Ray of Sickness?

[Belial]

Can anyone explain whats the point of this spell? Its seems the same as Chromatic Orb but worse

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

F***er get up
C'mon get down with the Ray of Sickness

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

So, it's not really that great a spell. Sure, giving an enemy disadvantage is cool, but Poison damage is considered the worse damage type because it is the most resisted and the most monster types have immunity to it.

I would never choose it as one of my spells, however the Staff of Crones, which essentially lets you cast it as a cantrip (at the cost of taking some poison damage yourself) is kind of cool, especially if you wear the Ring of Poison Resistance and Poisoner's Robe.

[WeenerTuck813]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Kairos:

So, it's not really that great a spell. Sure, giving an enemy disadvantage is cool, but Poison damage is considered the worse damage type because it is the most resisted and the most monster types have immunity to it.

I would never choose it as one of my spells, however the Staff of Crones, which essentially lets you cast it as a cantrip (at the cost of taking some poison damage yourself) is kind of cool, especially if you wear the Ring of Poison Resistance and Poisoner's Robe.

It used to be

But now we have level 5, so your cantrips are better.

[Belial]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Kairos:

So, it's not really that great a spell. Sure, giving an enemy disadvantage is cool, but Poison damage is considered the worse damage type because it is the most resisted and the most monster types have immunity to it.

I would never choose it as one of my spells, however the Staff of Crones, which essentially lets you cast it as a cantrip (at the cost of taking some poison damage yourself) is kind of cool, especially if you wear the Ring of Poison Resistance and Poisoner's Robe.

good points! however Staff of Crones is item based, Im wondering if there are any reasons to pick Ray of Sickness for Sorcerer over Chromatic orb, for example. Am I wrong or they are both doing the same thing?

[Edstyles]

Being able to pick element is too good even if it didnt have a surface mechanic
Surface is just a nice ekstra

[KOHb]

It's bad in terms of damage and very situational overall. Has also CON save, which is usually not great too. Dump spell, waste of slot.

In theory it could be used on hard hitting fatties, but again CON save will make it almost impossible to hit. So in terms of debuff spell like 'blindness' would be better, in terms of damage — almost any dd spell would be better too )

As to pro: if you're feeling lucky — twin it with sorcerer to make 2 mobs sickened and damaged for 1 sorc point :)

[jk2l]

don't forget NPC mage share the same spell system with players. in DND some spell looks pointless to player but they are useful on NPC

things like poison which is consider most useless damage type in DND because lot of monster have poison resistance/immunity. but not player so they are more to target on players

[dolby]

one of those spells in dnd that are meh cos of other spells... easly fixed though if they are willing to change it

[KOHb]

Originally posted by dolby:

one of those spells in dnd that are meh cos of other spells... easly fixed though if they are willing to change it

Or some more items like Poisoner's Robe could change it.

[Belial]

Chromatic Orb
https://imgur.com/WhO8qX3
Only requires attack roll, poison is guranteed(?) and can apply to more than 1 target (surface)

Ray of Sickness
https://imgur.com/xAIFdff
Requires attack roll and poison is not guaraneed (requries CON save)

[KOHb]

Originally posted by Belial:

Chromatic Orb
https://imgur.com/WhO8qX3
Only requires attack roll, poison is guranteed(?) and can apply to more than 1 target (surface)

Ray of Sickness
https://imgur.com/xAIFdff
Requires attack roll and poison is not guaraneed (requries CON save)

In case when you have your teammate in range of target's AoE it Orb will hurt your ally.
Also it doesn't have sickness.

From point of damage view Ray it's useless, no doubts. Thunder 3d8 orb would look more interesting.
It could be only be considered as damage/debuff spell. But still meh.

[Belial]

Originally posted by Criminal Horse:

Originally posted by Belial:

Chromatic Orb
https://imgur.com/WhO8qX3
Only requires attack roll, poison is guranteed(?) and can apply to more than 1 target (surface)

Ray of Sickness
https://imgur.com/xAIFdff
Requires attack roll and poison is not guaraneed (requries CON save)

In case when you have your teammate in range of target's AoE it Orb will hurt your ally.
Also it doesn't have sickness.

From point of damage view Ray it's useless, no doubts. Thunder 3d8 orb would look more interesting.
It could be only be considered as damage/debuff spell. But still meh.

Sickness? There is no sickness in "Ray of Sickness" only "Poisoned Status" which is applied by Poison surface just the same as by Ray effect.

[KOHb]

Originally posted by Belial:

Sickness? There is no sickness in "Ray of Sickness" only "Poisoned Status" which is applied by Poison surface just the same as by Ray effect.

Poisoned
A poisoned creature has disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Poisoned
Think about the naming. 'Sickness' itis not just like that.

Orb is creating poison surface, but doesn't has the debuff AFAIK. Also Larian just made a broken spell again, which must not have AoE initially. They removed from orb's damage 1d8 but made it with aoe surface (Larian style — more surfaces!).

Initially in 5e Orb spell has to deal 3d8 with any element with no side effects. Elemental Damage only.
And also — the reason why it's so strong: it must consume diamond 50 or 100 gold.

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

its not a great spell but if you're making a necromancer/death knight character its thematic.

most spells are niche uses, the whole point of casters is that they have a spell for every situation. poison is a very good status effect to have, its only problem is that magic spells you -want- to land are usually only useful against the very enemies that will resist it/make the save. Thats sort of the problem with magic in 5e.

set your intelligence to 30 with cheats and see if the game feels any better as a caster.
im betting itll feel better, but not nearly as broken as you think lol.

[IgnatiusJ.Reilly]

The spell sucks, it's an absolute insult to the casters who have it on their spell list. It's an utter newb trap. I haven't seen anyone use in nine years of playing 5e.

I suppose the only saving grace is some draconic sorcerers could add their charisma mod to the spell's damage at level six. Why they picked a bloodline that buffs poison damage I'll never understand.