New Spell: Gravity Well
Have you been looking for a good 9th-level spell to crush your foes? Why not crush them with a black hole¹? Today the Benevolent Evil is bringing you a new 9th-level spell from The Impermissicon to do just that, with an available variation spell. Variation spells (for both my new spells and existing official spells) are actually one of the smaller things I'm excited to share from my upcoming compendiums, but they're exciting nonetheless!
Art Credit: http://www.artofmtg.com/art/damnation/
So, Gravity Well. This 9th-level spell shares some features with meteor swarm, such as its ability to deal high damage and its ability to damage objects in a wide area. Both spells will absolutely ruin a city district. However, gravity well is a concentration spell with the distinction of doing very little (just difficult terrain) until you start your next turn after casting. This means that if you're interrupted in your first turn of concentration, this 9th-level spell will usually end without dealing any damage or even pulling any foes. However, this affords gravity well some key benefits. The spell can easily pull hordes of enemies into the air in a wide area, leaving them helpless unless they have something to grab onto (but remember that the spell damages and pulls objects too, so whatever they grab sure better be sturdy), and locking the battlefield down with difficult terrain.
If you place the spell close to a dangerous enemy, it can be used as targeted damage with vast potential. By forcing the enemy into the orb's space and keeping them there, gravity well can deal damage to a single target far in excess of meteor swarm, though many of the enemies you will want to focus may have abilities to resist movement or teleport them out of the orb's space. Note that the spell includes a natural tradeoff, where the caster can choose to place the orb closer to the ground and enemies to seek more activations of the 30d6 damage, or the caster can place the orb higher in the air and further from enemies, to maximize the control over the battlefield and forced movement.
Gravity Well and its variant, along with blood magic, lycanthropy, dark curses, vampires, cosmic forces, fallen heroes, many more new spooky spells, and other goodies will be available in The Impermissicon, one of my three planned compendiums focusing on forbidden magic.
1 - I know this isn't actually what a black hole would do. A real black hole would destroy everything instantly. But that's why it's called gravity well, not black hole!
PDF Link / D&D Beyond Links: Gravity Well, Grievous Star
