Meteor Swarm: The Nuclear Option
Spell Level: 9
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 1 mile
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S
Blazing orbs of fire plummet to the ground at four different points you can see within range. Each creature in a 40-foot-radius sphere centered on each point you choose must make a Dexterity saving throw. The sphere spreads around corners. A creature takes 20d6 fire damage and 20d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature in the area of more than one fiery burst is affected only once.
The spell damages objects in the area and ignites flammable objects that aren’t being worn or carried.
Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Picture this; you’re a legendary warrior trained in every weapon known to man. Before you stands an army of ghouls, ghasts, death knights, and revenants ready to rend your flesh should you give them a window. You draw your blade; this is what you trained so long for. Right as you go to begin hacking your way through and earn the tales bards will sing for generations, your wizard buddy gives them the finger, rains down enough molten rock to wipe out a city and obliterates them all in the blink of an eye. And people say martials are better in combat than casters.
Meteor Swarm is the king of damage spells. 40d6 damage kills anything with 70 or less hit points, regardless of save, and typically kills things with up to 140 hit points. No other spell does this much raw damage. Power Word Kill is a joke in comparison, only killing one thing with 100 or less hit points. Time Stop can offer more damage in a single area if you get lucky with four or five extra turns, but that does cost you a lot of other high level damage spells, and all of that isn’t really worth the slot if all you want to do is damage. It offers a huge amount of flexibility, though, allowing multiple casts of spells that temporarily or sometimes permanently answer specific problems. The fact that we can compare the two should highlight how powerful Meteor Swarm is.
Lower level spells get nowhere near this kind of damage; Fireball at 9th level doesn’t even do half damage. A perfectly placed Delayed Blast Fireball can get up to 24d6, rookie numbers in comparison. The sheer numerical leap in damage and area make the spell unique and unchallengeable as the highest damage standalone spell a player can cast. The spell’s cast range is a MILE; there just isn’t anything comparable to this. It's that good from a raw numbers perspective.
I do have to wonder if the spell is intended to work below ground. A swarm of meteors sounds like it requires open skies to work, but the wording on the spell is vague, and likely will be DM case by case dependent. Unfortunately, because it's a spell the vast majority of people will never have access to because it's 9th level, there aren't a lot of rules discussions around it. I’d personally rule they are conjured into existence at a high point and smash down, allowing it to work indoors, but your mileage may vary.
If you get to the top end of game play and are going against anything you need to brute force with shit loads of damage, Meteor Swarm’s got your back. If you don’t want to headache of navigating Wish, or the variance in power Time Stop has tied to it, this is a spell that you’ll get to work the exact way you want to. Save it for your big climactic battles with gods, and make sure you stay out of Counterspell range!
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