Friday, April 20, 2018

Thunderwave for Rules Cyclopedia

A few of my favorite 5e spells don’t have old school analogs, so I decided to remedy that! The first in a short series of posts...



“Over here you ugly mutts!”

“Fulhoff no!” Thorin yelled, as his cousin ran toward the dire wolves.

The beasts snarled but paused their advance at the sight of the screaming dwarf charging toward them, his chainmail jingling with each lunging step. Both crouched lower, growling as the dwarf raised his hammer and swung it down to the ground in front of them. The crack of thunder rang in their ears and the dust of his strike blew into their eyes. Shaking off the minor irritation, they looked at the dwarf, down on one knee. Fulhoff’s grin faltered as he looked up at the wolves still too close to him.


“Great Digger-“ he began as the first charged into him, it’s jaws encompassing his shoulder, and he felt himself being yanked off of his feet.

1st level wizard spell
Thunderwave
Range: 0 (Self only)
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: 15' diameter sphere blast

This spell creates a thunderclap of sound centered on the wizard. Anyone within 15’ of the wizard must make a saving throw vs Paralysis or be pushed to 10’ away from the wizard and take 2d4+2 points of damage. Anyone making their save takes half damage and isn’t pushed away.



Design Notes: While a fun spell, it’s of fairly limited utility, since it targets everyone in the area of effect. I’ve only gotten to use it once or twice, and neither time was as effective as I’d wished. Sadly, the low DC for the saving through means I’m probably better off saving this as an emergency spell, rather than my “charge forward and BAM” spell. 
As one of my fellow players likes to remind me, I’m a squishy wizard. As far as turning the spell into something for the RC? Simple in this case, with the only real change being that in 5e, the spell doesn’t have to be centered on the wizard. Also drop the damage a bit since it's an AoE spell and HP aren't as high in RC. 

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