the creature you hit, but you might want to make that more clear. Perhaps describe the spell as "Branding" the creature you hit somehow. Also, you legally have to call it "Hot Pursuit" because that's basically a perfect pun.
Yeah, I tried to mimic the writing and formatting of the Paladin Smite spells, but apparently missed the mark on that. I avoided "branding" language for the same reason: That's just Branding Smite.
It's called Blazing Pursuit because that was a spell/ability that the Swordmage class from 4e had, which is a class that I really liked and is also the origin of the names for Booming Blade, Greenflame Blade, Lightning Lure, and Sword Burst. The closest we'll ever get to Swordmage these days is unfortunately Hexblade Bladelock with Relentless Hex, but unfortunately that doesn't quite capture the vibe of Swordmage. Alas.


Also, why is it on the Bard spell list? It fits the homebrew Bard subclass I made and posted on the forums and wouldn't mind some feedback on very well, but Bard doesn't have any other fire spells.

In fact, the spell lists are a bit weird in general. Bladesinger Wizards and Eldritch knights would love blazing pursuit, so slap that on the Wizard list. They'd also probably like Volcanic Ascent and Wildfire Flight as well. Also, Volcanic ascent could be flavored as a rocket jump for Artificer, so you got to let them have it as well.
A lot of the spell lists were simple gut-instinct without a lot of thought. Blazing Pursuit was actually one I wrote years ago, and at the time I had a College of Blades Bard so it was a sort of thoughtless "I'm sure this guy would like to have this." You are correct that its sort of an outlier from the Bard list, I'll probably change that. Volcanic Ascent felt more 'primal' to me, hence Druid and Sorcerer, but I could see the argument to give access to Artificers and Wizards (Elkdritch Knights). Sometimes I just don't want the Arcane lsit to have everything, y'know? But I'll take another pass at these, shift some around.


Also one more idea: Some kind of spell where you teleport in a line and the line deals damage might be cool. Maybe call it "Phoenix Step"
This is a great idea.

Level: 3
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self (60-foot line)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard
You channel the power of the reforming phoenix, discorporating into flames and reapearing whole elsewhere. You unleash primal fire in a 5-foot wide, 60-foot long line. Each creature in the line must attempt a Dexterity Save, taking 3d10 Fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. You then teleport, along with everything you are wearing and carrying, to the very last space included in the line. If that space is occupied or blocked (such as by a wall), the line must be shorter, until it ends with an unoccupied space you can teleport to.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 3rd.

Notes: Spells for comparison were Aganazzar's Scorcher (30ft line, 3d8 damage) and Thunder Step (90ft teleport, take a friend, Con 3d10 damage around space you leave). I boosted the range and damage of Scorcher, but kept the teleport shorter and solo from Thunder Step. So it's worse than Thunder Step in terms of utility but better in terms of damage (you can probably catch more people in the line than a 5-foot emantation next to you). It is meant to be more damage-focused than Thunder Step, but the line effect will probably catche more people than TS anyway, so probably fine as-is. Other options were 3d12(19.5) or 4d10(22) or 6d6(21). It competes with Lightning Bolt for 3rd level line-damage-spells, but LB is 8d6(28) with no teleport or other effect so I don't feel this spell should be within spitting distance of LB in terms of damage, hence why still 3d10 and not 4d10.