Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Thauruviel Jul 21, 2015 17:57:28	I have a player who wants to play a sorcerer that specializes in electrical spells. He would like to take fire-based spells and substitute electrical damage. Is there still a mechanic for this? I know that there was in a previous edition.   If not, I will house rule it. What possible snags could I run into? One that I foresee is that fewer enemies have electric resistance.
#2 transcendantviewer Jul 21, 2015 18:46:58	I'd say just make it a feat. They pick an energy type (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder). Whenever they cast a spell dealing acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage, they can substitute its damage for the elemental type that they chose, so they can cast Fire Bolt to deal Thunder Damage instead. Or cast Fire Ball to deal Lightning. They could take the feat multiple times, selecting a different elemental damage type each time.
#3 Grazel Jul 21, 2015 18:47:34	There's currently nothing about it. You could rule that he has an electricity based version of a spell but he likely can't use it in it's original form (so he can't choose between different damage types when he casts it, it's electricity or it's nothing). If you're worried about less immunities you can do the same thiing as a DM. You can grant resist and immunity to creatures, either adding it or swapping out another damage type that they're normally resistant/immune to. Just don't change the other aspects of the spells: damage dice, range, AoE, etc.   If you want him to be able to choose damage types on his spells make up a feat for it and require him to take it. Just granting him an alternate version of a spell shouldn't be a big issue though as long as he doesn't get the flexibility of swapping out damage types between castings.
#4 transcendantviewer Jul 21, 2015 19:36:59	Another thing that would be rather cool, would be a port of the old Energy Admixture feat. Like, for instance, he grabs the "Energy Substitution" feat and then "Energy Admixture" at a later level. He could cast a Scorching Ray and have one, two, or all of the rays deal different types of damage, and even have the rays each deal half fire and half something else. I think that'd be awesome.
#5 Macv12 Jul 21, 2015 20:06:26	If he wants spells to permanently be one damage type instead of another, I'd house rule it.   If he wants to change the damage type of a spell to his chosen damage type at will, but still be able to use the original type, I'd make it a feat.
#6 Thauruviel Jul 21, 2015 22:30:36	Thanks everyone. You have confirmed what I suspected. I think I will probably house rule it that he just learned a different version of the spell. He doesn't want to ever cast the fire versions.   I will probably just endeavor to throw monsters that have the electric resistance at him more than I usually would. Does anyone know what some good ones are (in the lower end, especially)?   Additionally, I may rule that he forfeits the chance for combustibles to catch fire that some spells have. Having there be two energy types in play is more powerful.
#7 cowleymen Jul 21, 2015 23:52:38	Thauruviel wrote:
#8 Mechatarrasque Jul 22, 2015 6:24:23	A new metamagic seems like the best option for a sorcerer.  Admixture:  the sorcerer can change the damage type of any spell he/she casts for the cost of 1 SP per spell.
#9 transcendantviewer Jul 22, 2015 6:37:25	Admixture would be adding elemental damage to a spell, this is substituting.
#10 Greenstone.Walker Jul 22, 2015 13:52:57	Often the elemental spells have effects other than just damage. Necrotic stops healing, cold reduces movement, etc. As a result of this, the dfamage values vary. You would need to allow for this.   Additionally, there are far more creatures resistant or immune to fire than other elements.   Letting a character change a fireball to, say, thunder or lightning is more powerful than it seems at first glance.
#11 Macv12 Jul 22, 2015 15:51:18	Changing any spell to any damage type at will is extremely OP. You're doubling or quadrupling damage in any case where it matters. I would stick with a chosen element in any case. Even then, with Elemental Adept, you'd never have to deal with damage type resistance on any spell ever. That's why my preference is for just learning the spell as a different damage type.
#12 Cadwyn Jul 22, 2015 17:00:10	We have a houserule at our table that any spell that does fire,cold,acid and lightning damage has equivalent versions that does the other kinds of damage. ex Frostball (Fireball with cold dmg) etc   They all count as individual spells so some wizards can have very heavy spellbooks with all versions of all spells ;)     We have found that it works fine, more chances for interesting scrolls to loot.
#13 transcendantviewer Jul 22, 2015 17:23:44	That's actually a really good idea.
#14 cowleymen Jul 23, 2015 22:53:48	Mechatarrasque wrote:
#15 Razintarr Jul 24, 2015 2:10:28	Make new spells with only the damage-type substituted but all the other stats of the spells as they were. Fireball becomes Ball Lightning. Works for most spells, except for those with a secondary effect that doesn't make sense (like doing lightning damage instead of cold and making the ground slippery).   The only thing to consider is that with the extra lightning spells, the sorceror will have more spells available to which their bonus-damage applies. Also, some resistances/immunities are more common than others. There are more creatures with fire resistance/immunity than with lightning resistance/immunity, also because there are more fire-based damaging spells. In a campaign featuring a lot of fire resistant/immune creatures, a sorceror that can have all his spells be of a specific other damage type can have a significant advantage. If the DM mixes up the enemies with a lightning resistant/immune creature here and there, the blue-dragon sorceror with lightning spells is on the same level with a red-dragon sorceror with fire spells.
#16 Cooperjera Jul 24, 2015 10:14:13	I’ve allowed a player to replace fireball with a cryo-blast (i.e. cold damage spell).  I revised the save to Con rather than Dex based on other cold damage spells and monster abilities.  If the secondary effect is minor in most cases, such as non-worn items catching fire, I ignore the effect.  If the secondary effect is significant, such as difficult terrain, I’ll work with the player to determine if a similar condition can be applied or if we can come up with a way that same condition can occur with the given spell.   For instance, if a cold spell causes the ground to become slippery, and thus difficult terrain, then the same spell with thunder damage may have moved large rubble into the area causing difficult terrain.  Lighting damage spells may leave pools of arcing energy on the ground causing difficult terrain.