Gravity Fissure: A Line in the Sand
Usable By: Wizard
Spell Level: 6
School: Evocation (dunamancy:graviturgy)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (100-foot line)
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (a fistful of iron filings)
You manifest a ravine of gravitational energy in a line originating from you that is 100 feet long and 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 8d8 force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Each creature within 10 feet of the line but not in it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 8d8 force damage and be pulled toward the line until the creature is in its area.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 6th.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Gravity Sinkhole is a great little 4th level damage spell with some neat utility tacked on. Gravity Fissure, on the other hand, is a pretty poor 6th level damage spell, with some near useless utility tacked on.
The area you’re hitting is fairly large; an 100 x 15 ft. line is a lot of squares, technically. Creatures in the outer ten feet get pulled up to ten feet inward, which is VERY challenging to get value out of. Creatures in the center just take 8d8 or half of 8d8 damage. That’s less damage than an up-cast Fireball, and in an area that can be harder to sculpt in a meaningful way.
Where a 20 ft. sphere pull may occasionally have moments to get extra damage instances on other spells or area effects, a 10 ft. pull you don’t really have great control of is going to struggle to do anything. If for some reason there’s a conga line of gnolls parading perilously close to the edge of a cliff, then sure! Send a bunch of them off! Will you be able to shape a wall spell and this line to get things pulled perpendicular to you consistently? Almost certainly not.
These kinds of effects do get a lot better when DMs require skill checks or saves when creatures need to catch themselves when falling. If this can easily knock creatures prone or provide some other element of utility, it’d be about as solid as Gravity Fissure (which is cool, yet mediocre power wise on its own). For your 6th level slots, you probably can do better than Gravity Fissure. If you’re going into long hall fights with tons of baddies and you want to kill three hundred little monsters at once, this could hypothetically do that. I think more often than not the area is going to feel lackluster, and the damage and pull here aren’t enough to justify it.
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