Last I saw in the thread, Sean K Reynolds said this was being looked into after the upcoming convention or something was done....well, I'm assuming that over a year later is enough time...HA! Another one they hope will just to away or change somehow on its own, perhaps? If it is going to be a standard action but a cold effect in a line, then really there is not reason it shouldn't actually be a 3rd level spell (with a 10d cap) or a 4th with a 15? Anyone play around with this whole concept while the wait has ground on? I'm betting the whole "swift action" has removed it from almost any game play, unfortunately....
IIRC, no book in front of me, pretty sure the only change they made (or needed to make) was it went to being a 30ft line from being a cone. That brought it to par with other spells that level.
Just go check the PRD though. Whatever's there is official.
It's now a 30ft line effect and still costs a swift.
Cold Ice Strike has been updated from a 60' cone to a 30' line for over two years now (Ultimate Magic update 1.0 release date 3/30/2012).
The power of the spell is because of the Swift Action, but I don't know if it should be treated as *too* good a spell. Mechanically, it's not much different than a Quickened 2nd level spell.
I think by damn fine you mean terrible, because wow is it bad for a 6th level slot. Metamagic fireball wins every time
It depends on the metamagic being applied. CIS does not require a feat. It is not a bad spell, just not a great one.
The spell was changed with the FAQ as it should be. And since it is a swift action you can cast a Metamagic fireball of your choice AND cold ice strike in the same round... Plus it is flat out awesome for a Qingong Monk.
Well the tread that was curious about the swift action part of it had the aforementioned person in it saying they were going to look at the spell (back in 2012) and nothing further was added to the thread as some sort of call on it....they mentioned it was some sort of conversion from a monk power or something and they suspected the swift action part of it was not intended but then...nada...so I'm just giving it a poke to see if someone has thought about it since then...
It's a heightened quickened lightning bolt with cold damage, shorter range, and a higher cap in a 6th level slot. It's a damn fine spell for blasting at it's level.
Blasting isn't great, but that's another discussion.
It works well with the Rime Spell metamagic feat at least. That is 6 rounds of entanglement on top of the damage and swift action.
Well the tread that was curious about the swift action part of it had the aforementioned person in it saying they were going to look at the spell (back in 2012) and nothing further was added to the thread as some sort of call on it....they mentioned it was some sort of conversion from a monk power or something and they suspected the swift action part of it was not intended but then...nada...so I'm just giving it a poke to see if someone has thought about it since then...
Blasting spells are not that good. If they would have made it into a standard action it would not be worth it to most people.