New Spells: Poisoning Acid
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Noxious Geyser, Rizzak’s Ravenous Starvation
Art Credit: https://www.deviantart.com/dragonessaurusrex/art/Stomach-acid-lava-870439210
As part of our journey through the poisons and necromancies of the upcoming compendium of forbidden magic, The Impermissicon, we bring you two new acid spells that sicken targets with the poisoned condition. Whether you’re conjuring toxic acid from the bottom of the earth or inducing nausea as your foes’ own stomachs devour them from the inside, these spells will be the perfect option for acid-focused casters, dark mages looking to expand their arsenals, and anyone hoping to debuff their enemies at the same time as they deal damage.
Much like most real geysers, noxious geyser sprays not just acid, but poisonous gas as well. This spell deals acid and poison damage immediately, then allows the caster to keep their concentration if they want to utilize the cloud of poisonous gas that the geyser leaves behind. Some casters will want to use this spell purely for its instantaneous effect, while others may find the poisoned condition very useful to apply in an area. Note that this spell has a hidden 3d6 bludgeoning damage, which is dealt to creatures that fall 30 feet after the geyser hurls them up into the air. Flying creatures are thus slightly less vulnerable to the spell, as they take about 30% less damage from the initial geyser. Even creatures outside the geyser can take a slight amount of damage from the spell, which is useful for interrupting concentration or even waking allies that are affected by sleep or hypnosis.
A necromancy that deals damage other than necrotic or poison damage is quite rare, and so the acid damage dealt by Rizzak’s ravenous starvation can be extremely useful for necromancers that are looking to expand the damage types in their repertoire. On the other hand, this spell is primarily useful against creatures that can be poisoned and that need to eat, which eliminates a whopping 40-50% of D&D monsters as targets for the spell! Creatures that can’t be poisoned but do need to eat food can still take the initial damage from the spell, but that still isn’t a very powerful use for a 6th-level spell, so good targets for the spell are certainly restricted. Add on to that the Constitution saving throw (generally strong on many monsters) and the spell looks even more weak. Against the right targets, however, the spell compares extremely favorably with the most similar official spell, immolation (5th-level and single-target), which is usually considered a little on the weak side of spells. Affecting multiple creatures and adding on the powerful poisoned condition makes the effect of Rizzak’s ravenous starvation the kind of spell that can alter an encounter by itself. That’s part of why the spell allows targets to devour food as a defense against the spell. Even forcing creatures to spend their actions effectively doing nothing isn’t that bad, especially once they’ve already taken acid damage. But who keeps food on hand in the middle of battle? Some creatures might even resort to devouring slain creatures nearby (if that happens to be normal food for them) — even their dead allies!
With these two spells and the poison spells that we recently previewed (along with the many new spells featured in The Elements & Beyond), every type of dragon sorcerer and dragon warlock now has at least one spell that deals their dragon’s damage type available to them at every level, from cantrips and 1st-level spells all the way to 9th-level spells. Of course, they already had access to water to acid from the first compendium at 5th-level, but noxious geyser offers a more reliable way to deal acid damage in a battlefield, and there weren’t any spells at 6th-level that dealt acid damage yet (if you don’t count spell variants, of course). Covering all the damage types with spells is one of our major goals for D&D Unleashed as a 5th edition homebrew project, and fulfilling dragon subclasses is just one benefit of using it!
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Noxious Geyser, Rizzak’s Ravenous Starvation
