Cloud of Daggers: Conjure Up a Roman Senate
Usable By: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 2
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a sliver of glass)
You fill the air with spinning daggers in a cube 5 feet on each side, centered on a point you choose within range. A creature takes 4d4 slashing damage when it enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 2d4 for each slot level above 2nd.
Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
“Power gaming” can be a fun activity with the right group. Figuring out ways to maximize damage with silly builds and use weird interactions to take advantage of rules mechanics is a great puzzle that challenges the DM and players in some odd ways. I like to think of Cloud of Daggers as the middle ground between munchkin crit assassin paladin builds and your average adventurer taking the stuff they think looks cool and messing around. It will be fine on its own, but with a little effort and some coordination, can do silly amounts of damage.
To maximize the damage on Cloud of Daggers, you’re going to want some friends, or other spells that push and pull around enemies. Cloud of Daggers can deal damage to a creature every turn in initiative, meaning the only ceiling on its damage is the number of creatures you can get to take turns that can move something through the cloud. Any creature can attempt to shove another creature 5 feet; this allows most people to easily push somebody into the cloud on a turn, getting the bonus 4d4 damage for an action. Then you have the next problem; in order for them to enter the space for the first time on a turn, you have to get them back out. Thorn Whip and Gust of Wind both can get the creature out of the space, allowing another creature to shove it back in. Characters with two attacks can push the creature in, then push them out again, all on the same turn. Thorn Whip can pull a creature through the space entirely, getting the 4d4 damage with a single action and getting them out to offer up the damage to the next party member.
All of this can combine to deal multiple instances of 4d4 damage, ending eventually with the creature starting in the space and taking 4d4 bonus damage. The easiest way to “game the system” is to just spend an attack shoving a creature into a conjured Cloud of Daggers, and let it start its turn there for the bonus damage, giving you an easy 8d4 damage for a 2nd level spell.
To get mileage out of Cloud of Daggers, you really want to be getting at least two or three instances of damage off of it, as 4d4 damage is about the same as Burning Hands 3d6. If you can, though, it's worth the cast, and it still has some neat applications of barring entries and potentially racking up a silly amount of damage for the spell slot.
Cloud of Daggers won’t break any of your games in half, nor will it ever make the other players feel inadequate in comparison. It does offer a pretty fun mini-game, though, and for a damage spell offers a lot of neat use cases that make it worth your time.
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