Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the first ever episode of our 2nd level spell series. My goodness this has been a long time coming and i’m just so happy we made it here. Today we’re going to be taking a look at one of the more kind of controversial second-level spells and i’ll get into why that is in a little bit here. Today we’re going to be taking a look at aganazzar’s scorcher dnd 5e.
it is found in the elemental evil players companion book and it is usable by the sorcerer and the wizard and naturally through extension anyone else with access to their spell lists. Fantastic now that we’ve kind of established what we’re talking about, let’s move on to the mechancis here.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 30 ft (30 ft Line)
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Evocation
- Attack/Save: DEX Save
- Damage/Effect: Fire
Your damage is a fairly impressive 3d8 plus an additional 1d8 per spell slot level above 2nd. Which is pretty cool, makes sense, it can be up casted right! Your cast time is the standard one action which is good to know. And this is a controversial part so in terms of the spells range as it’s written in terms of its mechanics.
It’s a 30-foot cast range but it creates a 30-feet line, so how most people interpret this is pick a point within 30 feet and from that point a 30-foot line of fire appears doing damage. And that’s the one i’m gonna work with..i’ll get into why that’s controversial in a little bit here.
The duration is instantaneous which is great, there is a saving throw and it is a dexterity save and on a success the target takes half damage. The components are somatic, material and verbal meaning you have to gesture with one hand, the material component is a red dragons scale and the verbal part indicates an incantation there you go!
The school is evocation which isn’t too surprising and the damage type is a fire which is even less surprising. Now that we’ve looked at its mechanics, let’s take a look at its full description. You can also get the comparision between Aganazzar’s scorcher vs burning hands
Description
A line of roaring flame 30 feet long and 5 feet wide emanates from you in a direction you choose. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd. * – (a red dragon’s scale)
Great stuff, so the problem with this spell is in its mechanics it’s 30 feet and on a 30-foot line but in its flavor text it says a line of roaring flames thirty feet long and five feet wide emanates from you which kind of implies self. I’ve done a little bit of research on this and this is my ruling, so a 30-foot cast range creates a 30-foot beam of fire essentially.
That’s why i run it in my games whether or not you want to, your own interpretation put it down in the comments below what you think. But to the best of my knowledge this is the way the spell is supposed to work. Makes sense, fantastic! Let’s move on to some alternative uses. Don’t miss our comparision between Aganazzar’s scorcher vs scorching ray.
Alternative Uses
Because of the way the spell is worded, it’s a little bit tricky to assign an alternative use. What i mean by that is a lot of other fire spells say that they can catch combustible objects on fire stuff like that, Aganazzar’s scorcher does not. So it can’t i mean if you want to make it so can in your game that’s fine and i completely think it should but by raw technically it doesn’t.
Okay it sucks but it’s true. So the best use i can think of for a Aganazzar’s scorcher is to just use it on mob enemies, they can affect way more than one creature and if you orientate the line correctly and depending on who your DM is. The direction you choose part applies that Aganazzar’s as well. So just please bear that in mind when you’re using it, it’s possible to hit a lot of enemies with this spell.
I really like it, i think it’s cool. It does decent damage for what it is and i can see a ton of uses for it, depending on how lenient the dm is but by raw the best one i can think of is just dealing a lot of damage to a lot of enemies in a confined space. Or an orientation that benefits you if that makes sense. Kind of poor man’s wall of fire almost.
Conclusion
In any case thank you so much for checking out and i really do appreciate it. Second level spells what a really exciting stuff. Thank you so much guys i really appreciate you being here. I hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting. Also read these flaming sphere 5e | scorching ray 5e |