Talk:Spew Acid (3.5e Spell)

Ratings

	Fluffykittens likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
	A reasonable alternative to burning hands.

	Foxwarrior likes this article and rated it 3 of 4.
	As a remake of burning hands, this seems to have damage that scales at a similar rate as other High-balance characters. Numerically, I approve.

Comments

Increasing the damage by 1d6 at first level and the damage cap accordingly... You're trying to make spellcasters' damage dealing abilities actually viable at low level, are you? -HarrowedMind (talk) 22:06, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Yes, but I don't know if I went far enough. It's still less good than a greatsword hit at level 1, dealing damage of about 16 Str w/ longsword on average instead (on a failed save). Which is still mostly dead or hurting a bit on a save, and thus probably ok, but I'm still kicking around other ways for it to work that I might like better. - Tarkisflux ^Talk 23:21, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

The question is really: "how good is a 15 foot cone as opposed to an extra 30-40 feet of charge distance?" --Foxwarrior (talk) 23:40, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

I can't find an answer to that question that I am happy with, so I'll just do something somewhat different instead. Bigger damage that doesn't scale and an AoE that does instead and see how that gets received. - Tarkisflux ^Talk 06:33, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

4d6 at level 1. Ew. No. I don't mind having larger-than-normal damage if that's the gimmick, but this is a save or die at low levels. Low levels are too squishy for more than 2 dice! -- Eiji-kun (talk) 06:35, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

It shifted up to VH in the process, and is now competing with other save or loses as sleep, color spray, etc. But it might be too much, given that those are save negates spells. I'll kick it around a bit more, along with some scaling concerns I still have. - Tarkisflux ^Talk 06:50, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

IMHO scale the damage, but to your credit I find the idea of a growing area novel. The fact its a cone seems excessive (and 30ft start is a big much) but I do like that part. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 06:55, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Personally, I would probably have answered my question with "30 feet is probably enough to reliably hit two or more targets and is the same boost to range as a charge, so it's probably worth dealing less damage". 4d6 is equivalent to a greatsword and 20 Strength, so it's not beyond the normal level 1 damage values, but if you want the range to be the thing that scales, it should probably be more like 5' + 5'/level with that damage value. --Foxwarrior (talk) 07:53, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

The thing is "very high" balance level should be better than average at all levels, not stupidly good at level one, good at level 2, average at level 3-4, below average at level 5-6, and useless thereafter.Fluffykittens (talk) 10:17, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

I disagree with that Fluffy, and am an admitted supporter of spell obsolescence (it's not a popular stance here, but whatever). Color spray and sleep have similar problems, and they are both prime examples of L1 VH. If you're level 7 and falling back on level 1 spells, it had better be for utility stuff, because it's an easy fight and you want to conserve resources, or because you're desperate IMO.

That said, I'm not happy with the range scaling, so back to damage scaling we go. And I'm not happy with the range of damage values, so reduced damage to start is in. And I guess we'll see how I feel about this version in a few more days. I think I hate level 1 spells. - Tarkisflux ^Talk 00:27, 12 November 2012 (UTC)