Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the first ever episode of our second level spell series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at one of the more kind of controversial second-level spells and i’ll get into why that is in a little bit here.
But today we’re going to be taking a look at the d&d 5e aganazzar’s scorcher. It is found in the elemental evil player’s companion and it is usable by the sorcerer and the wizard. Naturally through extension anyone else with access to their spell lists. Fantastic, now that we’ve kind of established what we’re talking about. Let’s move on to the mechanics here.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Damage: 3d8 (+1d8 per spell slot above 2nd)
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range: 30 ft (30ft line)
- Duration: Instantaneous
- Saving throw: Dex(S=1/2 damage)
- Components: Somatic, Material and verbal
- School: Evocation
- Damage Type: Fire
So your damage die is a fairly impressive 3d8 plus an additional 1d8 per spell slot level above 2nd. Which is pretty cool makes sense it can be up casted right. Your cast time is the standard one action which is good to know and this is a controversial part so in terms of the spells range as it’s written in terms of mechanics it’s a 30-foot cast range but it creates a 30-foot line so how most people interpret this is pick a point within 30 feet and from that point a 30-foot line of fire appears do damage and that’s the one i’m gonna work with i’ll get into why that’s controversial in a little bit here.
The duration is instantaneous which is great, there is a saving throw and it is a dexterity save and on a success the target takes half damage.
The components are somatic, material and verbal meaning you have to gesture with one hand, the material component is a red dragons scale and the verbal part indicates an incantation there you go. The school is evocation which is too surprising and the damage type is a fire which is even less surprising. Now that we’ve looked at its mechanics, now let’s take a look at its full description.
Description
In Aganazzar’s Scorcher spell a single line of roaring flame which is 30 feet long and 5 feet wide emanates from you in a specific direction which you’ve chosen. Each of the creature in a line must make a Dexterity saving throw. Actually, a creature would take 3d8 fire damage on a failed save, or else half as much damage on a successful one.
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At Higher levels:
Whenever you cast this spell by using the spell slot of 3rd level or more than it and then the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot above the 2nd level.
Great stuff! So the problem with this spell is in its mechanics it’s 30 feet and on a 30-foot line but in its flavor text it says a line of roaring flames thirty feet long and five feet wide. Emanates from you which kind of implies self. Now i’ve done a little bit of research on this and this is my ruling so a 30-foot cast range creates a 30-foot beam of fire essentially.
That’s why i run it in my games whether or not you want to your own interpretation, put it down in the comments below what you think but to the best of my knowledge this is the way the spell is supposed to work. Make sense! fantastic, let’s move on to some alternative uses.
Alternative Uses
So because of the way the spell is worded it’s a little bit tricky to assign an alternative use. What i mean by that is a lot of other fire spells say that they can catch combustible objects on fire stuff like that, aganazzar’s scorcher does not so it can’t i mean if you want to make it so can in your game that’s fine and i completely think it should but by raw technically it doesn’t.
It’s sucks but it’s true. So the best use i can think of for a aganazzar’s scorcher is to just use it on mob enemies. They can affect way more than one creature and if you oriented the line correctly and depending on who your DM is.
The direction you choose part applies that agonale’s as well. So just please bear that in mind when you’re using it, it’s possible to hit a lot of enemies with this spell and i really like it, i think its cool, it does decent damage for what it is and i can see a ton of uses for it depending on how lenient the DM is.
But by raw the best one i can think of is just dealing a lot of damage to a lot of enemies in a confined space or an orientation that benefits you. That make sense, kind of like poor man’s wall of fire almost.
Attributes Of Aganazzar’s Scorcher Spell 5E
| Casting Time | 1 action |
| Range | 30 feet |
| Components | V, S, M (a red dragon’s scale) |
| Duration | Instantaneous |
| Level | 2 |
| School | evocation |
| Classes | Sorcerer, Wizard |
| Name | Aganazzar's Scorcher |
Conclusion
In any case thank you so much for checking out this article, i really do appreciate it. Thank you so much guys, i really appreciate you being here, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting.