Dark Star: DIY Black Hole
Usable By: Wizard
Spell Level: 8
School: Evocation (dunamancy:graviturgy)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a shard of onyx and a drop of the caster's blood, both of which the spell consumes)
This spell creates a sphere centered on a point you choose within range. The sphere can have a radius of up to 40 feet. The area within this sphere is filled with magical darkness and crushing gravitational force.
For the duration, the spell's area is difficult terrain. A creature with darkvision can't see through the magical darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it. No sound can be created within or pass through the area. Any creature or object entirely inside the sphere is immune to thunder damage, and creatures are deafened while entirely inside it. Casting a spell that includes a verbal component is impossible there.
Any creature that enters the spell's area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there must make a Constitution saving throw. The creature takes 8d10 force damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful save. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this damage is disintegrated. A disintegrated creature and everything it is wearing and carrying, except magic items, are reduced to a pile of fine gray dust.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Gravity Sinkhole and Gravity Fissure set you up as this master of physics; you manipulate the universe and the forces of gravity to break and bend the world. Dark Star is the spell you cast first that you’ll be Gravity Sinkholing creatures into; a giant, black sphere of nothing that crushes everyone inside and makes it very difficult to get out.
A forty foot radius area that is also difficult terrain means creatures pulled to the center with a 30 ft. speed can’t dash out in a single round. That, on its own, means you’re looking at getting 16d10 worth of damage on top of blinding and deafening the creature. That, on its own, is excellent. Now add in other spells in abilities whose entire purpose is getting creatures into the Dark Star; you’ve got yourself a recipe for mass destruction.
What I really like about the graviturgy stuff Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount offers is its melding of fantasy with mechanics and exploring and expanding upon the base ideas as you progress. You can build the graviturgy wizard whose whole identity revolves around gravity manipulation paired with spells like Levitate, Fly, Mage Hand, and Teleport. It supplements existing spells well, and opens up a variety of archetypes to some fun play patterns in a clear manner. Basically if you like the graviturgy spells early, you can feel confident that the later ones will at least work with them well.
This spell probably isn’t worth an 8th level slot, but when you combine all the elements together, it's fine. Dark Star is cool, does a bunch of damage, locks down an area, and plays nice with other gravity effects. Looking for a bit of cosmic horror or sci-fi in your wizard? Dark Star probably will give you what you’re looking for.
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