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Brand is pretty awesome for a hexcrafter magus.
The cantrip attacks touch AC. There are plenty of times somthing like a wizard want to have 50% chance of doing 1d3 rather than 20% of doing 1d8. at least i think so. but generally other cantrips are more usefull. only character i regularaly have a attack cantrip on is my conjurer because it is the only level 0 conjuration spell.
Can be better than a crossbow bolt at low level.
With d6 damage, no save, vs touch AC, Disrupt Undead is a no-brainer in any campaign where there's even a hint of undead. Throw in non-corporeal undead and it's even more essential...
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Don't forget that you can use a flask of acid as a focus to increase the damage of Acid Splash by 1. If you have Point Blank Shot this increases to +2 damage.
And you never run out.
The Adventurer's Armory adds power components.
Using a Flask of Acid (10gp -- as a focus it isn't consumed) as a power focus for Acid Splash makes it 1d3+1.
It has no save and doesn't allow spell resistance.
As an energy attack, it ignores DR.
The ranged touch attack makes it much easier for a low BAB spellcaster to actually hit. It can be cast every round, whereas that crossbow requires time to be reloaded.
EDIT: Ninja'd :P
Edit, re-read the title, and I overlooked "attack"
so I second disrupt undead
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Disrupt undead is the poor man's detect undead, and loaded with potential flavor value.
For example, My cleric/inquisitor has a habit of casting Disrupt Undead on every person he sees, just to make sure they weren't replaced while he was gone. In negotiations with a particularly surreptitious NPC, he passed the sense motive check to determine that they were evil and lying to us, but nobody else in the party seemed to have noticed. So he began the standard check.
Inquisitor: "I'm going to cast a spell on you now. It shouldn't hurt, causing naught but a faint tingling. However, if you are undead, it will burn and let us know that you are unsafe."
NPC: "That sounds reasonable." *extends arm to allow it to be hit by the spell*
Inquisitor: *Casts Acid Splash instead of Disrupt Undead* "Friends! Their skin burns! Slay the undead fiend!"
With the right bluff check and some failed spellcraft checks, this makes a great way to witch hunt undesirables.
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I once saw the party Wizard kill an Old Black Dragon with Ray of Frost.
It was down to single digit HP, but he was the only party member standing (tough fight) and he was out of offensive spells, and it's non-touch AC might as well have been untouchable by him (I'm a mean GM and gave it both Mage Armor and Shield) so he went with it.
So, yeah, they can come in handy.
and you haven't got to lug around a crossbow with a pile of quarrels which is kinda handy when you have 8 STR...
I'd rather rely on hitting a touch AC especially as a Wiz/Soc I prolly have better things to spend my feats on than PBS and Precise Shot...
Hrm... okay. What about a sorcerer? Would the bloodline bonuses that are normally used help the damage from ray of frost/acid splash? If so I guess that would bump acid splash up to 1d3+3 for a crossblooded sorcerer with applicable bloodlines. That's really solid for level 1 at will effect.
Yes. For instance a draconic bloodline sorcerer with black, green or copper as their dragon type would add +1 damage to Acid Splash (It says +1 per die rolled. You roll 1d3, so add +1).
So, at 1st level with Point Blank Shot that's 1d3+3 w/in 30 ft.
EDIT: Add in a crossblood with orc bloodline and add another +1
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I have several times used cantrips to clear away various "molds". Some of the molds can be very difficult to deal with unless you have a way to zap them. For example:
Russet Mold is destroyed by acid (acid splash).
Brown Mold is destroyed by cold (ray of frost).
Also, it's a good idea to carry a ranged weapon of some sort and Wizards/Sorcerors usually have low STR, so carrying a Light Crossbow will encumber them. A cantrip makes a decent alternative to the Light Crossbow.
Also, at low levels, a Wizard/Sorceror can find themselves out of spells. A damaging cantrip allows them to participate, rather than simply dance around in the background. I remember that this came in very handle in our Shackles campaign.
Last, but not least, as a Ranged Touch Attack, I've seen situations where low level PCs facing a tough opponent had a hard time connecting, but the Wizard/Sorceror was able to do damage (albeit only 1d3 per round) because he or she was able to hit the target's touch AC.
So, yes, I find damaging cantrips very useful in play. Do I rely on them, no. Are they always useful, no. I usually just pick one and fill my other slots with utility cantrips. At higher level, I may switch the damaging cantrip out if I feel I have enough other spells to do damage, but not always.
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I'm a big fan of Ray of Frost or Acid Splash for a Rogue's Minor Magic Trick, simply because hitting something's flat-footed, touch AC is typically about 10 (or less for large and bigger), almost an auto-hit for a ranged sneak attack.
One of my favorite character setups is a rogue/sorcerer or rogue/wizard, and one of my favorite tactics at the low levels is using a cantrip + sneak attack damage. Acid Splash, Ray of Frost, and Jolt all count as touch attacks, and thus shoot for a lower AC than a crossbow, making i easier to pull off a sneak attack should you have the means of making one (such as acting in the surprise round, fighting an enemy who has lost his DEX bonus, or attacking from stealth). Plus, as Angry Wiggles mentioned above, Disrupt Undead is an amazing Cantrip.
One more cantrip to consider: Daze. It's an offensive cantrip that makes an opponent that fails its saving throw to lose all its actions for one round. Now, a character that has been dazed does not count as having lost all its DEX, nor does it count as Stunned, and the opponent can only be affected by the spell once every 10 rounds... but that's still one round in which you can deny a target with a low Will save an entire round of actions. That can buy your allies time to surround a creature, or it can be used to keep an enemy you're running away from busy for one round while you still get your full 30 foot movement speed. And don't forget: It's a cantrip, so you can use this spell as many times per day (and against as many opponents) as you like.
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I re-read your post and you don't limit yourself to damaging cantrips. If you think the utility cantrips are "always" useless, then you just don't know how to play a spell-caster.
Light is always good if you don't have darkvision - and don't tell me that all PCs should have darkvision. Some people do roleplay or select their race based on factors other than darkvision.
Mage Hand has proven useful, and check out the threads on Prestidigitation - a ton of uses. Are you dealing with Fey? Purify Food and Drink is useful in case they slip something into your food or drink. Mending can be critical if you need to fix something. Detect Magic - obviously useful. Create Water is a fine cantrip in a desert or wilderness.
Lots of uses for cantrips.
Thanks for the help everybody! That's not half bad. Actually, now that I think about it, are there any other buffs that would apply to this? (like inspire courage or maybe something else)
Some. I'm not sure if Inspire Courage would work, but it might as you're using a spell as an "attack." I'd check the FAQ and the boards on that (and hey, you're already here).
There's a couple sorcerer bloodlines that increase the damage dealt from a spell per die rolled for said spell, such as the Draconic Bloodline. A sorcerer with the White Draconic Bloodline could, as an example, cast Ray of Frost and 1d3+1 damage.
Point Blank Shot should affect these sorts of spells, too, assuming you're within 30 feet of the opponent. Combine that with the above and your little spurt of cold damage is 1d3+2.
Assuming Inspire Courage works just fine and you have a bard in your party, at level 1 your spell would deal 1d3+3.
I use disrupt undead as an undead detector. Basically if we see a corpse or just something moving i'll hit it with disrupt undead to see if it's damaged.
It's become a bit of a running joke in our campaigns, but still useful.
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Acid Splash can also shut down regeneration (of stuff like trolls), and maybe ruin some delicate metalwork (ie the insides of a lock).
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One time when here was a a group of ghouls we were battling, ray of frost saved the party from a Tpk:
It was a human wizard illusionist (me), half Orc barbarian, human Twf rogue, and melee cleric of besmara. Somehow the barbarian and rogue got paralyzed early I. The combat, and me and the cleric were split up, and out of most useful spells, so I just kept using a 5 foot step and casting ray of frost on the ghoul chasing me until the barbarian and rogue woke out of the paralysis (idk if that's how ghoul touch actually works, and the gm didn't know if there was some sort of duration, so he treated it as the spell with the same name). The ghouls failed to touch me (I got really lucky), and the cleric got damaged pretty bad but somehow didn't get paralyzed.
Don't forget the utilities of the attack cantrips.
Acid bypass DR of obejcts. Given a minute or two acid splash can destroy a chain or jam a lock.
I looked for that rule and couldn't find it, can you direct me where to locate that in the book?
Don't forget the utilities of the attack cantrips.
Acid bypass DR of obejcts. Given a minute or two acid splash can destroy a chain or jam a lock.I looked for that rule and couldn't find it, can you direct me where to locate that in the book?
I couldn't find it either. Though I did find a rule that says energy attacks do 1/2 damage against objects.
Don't forget the utilities of the attack cantrips.
Acid bypass DR of obejcts. Given a minute or two acid splash can destroy a chain or jam a lock.I looked for that rule and couldn't find it, can you direct me where to locate that in the book?
While I can't speak for Khan, there is a fairly common misunderstanding where people confuse Hardness with Damage Reduction when dealing energy damage to objects.
Energy damage bypasses damage reduction, but not hardness.
It's worse than that: most forms of energy damage are cut in half, before applying hardness.
Energy Attacks: Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.
Pretty sure this rule exists mostly to keep AoE spells from completely wrecking up the environment.
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While I can't speak for Khan, there is a fairly common misunderstanding where people confuse Hardness with Damage Reduction when dealing energy damage to objects.Don't forget the utilities of the attack cantrips.
Acid bypass DR of obejcts. Given a minute or two acid splash can destroy a chain or jam a lock.I looked for that rule and couldn't find it, can you direct me where to locate that in the book?
Hmm you are correct. I ment hardness and unfortunately it was in the 3.5 rules that it ignorere hardness I think.
Hrm... okay. What about a sorcerer? Would the bloodline bonuses that are normally used help the damage from ray of frost/acid splash? If so I guess that would bump acid splash up to 1d3+3 for a crossblooded sorcerer with applicable bloodlines. That's really solid for level 1 at will effect.
It's not a +DAM effect, but Ray of Frost with the Boreal bloodline (Rime-Blooded) lets you Slow the target. That's pretty awesome, for a first level attack, imo.
I don't think that it's necessarily a good use of your character traits, but if you take Magical Lineage and Wayang Spellhunter from the Dragon Empires Primer for a damaging cantrip, you could actually apply up to 2 levels of Metamagic Feats to it.
Empower Spell (Metamagic)
You can increase the power of your spells, causing them to deal more damage.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half, including bonuses to those dice rolls.
Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. An empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.
This would add +1d3/2 (so, 0-1 pt), plus half of the bonuses.
An Evoker Wizard with the Intense Spells class feature could be amusing with this combo.
Human Evoker w/ Magical Lineage (Ray of Frost), Wayang Spellhunter (Ray of Frost); Empower Spell, Point Blank Shot.
At first level he could prepare an Empowered Ray of Frost with Liquid Ice (Adventurer's Armory) as a Power Focus Component:
1d3 +1 (intense spells) +1 (liquid ice) +1 (point blank shot) +1d3/2 +1 (empower spell)
1d3 + 1d3/2 +4 (5 to 8 points at 1st)
At 4th this becomes 1d3 + 1d3/2 +6
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Hrm... okay. What about a sorcerer? Would the bloodline bonuses that are normally used help the damage from ray of frost/acid splash? If so I guess that would bump acid splash up to 1d3+3 for a crossblooded sorcerer with applicable bloodlines. That's really solid for level 1 at will effect.It's not a +DAM effect, but Ray of Frost with the Boreal bloodline (Rime-Blooded) lets you Slow the target. That's pretty awesome, for a first level attack, imo.
Unfortunately, you can't take Wildlooded and Crossblooded, so you miss out on any +damage effect from bloodline if you do. The DC of the save to resist the slow is pretty ridiculously easy too, at 10 + CHA for a level 0 spell.
Unfortunately, you can't take Wildlooded and Crossblooded, so you miss out on any +damage effect from bloodline if you do. The DC of the save to resist the slow is pretty ridiculously easy too, at 10 + CHA for a level 0 spell.It's not a +DAM effect, but Ray of Frost with the Boreal bloodline (Rime-Blooded) lets you Slow the target. That's pretty awesome, for a first level attack, imo.
Both of which are fair points. It may simply have turned out to be (regularly, if not reliably) awesome in my particular case, based on unlucky saves, high charisma, and my tendency to use it as an opener on unaware targets.
Your mileage, as always, may vary. :)
Hmm you are correct. I ment hardness and unfortunately it was in the 3.5 rules that it ignorere hardness I think.
Like I said, it's a very common misunderstanding - I've also seen a few house rules that worked that way since it can cause some fairly wonky situations.
For instance, Wood either can't catch on fire or will never be consumed by fire if you run the Hardness rules RAW.
Catching on fire deals 1D6 fire damage each round. Wood has a hardness of 5, and energy damage is halved before being applied to hardness - the highest damage the wood will ever take from catching on fire is thus 3.
Fortunately there is a note that states "Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion", which limits the insanity to a reasonable degree.
...the party finally knocks the troll down to negative HP, they can see he's regenerating quickly....
*party members all quickly sift through their bags looking for a vial of oil or acid, none are found*
Acid splash! over, and over... but hey it gets the job done!
...the party finally knocks the troll down to negative HP, they can see he's regenerating quickly....
*party members all quickly sift through their bags looking for a vial of oil or acid, none are found*
Acid splash! over, and over... but hey it gets the job done!
Or, since any acid damage suppresses regeneration that round, wizard casts acid splash, then fighter coup de grace.
