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Talk:Apocalypse From The Sky (3.5e Spell)

RatingsEdit

  Aarnott likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
9th-level plot device spells are always fun. The mechanics don't entirely fit the flavor in that the evil raining from the sky happens in an instant rather than like normal rain that takes place over at least a minute or so.

The spell also is a little unclear as to whether cover matters at all. I'd expect not, but that might have some odd effects on damage to the ground itself and below. Any city with some form of aqueduct system would likely collapse and it is hard to figure out what kind of effects might happen as the stones embedded in the soil take enough damage to vaporize.


CommentsEdit

10 miles is a handy and rather iconic distance, but it's also batshit crazy as a standard action. Even for a 9. Since the distance is the important thing here, I'd like to sacrifice the casting time of the spell. Would making it 1 minute to get a 1 mile radius, but letting you keep casting after that to add another mile every 5 rounds up to a maximum of 10 miles at 5 1/2 minutes work? Ideally, you'd throw down some pilar of darkness or whatever to draw attention to the act in the final few rounds.

Yes, this is "balance by drawback", which I generally hate, but it's hard to work a 10 mile effect like this into the game otherwise IMO. - Tarkisflux Talk 23:06, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Could I simply force it to be a 10-minute casting no matter what to get the full range? - MisterSinister 06:33, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
Sure, though that's a bit weird with the "here's a big warning flare, come and stop me" drawback built into it. If it has a building effect based on completed cast time, you can be interrupted after the first minute and still get an effect. Of course, if you're not going with the built in drawback (and the caster taking damage barely counts, because contingency), I think it a bit harder to justify the range even with the cast time. - Tarkisflux Talk 06:22, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
Fair enough. I'm gonna go with your scaling suggestion, then. - MisterSinister (talk) 20:46, 5 November 2012 (UTC)
"the caster taking damage barely counts, because contingency" - please explain further... --Luigifan18 (talk) 02:56, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
Contingency Teleport. Contingency Temporal Stasis. Contingency any-spell-to-mitigate/avoid damage. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 05:40, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
Which you can only do once, then you have to blow 10 minutes setting another contingency effect up. And contingency Temporal Stasis is stupid, considering that its duration is indefinite. --Luigifan18 (talk) 15:22, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Except that a) doing it only once isn't a meaningful drawback, b) downtime casting times are irrelevant, whether they're 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 weeks. - MisterSinister (talk) 19:59, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

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