Vitriolic Sphere: Death by Slug Puke
Spell Level: 4
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 150 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (a drop of giant slug bile)
You point at a place within range, and a glowing 1-foot ball of emerald acid streaks there and explodes in a 20-foot radius. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 10d4 acid damage and 5d4 acid damage at the end of its next turn. On a successful save, a creature takes half the initial damage and no damage at the end of its next turn.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the initial damage increases by 2d4 for each slot level above 4th.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Every time I read a spell that just deals damage, I say a few words in reverence for its lack of usefulness, as it nearly always won’t be as good as Fireball. This small ritual is my way of paying my respects to spells that will nearly never get cast. Today, I shall write out these words for you as Vitriolic Sphere falls victim to being a worse damaging spell than Fireball. It's not THAT much worse (it's basically equal as 4th level spells), but when you get it a full spell level later and don’t really need more damaging spells, Vitriolic Sphere ends up never being considered. Before I say my final words to this dead spell, though, here’s the math as to why you probably never want to cast Vitriolic Sphere if you can cast Fireball instead.
This is exclusively a sorcerer/wizard spell, meaning you do have access to Fireball. Fireball up-cast to 4th level is dealing 9d6 or half of 9d6 damage on a failed save, making it deal roughly 32 damage on a failed save or 16 on success. Vitriolic Sphere is dealing 10d4 damage on a failed save or half on success (25 or 12.5 average), and a bonus 5d4 (12.5) at the end of the creature's next turn on a failed save. In total, you’re getting about five and a half damage extra on a successful Vitriolic Sphere.
However, the damage delay can be a major problem. That time delay may not seem like much, but if you need more than thirty damage to kill something, giving it a full extra turn for a bonus five damage seems like a pretty awful trade off. By moving some of the damage to the end of their turn, there will be occasions where something you would have killed gets an extra round to ruin your day, heal, teleport, or murder a friend. Plus, if creatures are passing the saves, Fireball is always dealing roughly four more damage, meaning Vitriolic Sphere isn’t always the better damage option.
These two elements combine to make it so you need to want a little extra damage at the cost of it being delayed. Sure, a few fights will be against groups of creatures with large quantities of HP and squeezing as much damage out of that as possible is going to be better. I think more often than not, though, you’d much rather have a better shot denying a creature another turn by having the damage be frontloaded, and having a higher damage rate even on a miss.
If you plan on up-casting your damage spells, Vitriolic Sphere does scale better than Fireball. If you’re spending 7th level or higher slots, you’re better off with Vitriolic Sphere basically across the board. I’m pretty confident that you don’t want to be up-casting this for that bonus 2d4 damage with spell slots you get just one of per long rest, making this a fairly moot benefit.
And now, my final words to a spell that just barely gets outshone by an iconic classic:
Vitriolic Sphere, you’re a pretty cool fantasy. The concept you bring to characters inspires visions of explosions of acid and toxic rains, melting away the enemies’ skin like Raiders of the Lost Ark. Villains and heroes alike could find interesting looks and feelings built around you, but alas, you will never be cast. If only you did something besides damage, if only you had some major, meaningful upsides over the destroyer of damage spells, but alas, you fall victim to the ball of flame that has bested so many before you. You truly did come close, but like Melf’s Acid Arrow, Lightning Bolt, and Ice Storm, the iconic Fireball has killed any chance you have of realistically seeing the light of day. Rest in peace, Vitriolic Sphere.
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