3.5 New Domain! The Blaster Domain (PEACH)

[NeoSeraphi]

The Blaster Domain
Deities: The Blaster Domain is offered by any deity who also offers the Fire, Storm, Cold, or Earth Domains.

Granted Power: The critical threat range of weaponlike spells you cast becomes 18-20. If you cast a weaponlike spell whose threat range is already 18-20 (and is stated to be such in the description of the spell), its critical multiplier increases by 1.

If you have the Improved Critical (Ray) or Improved Critical (Touch Spell) feats, when you cast a spell of the chosen type its critical multiplier is increased by 1 (but the threat range stays at 18-20). If you have Improved Critical for a spell that has a threat range of 18-20 in its description, then when you cast the spell, its threat range is 15-20 and its critical multiplier is increased by 1.

Spells

1st: Lesser Orb of Acid (SC)
2nd: Scorching Ray
3rd: Icelance (SC)
4th: Orb of Electricity (SC)
5th: Prismatic Ray (SC)
6th: Chain Lightning
7th: Delayed Blast Fireball
8th: Polar Ray
9th: Meteor Swarm

[motionmatrix]

Eliminated Improved critical (ray) completely. You may want to specify if they stack, which I would allow since high level blasting could use the help.

A wizard won't touch the feat until level 16, so I don't think its broken.

[NeoSeraphi]

Eliminated Improved critical (ray) completely. You may want to specify if they stack, which I would allow since high level blasting could use the help.

A wizard won't touch the feat until level 16, so I don't think its broken.

A wizard wouldn't, but a gish might grab it as early as level 12. Though I suppose I'll say that Improved Critical (Ray) would raise the multiplier just like a specific ray would.

[Grod_The_Giant]

But you left out fireball! The single most iconic blaster spell in d&d!

I would also probably swap out Lesser Orb of Acid for Magic Missile, both in the name of iconic-ness, and because it's too similar to Orb of Electricity.

[NeoSeraphi]

But you left out fireball! The single most iconic blaster spell in d&d!

I would also probably swap out Lesser Orb of Acid for Magic Missile, both in the name of iconic-ness, and because it's too similar to Orb of Electricity.

Magic Missile isn't a weaponlike spell, and the idea of the domain is to mix all four energy types as much as possible. (2 acid, 2 cold, 2 electricity, and 3 fire) with as many weaponlike spells as possible (all except cone of cold, chain lightning and delayed blast fireball).

Magic Missile is a part of the Force Domain already, and rightly so.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Magic Missile isn't a weaponlike spell, and the idea of the domain is to mix all four energy types as much as possible. (2 acid, 2 cold, 2 electricity, and 3 fire) with as many weaponlike spells as possible (all except cone of cold, chain lightning and delayed blast fireball).

Magic Missile is a part of the Force Domain already, and rightly so.

So you're going for weaponlike spells? Sorry. It's a bit unclear what the goal is here; I extrapolated from the 6 iconic evocations that it provides. I still see no reason not to put fireball, especially as lesser orb of acid and acid arrow are so similar (both do single-target acid damage).

[NeoSeraphi]

So you're going for weaponlike spells? Sorry. It's a bit unclear what the goal is here; I extrapolated from the 6 iconic evocations that it provides. I still see no reason not to put fireball, especially as lesser orb of acid and acid arrow are so similar (both do single-target acid damage).

It's definitely weaponlike spells (see the Granted Power).

This helps clerics with their own blasting as well, as the inflict and harm spells (not their mass versions) are all weaponlike spells as well.

Scorching ray, polar ray, acid arrow and meteor swarm all happen to be weaponlike spells as well.

As for the 5-7th level, well, blasting requires some AOEs, and I have a soft spot for chain lightning.

Edit: Putting in fireball would make the balance of elements terrible. It would be 4 fire spells, 2 cold, 2 electricity, and 1 acid. That's not what I was going for here.

[Kenneth]

I have one issue.. since domain usually get teh respective spell 1 level earlier for example Earth domain gets earthquae at 7th instead of 8th level.. maybe you should kock these blast spells down a level (or 4 in teh case of polar ray) pop disintegrate up on that list somehwere as it is really teh greatest 'blast spell out there..

[NeoSeraphi]

I have one issue.. since domain usually get teh respective spell 1 level earlier for example Earth domain gets earthquae at 7th instead of 8th level.. maybe you should kock these blast spells down a level (or 4 in teh case of polar ray) pop disintegrate up on that list somehwere as it is really teh greatest 'blast spell out there..

They do all get these spells 1 level earlier. Following the tradition that getting a spell from a different list is treated as 1 level higher. (Every single one of these spells is on the sorc/wiz spell list, not the cleric spell list)

Disintegrate is not an elemental spell, therefore it wouldn't fit with the deities who offer it. Disintegrate is a 7th level spell on the Destruction spell list (see what I mean? They pushed it back a level because it's not a cleric spell)

Edit: Polar Ray is too powerful to be a 4th level spell. Its damage cap is 25d6. That means that with a 25th caster level, you could spend a 7th level spell to deal 150 damage with no saving throw, or a 9th level spell to deal 150+ 1/2 25d6 damage, with no saving throw.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Polar Ray is too powerful to be a 4th level spell. Its damage cap is 25d6. That means that with a 25th caster level, you could spend a 7th level spell to deal 150 damage with no saving throw, or a 9th level spell to deal 150+ 1/2 25d6 damage, with no saving throw.

Oh no, 150 damage with a ranged touch attack at level 25! Whatever will we do?

Sarcasm aside, if you really want to stick to weapon-like spells, I'd suggest looking for more rays and ranged touch attacks to replace Cone of Cold, Chain Lightning, etc. Off the top of my head, you could drop Prismatic Ray in at 5th, or Sunbeam at 7th.

If you want to have area spells, you really need Fireball. I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but a blasting domain without the best area spell is just... strange. It would be like a healing domain without Heal. Replace Delayed Blast Fireball with something else if you want to stick to the elemental balance.

[NeoSeraphi]

Oh no, 150 damage with a ranged touch attack at level 25! Whatever will we do?

Sarcasm aside, if you really want to stick to weapon-like spells, I'd suggest looking for more rays and ranged touch attacks to replace Cone of Cold, Chain Lightning, etc. Off the top of my head, you could drop Prismatic Ray in at 5th, or Sunbeam at 7th.

If you want to have area spells, you really need Fireball. I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but a blasting domain without the best area spell is just... strange. It would be like a healing domain without Heal. Replace Delayed Blast Fireball with something else if you want to stick to the elemental balance.

Prismatic Ray works. And yes, I want to stick to weaponlike spells. So I'll just dump 5-7 and have no AOEs

[Siosilvar]

Disintegrate does twice as much damage as Polar Ray but has a Fortitude save. Assuming the save is made slightly more than half the time, they have identical average damage output. Disintegrate also has untyped damage and utility potential. Polar Ray doesn't. Therefore, Polar Ray is not worth a sixth-level spell slot or above.

Scorching Ray has multiple attack rolls, and a slightly weaker type of damage. Polar Ray has one attack roll, but damage type isn't worth a spell level according to Fireball and Scintillating Sphere. We'll give it the benefit of the doubt, so Polar Ray is worth at least a second-level spell slot, probably at least third.

Both Polar Ray and Orb of Cold do 1d6 cold damage per caster level to a single target. One of these doesn't check spell resistance and has a potential for blinding the opponent for a round. One of these has a damage cap 10 levels higher.
Polar Ray might be worth a fourth-level spell slot. I'd say that's probably a maximum, because ignoring spell resistance is really good and the damage cap comes into play only at levels 16-25.

Alright, we're narrowing it down. Now let's look at Hailstones, from the Spell Compendium.
Hailstones does 5d6 damage per 5 levels, max 20d6, but needs multiple ranged touch attacks. Polar Ray scales slightly better (1d6 per level max 25d6), but has a shorter range. We can ignore the range, and since we decided that reducing the number of rolls and adding a questionable benefit was probably worth a level boost when we compared it to Scorching Ray, that means Polar Ray is probably worth a fourth-level slot.


Now we have a maximum value for Polar Ray's level and a minimum probable value for the same, and they match. That means that's probably the right level, so Polar Ray should be a fourth-level spell.

Of course, you could just use Orb of Cold instead.

[NeoSeraphi]

Disintegrate does twice as much damage as Polar Ray but has a Fortitude save. Assuming the save is made slightly more than half the time, they have identical average damage output. Disintegrate also has untyped damage and utility potential. Polar Ray doesn't. Therefore, Polar Ray is not worth a sixth-level spell slot or above.

Scorching Ray has multiple attack rolls, and a slightly weaker type of damage. Polar Ray has one attack roll, but damage type isn't worth a spell level according to Fireball and Scintillating Sphere. We'll give it the benefit of the doubt, so Polar Ray is worth at least a second-level spell slot, probably at least third.

Both Polar Ray and Orb of Cold do 1d6 cold damage per caster level to a single target. One of these doesn't check spell resistance and has a potential for blinding the opponent for a round. One of these has a damage cap 10 levels higher.
Polar Ray might be worth a fourth-level spell slot. I'd say that's probably a maximum, because ignoring spell resistance is really good and the damage cap comes into play only at levels 16-25.

Alright, we're narrowing it down. Now let's look at Hailstones, from the Spell Compendium.
Hailstones does 5d6 damage per 5 levels, max 20d6, but needs multiple ranged touch attacks. Polar Ray scales slightly better (1d6 per level max 25d6), but has a shorter range. We can ignore the range, and since we decided that reducing the number of rolls and adding a questionable benefit was probably worth a level boost when we compared it to Scorching Ray, that means Polar Ray is probably worth a fourth-level slot.


Now we have a maximum value for Polar Ray's level and a minimum probable value for the same, and they match. That means that's probably the right level, so Polar Ray should be a fourth-level spell.

But it's not. I'm not going to go around and fix evocation at the moment, that's not what the thread's about. It's about taking the current blasting spells and giving them to clerics. Not giving clerics access to better blasting at earlier levels.

[Siosilvar]

But it's not. I'm not going to go around and fix evocation at the moment, that's not what the thread's about. It's about taking the current blasting spells and giving them to clerics. Not giving clerics access to better blasting at earlier levels.

The point of that post was that polar ray isn't better blasting. It sucks. No one in their right minds would use it for any reason except "flavor" (and damage caps, if they haven't figured out metamagic yet). Scorching ray is almost identical and it's 6 levels lower. I think that says something about it.


Also, you've got a typo. The 5th-level spell should be prismatic ray, not prismatic spray.

[NeoSeraphi]

Also, you've got a typo. The 5th-level spell should be prismatic ray, not prismatic spray.

Ah, thank you. Edited.

[Yitzi]

Edit: Polar Ray is too powerful to be a 4th level spell. Its damage cap is 25d6. That means that with a 25th caster level, you could spend a 7th level spell to deal 150 damage with no saving throw, or a 9th level spell to deal 150+ 1/2 25d6 damage, with no saving throw.

Well, assuming that you're looking at tier 3 or lower play; it's not the lowest of tier 2 due to using a touch attack instead of a saving throw, but it's not particularly horrible for a tier 2.

Of course, Polar Ray could be made a decent 4th level spell quite easily; simply lower the damage cap to 15d6.

[NeoSeraphi]

Of course, Polar Ray could be made a decent 4th level spell quite easily; simply lower the damage cap to 15d6.

They did that in the Spell Compendium, and called it orb of cold (and added a rider effect onto it, and removed the Spell Resistance, and made it conjuration )

[Yitzi]

They did that in the Spell Compendium, and called it orb of cold (and added a rider effect onto it, and removed the Spell Resistance, and made it conjuration )

So it's not really that similar to Polar Ray in the end, is it?

[DeAnno]

My first bit of advice is to switch Chain Lightning to Disintegrate and switch Polar Ray to Horrid Wilting. Horrid Wilting is still pretty bleh but at least it has unique damage and doesn't devalue secondary targets like Chain Lightning (plus it has a 60 foot radius instead of 30 and is Fort Half instead of Reflex Half). Disintegrate is iconic for blasting even if sometimes less useful, and has a lot of utility value in destroying walls and Dusting Frenzied Berserkers. On the other hand Polar Ray gives you pretty much nothing over Orb of Cold.

Acid Arrow is unfortunate as a 3rd level spell, mostly because it wasn't that great even as a 2nd level spell. I suggest Hailstones or Icelance from SC, to get a cold spell again with no Polar Ray around. Both are weaponlike too, which is a plus.

Another change I think would be nice is to switch out Delayed Blast Fireball (which is pretty junky if not abused somehow). Avasculate (SC) is an interesting 7th level spell very useful for hp damage, and with a good rider as well, and a new and different damage type. That leaves us a little short for multitarget, but Hailstones from earlier is sort of half-multitarget at least. Another decent option is Radiant Assault (SC), which does area damage with an interesting save (Will half) and a dangeous rider (1d6 rounds of daze!). It's even an evocation, though sadly not weaponlike.

So the revised domain would look something like:

1st: Lesser Orb of Acid (SC)
2nd: Scorching Ray
3rd: Hailstones (SC) // Icelance (SC)
4th: Orb of Electricity (SC)
5th: Prismatic Ray (SC)
6th: Disintegrate
7th: Avasculate (SC) // Radiant Assault (SC)
8th: Horrid Wilting
9th: Meteor Swarm

1 Acid, 1 Electricity, 1 Cold, 2 Fire, 4 Misc. All the spells except Horrid Wilting (and Radiant Assault) are weaponlike, though Avasculate can't really crit.

[NeoSeraphi]

My first bit of advice is to switch Chain Lightning to Disintegrate and switch Polar Ray to Horrid Wilting. Horrid Wilting is still pretty bleh but at least it has unique damage and doesn't devalue secondary targets like Chain Lightning (plus it has a 60 foot radius instead of 30 and is Fort Half instead of Reflex Half). Disintegrate is iconic for blasting even if sometimes less useful, and has a lot of utility value in destroying walls and Dusting Frenzied Berserkers. On the other hand Polar Ray gives you pretty much nothing over Orb of Cold.

Acid Arrow is unfortunate as a 3rd level spell, mostly because it wasn't that great even as a 2nd level spell. I suggest Hailstones or Icelance from SC, to get a cold spell again with no Polar Ray around. Both are weaponlike too, which is a plus.

Another change I think would be nice is to switch out Delayed Blast Fireball (which is pretty junky if not abused somehow). Avasculate (SC) is an interesting 7th level spell very useful for hp damage, and with a good rider as well, and a new and different damage type. That leaves us a little short for multitarget, but Hailstones from earlier is sort of half-multitarget at least. Another decent option is Radiant Assault (SC), which does area damage with an interesting save (Will half) and a dangeous rider (1d6 rounds of daze!). It's even an evocation, though sadly not weaponlike.

So the revised domain would look something like:

1st: Lesser Orb of Acid (SC)
2nd: Scorching Ray
3rd: Hailstones (SC) // Icelance (SC)
4th: Orb of Electricity (SC)
5th: Prismatic Ray (SC)
6th: Disintegrate
7th: Avasculate (SC) // Radiant Assault (SC)
8th: Horrid Wilting
9th: Meteor Swarm

1 Acid, 1 Electricity, 1 Cold, 2 Fire, 4 Misc. All the spells except Horrid Wilting (and Radiant Assault) are weaponlike, though Avasculate can't really crit.

I can change the acid arrow to icelance, but I refuse to put in non-elemental spells. The domain is supposed to be granted by elemental deities. And my intention was to add elemental damage to the cleric's repetoire, not the "best" blasting spells available.