Chain Lightning: Jumping the Spark
Spell Level: 6
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (a bit of fur; a piece of amber, glass, or a crystal rod; and three silver pins)
You create a bolt of lightning that arcs toward a target of your choice that you can see within range. Three bolts then leap from that target to as many as three other targets, each of which must be within 30 feet of the first target. A target can be a creature or an object and can be targeted by only one of the bolts. A target must make a Dexterity saving throw. The target takes 10d8 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, one additional bolt leaps from the first target to another target for each slot level above 6th.
Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
I could end this review with one word: yawn.
Chain Lightning does what it says on the box; you shoot lightning that chains to a bunch of people. That's it.
You've been able to shoot bolts of lightning since Witch Bolt at first level. By fifth level, you really get the fantasy of frying a huge group with bolts of lightning and calling strike after strike with Call Lightning. Storm of Vengeance fills out the fantasy by creating a literal storm that makes you feel like a god of tempests by bringing a hurricane into existence.
Chain Lightning is like the awkward middle stage pokemon evolution; it's the Charmeleon of the Charizard line, the awkward teen years of lightning spells. When I'm casting higher level spells, I want something more out of it than slightly more damage than if I had upcast one of my main damaging spells.
Lightning Bolt, in comparison, can hit more creatures within a line and has a higher ceiling; when cast it 6th level it's dealing 11d6 lightning damage, and while this is less, it can affect more creatures making its purpose and peaks of power feel better.
Chain Lightning is just always going to do 10d8 damage to up to four things that are kind of close. It has a higher power floor, but a lower ceiling. I expect effects that last huge durations, or instantaneous effects that have a bigger impact on the current fight than "a bunch of damage" by this point.
Letting this spell jump any number of times to new creatures with some other tuning would really help sell the fantasy to me. You'd get a mini game every time you cast the spell in figuring out how to jump the lightning to as many targets as possible, and the spell would have crazy cool applications and feel like a richotting lightning bolt chaining over a potentially huge distance.
With a single bounce to up to three targets its fantasy fulfillment is just so sad. If you get a lot of enjoyment from rolling lots of dice, this will still give you that. Upcasting it does something neat in letting you increase the number of creatures you can fry; this doesn't save the spell from being just another one of a hundred damage options for your 6th level spell slots.
With up-casting mechanics, I'd recommend using your higher level spell slots on effects that change up how you play the game, or present new tools to navigate fights in a different way. If you are in the market for a high damage spell at 6th level, though, Chain Lightning will fulfill that purpose well.
At its worst it's still a point and shoot 10d8 lightning attack
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