Kinda scratching my head at the math behind these two bad boys.
Disintegrate, a 6th level spell, has a base range of 50-100 force damage. Using higher spell slots beefs the value up 3d6 per level of the slot expended. It has added utility perks in that it can disintegrate Large or smaller objects, or eat through a 10-foot cube of substance in general (including magical barriers, not including magical items).
Finger of Death, a 7th level spell, has a base range of 37-86 necrotic damage. There is no higher level slot option. It has added benefit in that any humanoid killed by the spell is turned into a zombie under the caster's command.
Barring the possibility of zombies raised actually being worthwhile (which is totally plausible in the case of a dead giant, perhaps) I'm not understanding the reasoning behind such a noteworthy lag in damage for a higher level spell.
Well its a permanent zombie and I don't see verbage of limit one so, I do see that as a much more potent side perk.
That's why I like consistant design.
Finger of Death also deals half damage on a successful save.
When you cast finger of death on someone, you can say you "gave them the finger". Disintegrate just isn't as cool.
I do agree with the others though, that the side benefits, as well as dealing half damage on a save make Finger of Death pretty good, and probably slightly better overall than disintegrate. It probably could use a slight boost aside from that though.
Lets pretend someone has a 50% chance to hit with Disintigrate and a 50% chance to have their target fail a save against Finger of Death. Disintegrate will average 37.5 damage, Finger of Death will average 46.5 damage. So the save for half does boost Finger of Death's damage. Good catch.
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Also, if it's necrotic damage you can probably also heal your risen zombie with another Finger of Death... 
"A humanoid killed by this spell rises at the start of your next turn as a zombie that is permanently under your command, following your verbal orders to the best of its ability."
Anyone know what the zombie's statistics are? Are they the same stats the creature had when it was alive, or is it just a typical, 1 HD zombie?
FallingIcicle wrote:
Arithezoo wrote:
FallingIcicle wrote:
Disintegrate destroys the victim and all (non-magical) items.
Finger of death creates an undead that looks like who they were.
So there's a couple of roleplay reasons in addition.
All I know is, party + mage with finger of death = army.
We have the KO rules now that allow you to not instantly slay a living creature. Have everyone say "we only knock out our targets" and when the creature is knocked out... Zap 'em with the finger of death.
It may take some time... But you will have an army.
If I wasn't so lazy I would determine how many zombies a wizard could make in a year.
The_Planar_Shepard wrote:
The_Planar_Shepard wrote:
LFK wrote:
Death FInger Zombie Apocalypse. I see it as a detractor from the game, since the effect does not require a save. It also opens the door for alot of abuse, and throws a wrench into a NPC/Hireling/Pet module as "optional" to preserve the action economy.
Might be difficult to keep more than a few under control. You know how zombies are, always swarming around you yelling "braaaaaains!" It's unlikely the ones in the outer tiers can even hear what you say. All they can hear is that constant jibber jabber.
I think they expect that the zombies will tend to die quickly at that level. They're basically just cannon fodder.