I would like to take a moment and talk about how awesome Chill Touch is.
Chill Touch
Necromancy Cantrip
You create a ghostly, skeletal hand in the space of a creature within range. Make a Ranged Spell Attack against the creature to assail it with the chill of the grave. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 Necrotic damage, and it can't regain hit points until the start of your next turn. Until then, the hand clings to the target.
Did you catch that?
"....against the creature to assail it with the chill of the grave......until then, the hand clings to the target...."
Now, that is absolutely amazing use of flavor text. With just a few simple lines, the spell goes from "oh look, another 1d8 damage cantrip" to "ooo, look at how cool this necromancy spell is!"
Think about all those times you wanted to create a Necromancer as an evil (N)PC and you really couldn't do much with the rules. Now we finally have a bunch of really nice necromancy spells in the PHB (False Life, Ray of Sickness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Vampiric Touch, Inflict Wounds, etc.).
I can also see an easy reflavor to the Chill Touch cantrip. You don't just summon a ghostly hand, you cause the spirits of nearby fallen creatures to rise up and attack your foes. Or maybe zombies appear out of the ground below the target, only to evaporate into a cloud of grave dust when the spell is up. Or....if you want a really horror-filled campaign, the spell summons real zombies that last only remain animated for 1 round, before their rotting bodies fall and continue decaying there on the ground.
We can also reflavor the necromancy part. What if the spell was called "Faerie Touch" instead. Now the spell summons a tiny faerie warrior to harass your foe. You conjure it and direct it to attack. It does so, hovering and flitting around the target's head for the duration. If you re-cast it, the Faerie remains and flies over to attack the new target. Otherwise, it salutes you and winks back over to the Feywild Plane.
Ok, I've gotten a little crazy with the reflavoring, but I think that just shows how much effort went into the Player's Handbook. Just a few lines of flavor text sprinkled here and there and now I'm already thinking of making zombie tossing necromancers and wizards with faerie friends.
Discuss.
In the past you could cast Spectral Hand and then use it to deliver touch spells like chill touch and vampiric touch.
I also like the fluff for that spell.
kev777 wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
FFSAA wrote:
I have a twisted sense of humor, so I might be guilty of that.
Of course, I'm equally likely to start quoting the Monty Python bit about feeling the cold hand of death.
The Bad Touch
The Icy Hand of Death
Marandahir wrote:
So no one else thinks this stuff is cool, huh?
Hahah. I love it. But only got my PHB today, so haven't had a chance to read through a lot of it yet.
Youngy wrote:
Ramzour, our group noticed that fluff for chilling touch too. We were very excited.
One of the players made a PC Necromancer who wanted to dabble in the black arts to attempt to unlock secrets about life (Victor Frankenstein-like).
Everyone knows necromancers are the coolest.
So, if you hit an invisible enemy with it, will that allow your allies to attack that enemy without disadvantage until the start of your next turn?
DemoMonkey wrote: