Conjure Volley: The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Slain

Usable By: Ranger

Spell Level: 5

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 150 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S, M (one piece of ammunition or a thrown weapon)

You fire a piece of nonmagical ammunition from a ranged weapon or throw a nonmagical weapon into the air and choose a point within range. Hundreds of duplicates of the ammunition or weapon fall in a volley from above and then disappear. Each creature in a 40-foot-radius, 20-foot-high cylinder centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 8d8 damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The damage type is the same as that of the ammunition or weapon.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Wizards of the Coast went into designing 5e with a tremendous amount of influence from their past editions, namely the success and love of 3rd edition and rampant negative feedback 4th brought. Spell levels and all characters functioning on the same spell slot system weaseled its way back in from the times of old, and dear lord, what a horrendous design disaster it wrought on paladins and rangers. Imagine getting a 5th level spell at SEVENTEENTH level and being excited about it when your party members have had access to roughly the same power spells since ninth level. This should mean ranger and paladin exclusive spells are probably allowed to be more powerful than your average full caster spell at the same level, right? Right, Wizards of the Coast?

Cone of Cold (a 5th level spell) hits a 60 ft. cone, deals 8d8 cold damage, and is usable by some druids, sorcerers, and wizards starting at 9th level. Fireball, a 3rd level spell also accessible to some clerics and the prior classes, deals 8d6 fire damage, hitting a slightly smaller area, and has been happening since 5th level. As a ranger, you’ve had to wait until level seventeen to get a spell that equals what full casters have been doing since 9th level, and squeaks out a bonus 8 damage against a spell full casters have been using since 5th. At 17th level, a wizard can make meteors rain from the heavens and deal 40d6 damage in three 40 ft. spheres within a mile; you get eight more damage than Flame Strike.

Let's quickly compare the differences here between a 17th level spell given to wizards and one given to rangers, shall we? Meteor Swarm deals 40d6 damage, equating to roughly 140 damage on a failed save, or 70 on a successful one for each creature per area. 8d8 damage in the single cylinder is dealing about 36 damage on a failed save, or 18 on a success. You’d need to cast this spell twice on the same area and have all creatures fail both times to match the FAILED save scenario of Meteor Swarm, knowing you likely have a lower spell save DC, have to be within 150 feet instead of a mile of the target, and hit 1/3rd the area. Both of these features are accessed at the same level. Both of these spells are class exclusives.

Nowhere in the system is it more evident how horrendous the existence of half-casting is than here. When college or lore bards are the best users for the top end half-caster spells, you know there is a problem. In a cooperative game, how can one get excited to use their cool new ability when they are one-upped by a feature one of your allies got eight levels ago? How can you get excited to level up when all you get is roughly Cone of Cold at 17th level when your friends are summoning angels, stopping time, granting wishes, and reshaping matter? At tables without full casters, Conjure Volley is genuinely a fine tool because nobody else has blown past it by now, but the difference in challenge and game between one with and without full casters shines brightest when looking at the top levels of the half-casters. I’m sorry if you’re a high level ranger hoping to get something as cool as your full caster friends; it ain’t happening.

5e Spells

Conjure Volley: The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Slain