Storm of Vengeance effects - additive?

Text:

You create a huge black storm cloud in the air. Each creature under the cloud must succeed on a Fortitude save or be deafened for 1d4 x 10 minutes. Each round you continue to concentrate, the spell generates additional effects as noted below. Each effect occurs on your turn.

2nd Round: Acid rains down in the area, dealing 1d6 points of acid damage (no save).

3rd Round: You call six bolts of lightning down from the cloud. You decide where the bolts strike. No two bolts may be directed at the same target. Each bolt deals 10d6 points of electricity damage. A creature struck can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.

4th Round: Hailstones rain down in the area, dealing 5d6 points of bludgeoning damage (no save).

5th through 10th Rounds: Violent rain and wind gusts reduce visibility. The rain obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature 5 feet away has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target). Speed is reduced by three-quarters.

Does it work like this:

Round 1: deafen check
Round 2: acid rain
Round 3: call lightning
Round 4: hail
Round 5: concealing rain

Or like this:

Round 1: deafen check
Round 2: deafen check and acid rain
Round 3: deafen check and acid rain and call lightning
Round 4: deafen check and acid rain and call lightning and hail
Round 5: deafen check and acid rain and call lightning and hail and concealing rain

It is, after all, a 9th level spell that you have to spend multiple turns maintaining concentration on to get to the good effects.

The first one.

It doesn't state that the previous effect continues, so you shouldn't assume that it does. (I know - would be helpful if they specifically stated it didn't, but they have word counts to keep in mind)

I'm more inclined to say the second one myself, especially since it says "the spell generates additional effects" and not "the spell generates other effects". For it to be additional in it's effects, I think all curent and before effects should be in action.

And for fluff reasons, a storm goes from weak to really bad, not changing what it does every 6 seconds.

I'm more inclined to say the second one myself, especially since it says "the spell generates additional effects" and not "the spell generates other effects". For it to be additional in it's effects, I think all curent and before effects should be in action.

And for fluff reasons, a storm goes from weak to really bad, not changing what it does every 6 seconds.

The "additive" language is what provoked the question. I GMed it the "first way" last night and found that it was basically a really crappy spell, considering it's 9th level and you have to maintain concentration to continue it. Maintaining the concentration past the 3rd round is really pretty worthless.

I suppose it's pretty good for battlefield control in siege situations though?

I'm inclined to continue to play it the first way and just write it off as 'not a great spell' unless someone has a firmer explanation. Is there a FAQ someplace?

Does it work like this:

Round 1: deafen check
Round 2: acid rain
Round 3: call lightning
Round 4: hail
Round 5: concealing rain

Or like this:

Round 1: deafen check
Round 2: deafen check and acid rain
Round 3: deafen check and acid rain and call lightning
Round 4: deafen check and acid rain and call lightning and hail
Round 5: deafen check and acid rain and call lightning and hail and concealing rain

The way I've sometimes seen it run is:

Round 1: deafen check
Round 2: acid rain
Round 3: acid rain + lightning
Round 4: acid rain + hailstones
Round 5-10: acid rain + strong winds

That would be 1d6 acid damage each round after the first (up to 9d6 total, no save), 10d6 electricity damage vs. six targets of choice (save for half), and 5d6 bludgeoning damage (no save): a minimum of 14d6 damage to everything in the area, 19d6 or 24d6 (effectively) if targeted by lightning.

I suppose it's pretty good for battlefield control in siege situations though?

Even if the acid damage is limited to the second round (minimum 6d6 damage, 11d6 or 16d6 if targeted by lightning), the other effects (deafening, no ranged attacks, disrupt spells, concealment, speed reduction) make this a great battlefield control spell (that also does damage). A meteor swarm can do comparable damage (or a bit more if targeting the spheres at one or more creatures and overlapping the explosions), but the area is much smaller (four 40 ft spreads vs. a 360 ft radius) and has no effects other than damage.

I think that if anything, only the deafening effect will continue. The other stuff only occurs in the round it says.

Oh, and when I read the thread's title, I first read that as "addictive". Made me wonder, that one.

Oh, and when I read the thread's title, I first read that as "addictive". Made me wonder, that one.

+1

Even if the acid damage is limited to the second round (minimum 6d6 damage, 11d6 or 16d6 if targeted by lightning), the other effects (deafening, no ranged attacks, disrupt spells, concealment, speed reduction) make this a great battlefield control spell (that also does damage). A meteor swarm can do comparable damage (or a bit more if targeting the spheres at one or more creatures and overlapping the explosions), but the area is much smaller (four 40 ft spreads vs. a 360 ft radius) and has no effects other than damage.

Meteor swarm doesn't take 5 rounds worth of concentration though. You have to look at opportunity cost. The caster of Storm of Vengeance could easily have dropped this instead:

(spell) (level) (damage)

Earthquake (8th) (4d6 falling plus trapped 40 feet below the earth's surface, suffocating to death)
Fire Storm (7th) (20d6 no save plus 4d6/round thereafter for failed saves, burning damage)
Reverse Gravity (8th) (setting up...)
Sirocco (6th) (6d6 falling no save, 4d6 fire save for half, prone, fatigued, still in the AOE for next round that you don't have to concentrate on)
Whirlwind (8th) (ejecting some into the antigrav beam, then slamming them into the ground with the Sirocco again)

I mean, if your goal is to kill a 720 foot diameter of tiny toons who are slow and can't make it through your antilife shell, giving you the time to concentrate, then I guess Storm of Vengeance is okay. But even then, you can do that with a Control Winds tornado.

The suck of the spell is the concentration requirement preventing you from doing other, more important stuff. And it's not like call lightning where you can always go back and concentrate later to produce the effect. Once you quit, it dissipates.

I actually like the Witch's take on this via Natural Disaster. It's the same, just adds an earthquake on the 2nd round. Good I would imagine for a castle defense of sorts. However, it's debatable whether it's worth spending one of your 2 grand hexes on (3 if you take a feat at 19).

I certainly think it makes more sense as additive (deafen, deafen + acid rain, deafen + acid rain + call lightning, ...) - it's the only way it makes sense as a 9th level spell. But then the text of rounds 5-10 doesn't make sense. Instead it'd have that effect on round 5, and rounds 6-10 would be "no additional effects".

I'm going to call it additive in my game, if it ever comes up.

Sorry for the necro, but I was just wondering the same after reading this spell. Upon a really close examination, I'd have to say that the wording "generates additional effects" and "each effect occurs on your turn" suggests that the effects are cumulative.

For a 9th level spell, it would be far too weak if the effects weren't cumulative. Also, it's not as if the caster can be picky about which targets are affected, except for the lightning bolts. If his allies run into the melee, then they're also saving versus the deafening, as well as taking acid and bludgeoning damage from the hail stones. It would suck to be a caster trying to make concentration checks in that mess.

Even with the effects being cumulative, it's still a niche spell at best, preferably being used against Sauron's army, as they're approaching the White City. Awwww yeah...

I suspect it's intended to be additive, but I would really like a ruling on this.

Whelp... found the actual, original dnd ruling. Dungeon Magazine, Issue 93, pg. 72. Find it here.

The original ruling was that it was not additive and that each thing happens on each round that it was stated to happen on. Yes, if it was done for the damage, then continuing it after the 4th round is pointless. However, with great planning it is a very useful battle field control spell (or something to put your subjugated villagers in line if you're evil).

You know, this was a 4 year bump. But since you actually provided useful information that at least hints at an answer (even though it was for D&D instead of Pathfinder) I will say job well done instead of what I would usually do when people bump long dead threads.

So....job well done.

You know, this was a 4 year bump. But since you actually provided useful information that at least hints at an answer (even though it was for D&D instead of Pathfinder) I will say job well done instead of what I would usually do when people bump long dead threads.

So....job well done.

Thanks. I just can't stand it when something isn't resolved.