Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 69th episode of our second level spell series. Today we are covering an interesting spell, i got a bone to pick with this one but i’ll talk about that a little bit later on.
We’re talking about snilloc’s snowball swarm (5e spell) which is kind of funny that it’s a 69th spell but whatever not to dwell on it. This spell is found in the elemental evil player’s companion once again a lots of very flavorful spells in there and it is usable by the sorcerer and the wizard. Now let’s take a quick look at its mechanics and hopefully you’ll be able to tell me what you see wrong with it.
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 90 ft (5 ft Radius)
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Evocation
- Attack/Save: DEX Save
- Damage/Effect: Cold
So your damage is 3d6 plus an additional d6 per spell slot level above second second. The effect at a glance is as followed: Hit creatures within range with magic snowballs. Also read what is the swarm rule in 5e?
Your cast time is one action, the range is an impressive 90 feet but the radius is only 5 feet. The duration is instantaneous, the components are the holy trinity so somatic, material and verbal and if you curious about that material component it is a piece of ice or a small white rock chip so pretty easy to come back.
The saving throw is dexterity and on a success they take half damage. The school is evocation and the damage type is unsurprisingly cold. In any case you can also check out this what is the snowball storm spell in snilloc?
So yeah i just i like the range but i don’t like the damage and i really don’t like the effect. I feel like we could have done a lot more with this spell. Maybe something involving movement i think would have been really interesting but oh well i can’t change too too much. Now let’s take a quick look at the full description here and better flesh out exactly how the spell works.
Description
A flurry of magic snowballs erupts from a point you choose within range. Each creature in a 5-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d6 cold 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 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd. * – (a piece of ice or a small white rock chip)
Here my thought on this is they really should have made this spell like a scorching ray that deals cold damage. Very interesting stuff! Once again i really don’t like the damage potential on this i think ice knife 5e is actually a much better choice but whatever in any case i really struggled with coming up with some alternative uses but i’ll let you know what i do have.
Alternative Uses
So first and foremost this is a great spell if you’re planning on taking out multiple people, it is not the best spell for this particular use however i find shatter is a little bit better, certainly better damage potential. The only downside to shatter that doesn’t really affect this one is shatter effects objects where this one does not so.
There is that a slight advantage to it which is pretty interesting also this one works a little bit better with the draconic bloodline sorcerer. So there is that to it i suppose.
And another alternative use whether or not it’s good or not i’ll leave you to decide. It just really helps deal with how weather, sure you damage your allies but at the same time if they’re in a place is damaging them already do the heat or exhaustion and might be worth trade-off.
Although you could argue that shape water is a much better choice for this, i don’t know i’m kind of struggling with this one the way it’s worded doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for flexibility.
Conclusion
That being said though, if you come up with any alternative uses, thoughts, questions, comments, concerns please put it down beneath in the comment section i really do appreciate it. That being said, thank you so much i really do appreciate it everyone, i hope you have a great day and as always happy casting.
Keep reading cone of cold 5e | rime’s binding ice 5e | fireball 5e | ice storm 5e | warding wind 5e | sleet storm 5e.