[Spell] Dragon's Breath

Galswintha finished researching a spell during the game this weekend:

Dragon’s Breath
Arcane 5
Range: 0’
Duration: Instantaneous

Deals 1d6 fire damage per level to a cone 90 feet long and 30 feet across at the widest, originating at the caster’s mouth. Save for half damage. This is dragon’s breath for all practical purposes.

OOC: I don’t have Player’s Companion, which I understand has detailed spell research rules; I did this one by feel. When PC comes out, we’ll likely revise this spell a bit to better match the results of that system.

I can help there…

It’s a Blast Spell.
Base Damage: 1d6 (27)
No Maximum Damage: x1
Blast is Elemental (Fire): x1
Range 0’: x0.4
Duration Instantaneous: x1
Save for Half: x0.75
Arcane Source: x1
AOE Cone 90’ long, 30’ wide: More than x6.

With the Area, the largest AOE in the Blast Spell is a 60’ x 30’ cone and that’s x6. So I’d say that a 90’x30’ cone is likely to a fair chunk more than that, at least x7 and possibly more like x8.

Atm if it’s a x7 multiplier, your total is 56.7, which would be a L6 Arcane Spell.

If you knock it down to a 60’x30’ cone then the multiplier is x6 and the total cost is 48.6, which is a nice and meaty L5 Arcane Spell.

I would kind of like to keep the basic effects and area identical to actual dragon’s breath, but if I’m going to skimp, I would rather skimp on damage than something visibly apparent - how much would the damage need to lower to make it arcane 5?

Also, what if the spell was a transformative effect, instead? Polymorph Other, which is only arcane 4, allows three uses of a lvl-d6 breath weapon covering the 30x90 area and grants all of the other draconic abilities as well. A “transformation” that just made the mouth and throat of the caster draconic for a period might be lower level, yes?

Polymorph other is (a) technically a level-6 spell when built using this system, and (b) alters the target’s mind to that of a dragon, making it a possibly poor choice for an ally.

The spell research rules include “breakthroughs” which allow for spells that are +½, +1, or +2 levels more powerful than normal for spells of their rank. Otherwise, fireball and ice storm would be at the same ranking, and polymorph other is a similarly overpowered effect for its level.

Still transmogrification is probably the way to go. I would put dragon’s breath (with the 3/day limit in place) somewhere between “strength of a giant” and “regenerative powers of a troll” on the partial transformation list of effects, so maybe 120 points.

That gives us this build as a basis:

Partial Transformation: gains breath of a dragon (120)
Target: 1 living creature (x1)
Range: self (x0.5)
Duration: 1 turn (x0.7)
Beneficial Effect (x1)
Arcane (x1)
Total: 42. A low end fifth-level spell effect.

A range of “touch” instead of “self” is x0.6, which gives us exactly 50 points, and would be the most efficient 5th level spell.

There is no “duration: 1 round,” but I would give that a x0.5 multiplier, which would have an effect identical to your original spell, and would be a third-level spell at 30 points.

Hm. Clearly, I need this book. Not that I didn’t need this book before, but breakthroughs - Galswintha will be all over that.

Thank you for the build. I think the transformation with range: touch and 1 turn will make it significantly better than Polymorph X for the purposes Galswintha wants to put it to, and more in tune with the original vision she had for the spell.