Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting: Get the Moist out of Life
Spell Level: 8
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 150 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (a bit of sponge)
You draw the moisture from every creature in a 30-foot cube centered on a point you choose within range. Each creature in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. Constructs and undead aren’t affected, and plants and water elementals make this saving throw with disadvantage. A creature takes 10d8 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Review by Sam West, @CrierKobold
I’m confident somebody at Wizards of the Coast had one too many characters murdered by a shambling mound. Blight and Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting clearly were made by some jaded developer who wanted no player to face the losses they faced when confronting an army of vine blights. Beyond filling in the plant-hate niche that I’m confident next to nobody worries about, this is just a d8 version of an up-cast Fireball. It's better damage and nothing else.
Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting sounds like it should be a hybrid spell that is both whimsical and wacky while simultaneously being horrifying. I’d expect something like this to poison, sicken, or otherwise drain power as well as deal damage. We’re competing with spells like Animal Shapes; Horrid Wilting has a lot of room in its power budget to do some cool shit. That leads it to be a major disappointment as it’s just a damage spell like Fireball. Imposing disadvantage on its own save doesn’t change that. Non-magical plants wilting and dying is something I’d just assume happens as well; it's not really a meaningful line of text. When you drop a Circle of Death, you expect that all life in the area dies, including the rodents, plants, and bugs. It's part of the thematic and story of the spell. Obviously the spell inflicting HORRID WILTING will kill all the weeds and flowers. It's a no-brainer, it doesn’t need to be explicit.
That leaves Horrid Wilting in this space where if you want an 8th level damage spell, this is perfectly fine. Its 54 average damage over the 45.5 average an up-cast Fireball deals in roughly the same area at a slightly longer range. That’s really it. It's stuck on the Sorcerer and Wizard spell lists, both of which didn’t really need any more upper tier damage spells making it feel excessive. No character really NEEDS Horrid Wilting.
I want my upper level spells to do more than just damage, and Horrid Wilting is just damage. I’m looking for Fireballs with upside, not just higher damage Fireballs. Unless we’re talking about ludicrous amounts of damage like Meteor Swarm, I can’t get excited for this kind of effect.
If you’re in the market for a damage upgrade, Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting can be that. If you’re looking to break the game in wacky high magic ways or get new tools to navigate fights in higher complexity environments, this won’t deliver. This is a fine damage spell, nothing more.
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