Witch Bolt: Witches be Cantrippin’
Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 1
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a twig from a tree that has been struck by lightning)
A beam of crackling, blue energy lances out toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target. Make a ranged spell attack against that creature. On a hit, the target takes 1d12 lightning damage, and on each of your turns for the duration, you can use your action to deal 1d12 lightning damage to the target automatically. The spell ends if you use your action to do anything else. The spell also ends if the target is ever outside the spell’s range or if it has total cover from you.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the initial damage increases by 1d12 for each slot level above 1st.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Emperor Palpatine fires blue lightning from his fingertips, mangling Luke in the climactic battle for the galaxy. You’d think a fantasy game could get that magic right, give you the tools to live your evilest self in glorious fashion. Witch Bolt is what you get to make blue lightning your reality. That’s a bummer, huh?
Witch Bolt is in contention for the worst damaging spell in the game. As an action, costing you your concentration, you can make a spell attack. If you miss, you get nothing. If you hit, you get 1d12 damage. That’s all you get that round, and we’re not above the damage of a cantrip. Yikes.
Subsequent rounds, should you have hit the bolt, you can spend your action dealing 1d12 damage. If you need or want to take any other action, the spell immediately ends. If the creature you bolted moves to be more than 30 feet away from you, the spell ends. If the creature moves so they pass behind total cover, such as a flipped over table or around a corner in a tight room, the spell ends.
Putting this all into perspective, you’re spending an action, concentration, and spell slot on an attack equivalent to a cantrip that then lets you spend actions to deal a cantrip's worth of damage on subsequent rounds enemies have complete control over ending. As you get higher level, you could conceivably just cast cantrips to deal MORE damage than this spell, and have it cost you no resources. Up-casting this scales well on the front end of damage, but is so far behind nearly every other spell in terms of damage you need to be dealing upwards of 6d12 (a 6th level slot) to break even with Fireball’s damage up-cast, and that’s to a SINGLE TARGET. Each round after you still have to want to spend your entire action dealing 1d12 damage. You will not want to spend your action dealing 1d12 damage.
Beyond just the numbers being terrible, Witch Bolt also may be the most boring spell to use. On your turn, in place of making any meaningful decisions about what to do with your action, you’re encouraged to simply say “I deal a d12 damage”, roll the dice, and end your turn. You don’t have incentive to move, because that can easily end the effect. If you try to do something else, you’ve spent a spell slot on a 30 ft. ranged Poison Spray, and that feels awful.
The only scenario I really see Witch Bolt fitting in at the table is on supporting casters on a big bad that use this spell against the players. Monsters having an easy action to default to can help relieve the complexity burden DMs can face in intricate and elaborate encounters, and playing against Witch Bolt offers way more interesting choices than casting it yourself. You can clearly choose to move to end the effect, or continue to suffer in the bolt. You can try to move just into full cover range and back to break the bolt without having to forfeit your position. On the receiving end, Witch Bolt can be neat to play around with.
As a player, though, this spell doesn’t belong on any character sheet. Friends don’t let friends try Witch Bolt. Intervene. Don’t take it yourself. Get the word out. Stop the misery that is Witch Bolt from spreading to character sheets near you.
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