New Spells: Poisonous Corruption
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Contaminate, Polluting Sludge
Art Credit: https://www.artofmtg.com/art/deadly-tempest/
We’ve reached the start of a new year, and it’s time to reveal more higher-level poison spells to fill out the options for Green Dragon sorcerers and warlocks, necromancers, and villainous druids! You’ve already seen new homebrew poison spells that are themed around poisonous animals, involve conjuring poisonous acid, utilize the power of disease, poison their enemies by poisoning the land, create poisonous plants, and of course, just do poison in simple, classic ways. These two spells, contaminate and polluting sludge, focus on the poisonous effects of pure corruption and pollution itself, which can affect all things, whether mortal or not. The new spells are due to appear in the homebrew tome of forbidden and dangerous magic and lore, The Impermissicon, when it releases this year, but we wanted you to get your hands on them early — whether you’re a poison-loving player or a devious DM!
Both of these spells deal poison damage over time to multiple targets and debuff them while doing so, and yet the two spells might have considerably different uses. Contaminate can be compared to the immolation spell for an understanding of how damage-over-time effects are balanced in fifth edition. Most concentration spells that deal damage over time are limited do damaging creatures within a certain area, or within a certain range of the spellcaster. Instead, both immolation and contaminate only require the caster and the target to be present for the initial casting of the spell, making it much more difficult to stop the damage once the first saving throw has been failed, which is why both spells deal so much less damage than other spells at their same level. Polluting sludge, on the other hand, is best compared to dawn or molten upheaval. Compared to dawn, this poison spell is higher-level but does lower damage (since it deals no damage on a success) and can’t be moved around, yet it also poisons targets and creates an area of very strong difficult terrain that can keep enemies in the area for longer.
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Contaminate, Polluting Sludge
