Difference between revisions of "Talk:Focus Radiance (3.5e Spell)"

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:I can't believe I never came back to this; I thought I replied. I'll look into fixing some of this soon. --[[User:Zhenra-Khal|Zhenra-Khal]] ([[User talk:Zhenra-Khal|talk]]) 18:34, 12 May 2019 (MDT)
 
:I can't believe I never came back to this; I thought I replied. I'll look into fixing some of this soon. --[[User:Zhenra-Khal|Zhenra-Khal]] ([[User talk:Zhenra-Khal|talk]]) 18:34, 12 May 2019 (MDT)
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::Power Word Bump. -- [[User:Eiji-kun|Eiji-kun]] ([[User talk:Eiji-kun|talk]]) 04:24, 11 October 2019 (MDT)

Latest revision as of 10:24, 11 October 2019

Example[edit]

As an example, let's look at a 3rd-level Human Wizard casting this. With an Intelligence of 16, the save DC would be 15 and the range would be 30ft.

If he spends two rounds casting the spell, he could deal 3d8 damage to those within the first 15ft of the cone, and 3d10 damage to those beyond 15ft, with a DC 15 Reflex save to half this damage. Those failing their saves would need to make DC 15 Fortitude saves or be Blinded for 1 round and Dazzled for 1d4+1 rounds.

Those struck by the central beam, however, would receive no Reflex save, instead having to make a DC 15 Fortitude save or be Blinded and Dazzled for 1d4+1 rounds, with the Blindess's duration reduced to 1 round on a success.

If cast with only a dim light source, the damage would be reduced by half - Instead of 3-24 and 3-30, the damage would be reduced to 2-12 and 2-20. Likewise, the DC would be reduced to 13.

By contrast, if cast with the noon sun overhead, the spell would deal 50% more damage, increasing to 5-40 and 5-50, with the DC increasing to 17.

If the same Wizard somehow Empowered the spell while casting it from full sunlight, the damage would be increased to 6d8 (6-48) and 6d10 (6-60) in addition to the DC increasing to 17.

This is put here in hopes of clarifying and answering questions. Let me know if it still leaves some unanswered. --Zhenra-Khal (talk) 21:39, 16 January 2019 (MST)

Wording[edit]

Interesting spell, but its a bit wordy and there are a few odd terms, so what I wanted to do was tighten it up. There is an oddity that occurs with the range being scaling so I recommend giving it a fixed range which I will explain later. I'm doing this under this assumption. Have this:

---

This spell focuses existing light onto a single point. To cast this spell, at least one square within range must be shadowy illumination or brighter. If the brightest spot in the area is shadowy illumination, the DC is reduced by 2. If it is area greater than bright light, the effect is empowered. The area effect is (up to) a (30 ft) inverted cone, with the wide end starting at the caster and ending at a point.

Creatures in the area of the spell are affected, and any creature at the spell's end point is subject to a ranged touch attack. On a successful touch attack, they are denied their Reflex save.

The strength of the spell depends on the casting time as shown below.

Swift: Creatures take 1d4 damage per two levels from bright light (maximum 5d4), or twice that within the last 10 ft.

Standard: As swift, but 1d6 damage (maximum 5d6), and creatures struck by the ranged touch attack must make a Fortitude save against being dazzled for 1 minute.

1 Round: As standard, but 1d6 damage per caster level (maximum 10d6), and creatured struck by the ranged touch attack must make a Fortitude save against being blind for 1 round, or dazzled for 1 minute on a successful save.

Mundane light sources that fit entirely within your area of effect briefly wink out for 1 round as their light is absorbed.

---

Alright, so why the changes. As a general rule, you've got a lot of various floating variables which is hard to keep track of, most obvious among them being setting a cone to the Close scaling range which means it changes size, and thus your actual effective range you can cast this changes size with no way to alter it. This also interacts with the half range damage increase later and results in odd halves at certain levels. So I recommend giving it a set distance like 30 ft. It's a 30 ft cone, and it specifies you can do less so you can have more point blank range.

I changed some of the language to "shadowy illumination" and "bright light" which are the actual terms, so when people see it they can refer to that. Likewise "radiant damage" doesn't exist in 3.5, though it probably should, so the language was altered to fit. I changed the options from 4 to 3, since it was a bit of option bloat and I discovered how strong this thing could actually be. Alright, so with a 2nd level spell you generally want to keep a level cap on things like scaling damage for metamagic stacking reasons, and you did do that with a 5d cap originally. But then it increases which is both making it more complicated to recall (is the cap 5 or 10 now? Is there a cap? I have to reference the chart...) and when the cap raises becomes much more shaky. There's also the variable of how close you are where damage increases to a different die type, which means rerolling the damage. So instead you roll once damage be damned, and double it if you're in a set range (10 ft) of the tip.

To that end, I also affixed rolling for dazzling to 1 minute (because it's dazzle and that's ok). Minimizing rolling helps here too.

This is still pretty strong mind you potentially. While you need the right setup, without metamagic and with a high enough caster level this is still a 2nd level spell dealing potentially 30d6 light damage (CL 20th, 1 round, brighter than normal light).

What do you think? -- Eiji-kun (talk) 00:57, 17 January 2019 (MST)

I can't believe I never came back to this; I thought I replied. I'll look into fixing some of this soon. --Zhenra-Khal (talk) 18:34, 12 May 2019 (MDT)
Power Word Bump. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 04:24, 11 October 2019 (MDT)