Spells for the Discerning Pyromaniac (PEACH)

[SilverStud]

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1W6NMprEl

Ok, a little bit on my design philosophy.

Basically, my idea is that it takes less energy to take existing fire and hit things with it. Speaking scientifically, the spells use the current flame AND ALSO the potential for flame as fuel, meaning that you can get more damage for a smaller spell slot.

For the cantrip, it deals more damage by a bit than Fire Bolt, but I think the cost justifies it. Because it puts out your torch or campfire, and those materials can't be re-lit for 24 hours. In combat, you don't really have a campfire. And if everyone is carrying torches, you are probably in a very dark place, and you are sacrificing your light sources in order to do damage.

You'll notice that if you upcast the 1st level spell (with a lvl 2 slot), it does the same damage as Fireball. But remember that it is single target, meaning that you don't get the huge freaking radius, so it'll do less damage overall.

Master Pyromancy, the third-level one, looks on the surface to be way better than fireball, but it really isn't. For starters, the 10d6 is single target, and can't be increased. The splash is not only a smaller radius, but a mere 6d6. Also, since the main spell is a creature target, you can't place the center of the explosion wherever you want.

Ascendant Pyromancy.... well, I tried to make it worth the situational-ness and the 7th-level-ness of it. Since it can only be used with that massive source available, it really comes into its own when the caster gets to level 17, when they can redirect dragon breath and such.

Like the title says: Please Evaluate and Critique Honestly

EDIT: Fixed the grammar issue

[Calen]

First: A small grammar critique. "Choose currently burning..." would read better as "Choose a currently burning..."

I love the flavor of these; great situational spells. Possibly to situational. I understand your reasoning behind the fuel sizes, however if you incorporated wording that allowed more flexibility in fire size I think they would work better.
A few options.
1: Reduce the size of fires larger than the stated size. Apprentice could take 1/5th of a medium sized fire etc.
2: Allow the caster to up slot the spell to ignore the fire requirement. (In essence spending the extra energy to create their own fire.)
3: Allow the caster to use larger fire at a risk. Something like "If you attempt to cast this spell using a fire source larger than X make a Intelligence Saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + Y*Size category of fire. On a failure the fire source is not dampened and you take damage equal to the damage you dealt to the target(s).

[SilverStud]

When I was originally making the spell, I had thought to make it just one 1st-level spell and have it use any size fire and require different levels of upcast depending on fire size. It got very long and full of math, and that's why I've got a bunch of separate spells now. I like the idea of making some kind of save to use a larger size of fire, though I did build fire size into Master Pyromancy. How do you think I could apply that?

[Kellendros95]

> ignores resistance and immunity to fire damage
Immunity? It can damage fire elemental? With... fire?

[SilverStud]

It is Ascendant Pyromancy. I prefer to have something interesting (as in, other than simply increased damage) when you upcast.

Other things you can damage with an 8th level slot are:

Red Dragons of any kind
Brass Dragons
Gold Dragons
Azers
Salamanders
Devils
Efreet
Fire Giants

The list of things immune/resistant to fire damage is extremely long and makes dealing fire damage kinda lame sometimes. Is it really so bad to let the demigod characters fight fire with fire once per day? Imagine the hilarious exchange!

Pyro: I upcast Ascendant Pyromancy with a level 8 slot.
(narration)
DM: The army of Efreet and Fire Elementals laughs in your face. Their leader shouts "We're made of fire, you fool!!"
Pyro: Don't care