Acid Arrow: A Pain in the Acid

Usable By: Wizard

Spell Level: 2

School: Evocation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 90 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S, M (powdered rhubarb leaf and an adder's stomach)

A shimmering green arrow streaks toward a target within range and bursts in a spray of acid. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 4d4 acid damage immediately and 2d4 acid damage at the end of its next turn. On a miss, the arrow splashes the target with acid for half as much of the initial damage and no damage at the end of its next turn.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage (both initial and later) increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 2nd.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Acid Arrow WANTS to be Magic Missile. It's using d4s. It always does a bit of damage. It's got a solid range. The reality of it though is Acid Arrow is just terrible. Really awful stuff. It’s a ranged spell attack roll whose only meaningful upside is it always does at least 2d4 damage; that’s not good enough for a 2nd level spell.

Let's do some quick comparisons to figure out just why Acid Arrow sucks so badly. Magic Missile, with a 1st level slot, is doing 1d4+1 x 3 damage (which in dice terms is slightly better than the average of 4d4). It can’t miss. You can divide that damage however you’d like. If you up-cast it, with a 2nd level slot you’re getting an average of 14 damage that will always hit, and is entirely frontloaded, assigned as you please between creatures in range. Acid Arrow’s best case is getting 1 higher average damage, with 5 of its 15 total damage happening only after you give the enemy an extra turn in combat (assuming you hit, of course).

Chromatic Orb is a 1st level spell attack roll dealing 3d8 damage (13.5 average damage); against Acid Arrows 15 damage, you’re trading an entire upper level spell for a bonus 1.5 damage, and a guarantee that 5 damage gets through. Scorching Ray is three attack rolls dealing 2d6 damage each, for a total of 6d6 (average 21) damage assigned in up to three places, with a very high likelihood of at least 2d6 of the damage connecting. Even something like Flaming Sphere, a completely unrelated area of effect damage spell, is offering a minimum 1d6 fire damage where you want it, a possibly 2d6 fire damage to a bunch of creatures in an area, and the ability to reuse it for up to a minute. This is damage creatures receive at their end of their turns, but at least it affects multiple creatures over multiple turns.

The damage being backloaded is exclusively a downside; there are no realistic reasons you’d rather have a creature take damage after they’ve acted. “But it could make a baddy think twice about casting a concentration spell” isn’t a good reason; most monsters aren’t casters, and the ones that are you’d MUCH rather prevent them from getting a turn to cast something more often than rarely get them to fail a concentration save with a measly 5 damage.

Acid Arrow could be cool. This game is lacking some good single target damage over time effects, and with minor tweaks Acid Arrow could do that job. As it stands now, its functionally a 6d4 spell attack roll for a 2nd level slot. You can do better than that with 1st level spells.

5e Spells

Acid Arrow: A Pain in the Acid