Ice Storm: A Cold Turkey
Usable By: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level: 4
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 300 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dust and a few drops of water)
A hail of rock-hard ice pounds to the ground in a 20-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder centered on a point within range. Each creature in the cylinder must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage and 4d6 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Hailstones turn the storm’s area of effect into difficult terrain until the end of your next turn.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the bludgeoning damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 4th.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
“The Fireball Test” is what I’m going to start referring to anytime I see an evocation damage spell that’s main job is to kill things. If it deals around as much as a Fireball of that level would do, it passes. Ice Storm fails. And it fails hard. 9d6 (4th level Fireballs) deal roughly 32 damage on average. Ice Storm’s 4th level cast deals 2d8+4d6 (23 average) damage. That is, in fact, not enough.
What do you get in exchange for this 9ish damage? One round of difficult terrain! That is all! A single round of difficult terrain for two dice worth of damage! Difficult terrain that isn’t placed with that being its primary purpose in mind, but placed to hit as many creatures as possible. Very likely creatures hit in the Ice Storm are going to be on or near its edges, and those creatures can functionally ignore the terrain all together. A 40 ft. area of temporary difficult terrain will stop one or two creatures (at most) from doing what they want, and that will be in no way consistent.
Ice Storm isn’t it. It's a 4th level damaging spell that doesn’t deal nearly enough damage, and a 4th level area of effect control spell that doesn’t have nearly enough control elements to justify the cast. Yes, there may be a handful of times where this is doing enough damage AND eating two or three creatures actions with dashes, but that will be a rare occurrence, and likely something you could do way better with cheaper options like Sleet Storm or Fireball. Nobody needs Ice Storm on their sheet.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
