Flame Strike: The Towering Inferno
Usable By: Cleric
Spell Level: 5
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (pinch of sulfur)
A vertical column of divine fire roars down from the heavens in a location you specify. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder centered on a point within range must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 4d6 fire damage and 4d6 A vertical column of divine fire roars down from the heavens in a location you specify. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder centered on a point within range must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 4d6 fire damage and 4d6 radiant 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 6th level or higher, the fire damage or the radiant damage (your choice) increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 5th.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Flame Strike is the cleric Fireball. It’s 8d6 damage, two spell levels higher than Fireball, for the same damage. It might innately seem like that makes this a bad spell, and if you’re a light domain cleric with access to Fireball, that’s absolutely true. If not, though, getting a tool for 8d6 damage (4d6 fire, 4d6 radiant) on any spell is a massive boon. It’s the kind of effect that is doing enough damage in a big area, and when you don’t have access to that prior, will feel pretty great to get here.
The 10 ft. radius cylinder is often also going to feel quite a bit worse than Fireball’s 20 ft. radius sphere, as verticality has always been a challenge to gaming. It's a lot easier to use tools like battlemaps and whiteboards without considering the third dimension. Splitting the damage is technically an upgrade over Fireball, as radiant damage is resisted less and has some meaningful upside when dealing with creatures like Zombies, but for the most part, Flame Strike is going to look and play like Fireball, but worse, and that’s okay. There is a lot of room for spells worse than Fireball, and given that a cleric’s job isn’t to be the backline damage battery, this being their version of area of effect explosive damage is entirely reasonable to me.
If you’re in a group without a wizard, Flame Strike will feel excellent. If you’ve got somebody with access to Fireball, the damage and area size difference will be blatantly apparent, but can still be a great tool to gain access to alongside your utility survivability.
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