Chill Touch: The Icy Hand of Death
Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 0 (cantrip)
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 120 feet
Duration: 1 round
Components: V, S
You create a ghostly, skeletal hand in the space of a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the creature to assail it with the chill of the grave. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 necrotic damage, and it can’t regain hit points until the start of your next turn. Until then, the hand clings to the target.
If you hit an undead target, it also has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your next turn.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
All the cantrips can be ordered somewhere on a utility/damage spectrum. Spells like Fire Bolt and Poison Spray are the extremes on the damage side, Minor Illusion and Mage Hand are the extremes on the utility side, and spells like Ray of Frost fit in the middle. Chill Touch is pretty far on the damage side of the spectrum, but comes with the kind of utility you won’t care about often, but when it does come up, it can entirely change the outcome of an encounter.
1d8 necrotic damage at a 120 ft. range isn’t revolutionary. Fire Bolt is a dice size larger with the same range. For you then to want Chill Touch over Fire Bolt, you either need to care about the thematics a good bit, or care about its niche side effects. You’re trading an extra point or two of damage on each hit to shut off healing a hit creature receives for a round, and you can weaken undead that are attacking you. If either of these effects come up, they are absolutely worth the damage drop, the only concern is how neither are necessarily going to be common occurrences. Most creatures in this game aren’t undead, and the vast majority have no way of regaining hit points.
What I ultimately think makes Chill Touch worth it to have over the higher damage options is the reality of cantrip casting: it's something you do when you have nothing left to do. The goal of cantrips isn’t to push out huge quantities of damage, but more to be a fallback for when you’re out of resources and need to keep firing to help the team. A lot of games today won’t run into this resource problem frequently, especially as you get into the upper tiers of play. If you’re playing past 5th level with this, having a cantrip you can pull out of your back pocket once or twice a game to shut of a troll’s regeneration or a demilich’s life drain can be a huge asset, and when you aren’t frequently using the cantrip anyway, it's better to have the option than not. There won’t be many encounters where Fire Bolt will be as impactful as Chill Touch is when it really matters, with the niche exception of fighting specifically trolls where it ends up being basically the same.
If you’re playing a character in a game with a lot of combat between rests in the low tiers with a diverse selection of enemies, Chill Touch probably isn't worth it. If you’re in the middle to upper tiers, or playing in a game with one or two fights between rests, this is probably one of the best damaging options available because of the surprise utility that can be critical to beating some specific monsters.
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