Air Bubble: In Space, No One Can Hear You Breathe
Usable By: Artificer, Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level: 2
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: 24 hours
Components: S
You create a spectral globe around the head of a willing creature you can see within range. The globe is filled with fresh air that lasts until the spell ends. If the creature has more than one head, the globe of air appears around only one of its heads (which is all the creature needs to avoid suffocation, assuming that all its heads share the same respiratory system).
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can create two additional globes of fresh air for each slot level above 2nd.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
I like spells that enable exploration in unconventional environments. Swim speeds and water breathing jump to mind as excellent features to stick on characters to enable adventures in a wild, unknown world below the waves. Air Bubble offers you something for underwater exploration, but also SPACE exploration!
The core difference between Air Bubble and Water Breathing, specifically when space isn’t really on the table, is the spell level versus party effect. Both have a 24 hour duration, but Water Breathing can affect up to ten creatures at once for just one slot higher. Air Bubble is only giving you three creatures for a 3rd level slot, and one for a 2nd. Basically, this means if you or some other party member is the only member of the group without tools to respirate down where it's wetter, Air Bubble is a cheaper way to get the same functional effect. If only three people need it, it's roughly as good as Water Breathing. If the entire six player party needs it, Water Breathing is what you need.
These tools tend to be feast or famine features; you’ll use them regularly in games that care about exploring whatever environment they enable, and find mixed results in other games. There will be some tables where no characters ever end up even needing to hold their breath, having journeyed from a rugged town in the great plains to a mountainous fortress to the murky swamps below. None of these locations may ever open up a single time you’d want to cast Air Bubble; it's something you will literally never need.
If you’re in a pirate game or doing some spell jamming across the astral sea and need a tool for exterior ship repairs when in vacuums or under water, Air Bubble is a cheaper, but often good enough, version of Water Breathing. Otherwise, the scenarios you’d want to have it for are so rare you’re better off preparing almost any other spell instead.
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