Ball Lightning change suggestion

[Coldburn]

I'm not sure Coldburn realises how this works.

I know exactly how it works, but thank you for your concern.

[lolmagics]

It does. When Kaida casted ball lighting in a small room, she killed half the PCs and left very wounded the tohers, so it can be very powerfull with the perk.

No, it does not. The perk triggers once per target. If four people are hit by ball lightning, four of the perk effects will go off (same effect as a scint sphere or lightning bolt hitting each target), but not 9 of them.

The spell you're talking about is scintillating sphere. Ball lightning is a bunch of tiny lightning balls that function and move in a similar way to magic missle.

[Relinquish]

Ball lightning will always be a joke of a spell. Even with the 2d6 damage a storm domain cleric with one of the 5/- elec resist items can negate most of the damage. I don't have too many thoughts on how to make it more on par with the spells of it's level but making it work as firebrand would probably be the best way to have it until something else is thought of.

[OldPortOutcast]

I'd propose the spell simply be changed to 1d10 instead of 2d6.  Minor enough nerf, serves the purpose just fine.

[Drakill Tannan]

IMO change the spell alltoghether. Make it just like chain lighting with a limit in the amount of affected targets equal to the caster's level.

[Relinquish]

IMO change the spell alltoghether. Make it just like chain lighting with a limit in the amount of affected targets equal to the caster's level.

That is exactly what chain lightning does.

[Drakill Tannan]

Then just change it for a lower DC copy of chain lightning

[derfo]

I think Ball Lightning works fine and is massively counterable as lolmagics said. People seem to just be overreacting in response to the recent success with the spell, and if it really that powerful, they should succeed with it themselves.

[Dealers Choice]

I seriously don't understand why people keep saying drop it.

Its a lvl -5- spell. Other spells in this circle include instadeath clouds, mass damaging firebrands, Bigbys. Ball lightning is now as good as it should be. it's supposed to be a scary offensive spell.

If you are arguing that the perk is making it overpowered. Well thats kind of silly, as personally i think that the fire one is just as nasty on large groups.

5/- eletrical dr will half the damage you take, and tbh there aren't that many wizards capable of casting it.

It used to be utter shit, now its worthy of its circle. Besides i'm fairly certain that empowered scintillating sphere would be just as nasty with the perk.

[Egon the Monkey]

There's 5/- items, but unless you walk around that,  40/- elemental protection or insane reflex PLUS evasion, you will drop at 1 or max 2 [hasted] casts

40/-ele resist is overkill, as this spell can never do more than 12 damage at any one point, despite the total damage being potentially high. As has been pointed out, the spell has a sort of "machine-gun" effect. It creates missiles that each hit the target one after the other. Each will do 2d6 damage, and each hit  counts against insulation and other DR. This means that Resist Elements will always give immunity from the first 2-3 balls, and reduce the damage by a almost the full 30 points it can absorb before collapsing. I'd argue, at a stretch, that it could be useful for deliberately overloading insulations in order to follow up with an Emp Lightning or other big hitter, while also doing damage. Or if each missile counts as an individual L5 spell, then much like Flame Arrow, this spell is brilliant as a counter to Spell Mantles and worth it for a high level mageduel.

Normal Sphere would be way more so, DC. If you can hit more than 9 targets, you get more bonus bolts. Plus you're doing the full damage to everything in range. On the other hand, Ball Lightning would be a safe way to do... er... 2d6 or 1d6 damage to a lot of stuff. Which is not that useful considering the HP of anything a L9 wizard or L10 Sorc is going to be flinging spells at. And yeah. 9d6 damage plus a 1d6/round combust effect with the DC of a L5 spell? That is much more nasty, as would be a 9d6*1.5 Acid Breath that also carries an AC debuff. Throwing that out on Corals for example. However, BL is still better than Cone of Cold. That spell only gets useful at about L13, empowered. Otherwise Lightning Bolt does identical damage and a similar job for an Evoker at 2 spellslots lower.

There was a suggestion a while back to make it work like Gedlee's Electric Loop. If you fail the Reflex save on a Ball, it's a Will save vs a 1 round stun. I think that would be a good addition, possibly with the damage lowered slightly to 1d10 to pre-empt complaints. What you'd have is a choice of two modes of effect. Good damage and a very effective short stun on 1-2 targets, as the repeat saves would still give more chances to dodge the damage but also more chances to be hit by the stun. On the other hand against multiple foes it would, uniquely, be an area of effect stun that would not affect allies, making it good to help a surrounded PC for example.

[OldPortOutcast]

I think people are overreacting, like with Evard's, in part because of the situational strength of the spell.  That is, for solo ganks alone, against an unsuspecting person, who does not have a 5/- resist item.

Let's assume though that  if you're not a high reflex build with evasion you have at least resist elements up at all times.  Don't have it up?  Then you deserve to be downed in one round by a wizard.

In my experience a wizard using this spell at least will open up with some sort of dispel before firing it off, even if not, you'll still have time to react because with some sort of resistance to the elements up you'll most likely survive the first cast.

The damage of any subsequent spells can then be halved by a simple summon 1 item.

The only 'danger' I foresee is someone abusing the hostile rules for PvP.  Which is always a possibility but most of our players who have played high level mages are pretty good about not doing that.  Namely, they could hostile a single person.  Kill them with a barrage then hostile the entire server with a single key press when the person is around them.  That way even if there were bystanders around them they could avoid the halving effect of having multiple targets in the area.

[Egon the Monkey]

The only 'danger' I foresee is someone abusing the hostile rules for PvP.  Which is always a possibility but most of our players who have played high level mages are pretty good about not doing that.  Namely, they could hostile a single person.  Kill them with a barrage then hostile the entire server with a single key press when the person is around them.

That's not abuse, it's the only way for that spell and Missile Storm to be PVP useful. Hostile is an OOC mechanic for exactly this sort of thing, i.e. choosing who your wizard is actually willing to allow his next deadly spell to hit, where the spell gives him that option. Using Firebrand as the example, you don't want to hostile all as your Brands will burn people your mage has no intent of doing harm to. So long as they whack Hostile all after unleashing their barrage, it's not abuse. Hostile is especially problematic in cases where for example you want to fire this sort of auto-target spell at a criminal, but a Stygian NPC is set hostile in order to chase him. There is no IC reason to will your attack to hit the Stygian, but it will go for him anyway and unless you got a DM to pause *really fast* before firing, a lot of people now want your head on a stick.

[Udenbur]

Let's assume though that if you're not a high reflex build with evasion you have at least resist elements up at all times. Don't have it up? Then you deserve to be downed in one round by a wizard.

That's fair.

The 1d10 suggestion is also good; it will be as powerful [or arguably, less] as empowered lightning bolt but it goes through Lesser Globes and it becomes a fairly big upgrade to those that don't use Empower Spell.

[derfo]

I am sure if someone abused hostile mode like that in a major PvP then people are going to probably notice, maybe, a bit. How did such an argument never appear for something missile storm?

[OldPortOutcast]

I am rather sure you are not allowed to do that Egon.  When initiating PvP everyone must be hostile at all times who is not definitively your ally.

But I'll let the DMs weigh in on that.