Cloudkill: Silent but Deadly
Spell Level: 5
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 120 feet
Duration: Concentration up to 10 minutes
Components: V, S
You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of poisonous, yellow-green fog centered on a point you choose within range. The fog spreads around corners. It lasts for the duration or until strong wind disperses the fog, ending the spell. Its area is heavily obscured.
When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, that creature must make a Constitution saving throw. The creature takes 5d8 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures are affected even if they hold their breath or don’t need to breathe.
The fog moves 10 feet away from you at the start of each of your turns, rolling along the surface of the ground. The vapors, being heavier than air, sink to the lowest level of the land, even pouring down openings.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 5th.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
When you cast Cloudkill, you get an area of persistent damage effect, and that same area is also heavily obscured. These two can feel somewhat counterproductive; often you’ll want to get a creature in an area of damage and be able to see it to smack it about. This sets Cloudkill up in a somewhat neat position as an AOE damage spell to choke out enemies while hiding from them or while raining other area of effect damage spells into it. It can be an effect you’ll use as part of a long, drawn out fight over multiple maps, or something you attempt to juice for all its worth with some clever positioning and forced movement options.
For it to be “worth it” you’ll need to want both the damage and the condition. Neither on their own is good enough for the slot; Sleet Storm locks down a massive area with a heavily obscured area, and an up-cast Fireball is basically worth two rounds of this. Fights where this may be the case will be against creatures with particularly scary ranged options, but not that great of mobility. Because of how it moves, you’ll often need to consider your own positioning to shift it around to keep creatures inside it; maps that have places to go or corners to back baddies into can get a lot of damage triggers here. Remember, the cloud always moves away from you; if you need it to turn around, get on the other side of it!
I doubt you’ll be able to frequently get more than two instances of damage with Cloudkill, but again, if you get two and are using the heavily obscured area to mitigate incoming attacks or force action consumption, this is perfectly fine. Villains will get more use out of it than players I think; I can see a whole quest built around learning a dastardly sorcerer has obtained the power needed to cast Cloud kill, and intendeds to massacre a nearby coorination ceremony or make some other despicable act of terror with it. As a player, meh? It's fine. If you like the moving mini-game and think you can keep enemies in it long enough (and those enemies aren’t immune to poison damage) this spell can be a pretty good time.
Cloudkill FAQ
Does Cloudkill cause damage when first cast?
Strangely, the answer is no. The spell description states that creatures take damage only when they begin their turn in the area of effect, or if they enter it. Neither is the case when the spell is first cast.
The only possible way that I could see damage being dealt on the same turn as the spell is cast is if the caster were to cast the spell, then use his or her movement action to enter the cloud.
Is the caster affected by their own Cloudkill spell?
Absolutely. Unless the spell description explicitly says otherwise, area of effect spells are effective against anyone in said area of effect, the caster included. Cloudkill’s spell description makes no such caveat.
Can a creature be damaged twice by Cloudkill in a single turn?
Yes, though it would involve either a very specific set of circumstances forcing them to do so or extreme stupidity. But in theory, a creature could start its turn in the spell’s area of effect, suffering the consequences. If they chose to do so, they could then leave and reenter the affected area, causing a second interaction with the cloud.
If you center a Cloudkill spell on yourself, will the cloud expand outward on your next turn?
No. The cloud doesn’t expand. It simply moves away from the caster. I can’t speak for how every DM would handle the situation of the caster being directly in the middle of the cloud, but I would personally have the cloud move in a random direction away from them.
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