Split Shot is probably one of my favorite Sorcerer feats, even if it's actually a really bad feat (not saying it is, but halved damage is halved damage). But the thing is... I don't know what spells actually work with it besides Produce Flame. Ray of Frost inflicts a movespeed penalty on a crit, so I assume it falls under the "no additional effect" clause of the feat. In fact depending on how you read that stipulation, Disintegrate is similarly disallowed because it requires the target to make a fortitude save.
Because of that, I'm asking the titular question; what spells work with this feat? Arcane, Primal, Occult, Divine; whatever. I'm just curious about what the options are when it comes to this rather flavorful Sorcerer feat, as well as how others might interpret its wording and stipulations.
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The problem you are having is that
A) There just aren't enough spells with the attack trait
B) There are even less good spells with the attack trait.
Here is the full list of spells with the attack trait:
Acid Arrow, Acid Splash, Admonishing Ray, Chilling Darkness, Clownish Curse, Disintegrate, Divine Lance, Hydraulic Push, Polar Ray, Produce Flame, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Frost, Searing Light, Shocking Grasp, Snowball, Tanglefoot, Telekinetic Maneuver, Telekinetic Projectile
without a duration that requires an attack roll against a single target and has no effect beyond dealing damage,
Split shot also has some additional restrictions on it, these being:
- Single target
- No duration
- No effects beyond damage
Meeting these criteria drops the list to
Acid Arrow, Acid Splash, Admonishing Ray, Divine Lance, Produce Flame, Shocking Grasp, and Telekinetic Projectile
So 7 spells across 4 spell lists.
Acid Arrow, Acid Splash, Admonishing Ray, Divine Lance, Produce Flame, Shocking Grasp, and Telekinetic Projectile
You might find some people that have an issue with Shocking Grasps because of the 1st line: "You fragment a ranged spell into a pair of smaller shots." None of other lines say a word about it, so some see it as fluff text but others will remove it from the list.
It's been well over a year since release of this game, and still I have absolutely no frackin' clue why attack spells were bungled so badly.
tl;dr: just pretend nobody uses attack spells and you're fine
Yup it is kind of strange that they made save spells feel AMAZING imo which indirectly makes attack spells feel really bad.
Currently we are in a weird situation where the only decent way to use an attack spell is true strike.
We are also in a weird situations where electric arc reigns supreme and makes every cantrip look horrible. Only saving grace is if players cause flatfooted attack spells are "ok" compared to electric arc on a single target.
IMO they just did wonders with saves since...
Crit Failure: Rare but destroys a monseters
Failure: Casters are normally super happy with this result.
Success: A lot of times depending on the spell I am happy with this too.
Crit Success: Okay this still sucks but in my experience it isn't very common but still a lot more common than a crit failure.
It is probably 100% to late for them to change things but I would have loved if they just gave them a "miss" effect like save spells so that they are different than melee attacks and accuracy wouldn't be as big of an issue. I love the success effects of saves, also makes spell variety so much better.
My only guess is they are scared of buffing attack spells because +1-3 potency runes will increase damage by 10-30% (roughly) which might be more than they want.
My biggest problem is Primal/Divine casters just feel even worse. As far as I can tell if you want to use attack spells you 100% want to either use a hero point or find a way to get true strikes.
Which there will be 0 new players that will play a Druid and be like you know what I will go Sorcerer multiclass + basic spellcasting and by a staff of divination... Instead they will be like me use Produce Flame / Ray of Frost then after a few sessions cast electric arc + saving throws spells the rest of the game. Luckily there are A LOT of spells to choose from :)
Split shot also has some additional restrictions on it, these being:
- Single target
- No duration
- No effects beyond damageMeeting these criteria drops the list to
Acid Arrow, Acid Splash, Admonishing Ray, Divine Lance, Produce Flame, Shocking Grasp, and Telekinetic Projectile
So 7 spells across 4 spell lists.
Out of curiosity how does Acid Arrow work for this. If you use a level 2 acid arrow does each monster take 1d6/2 (rounded down) every round . That seems to be how it reads to me but seems kind of odd at the same time.
Well it's unfortunate that Split Shot is as limited as I thought it was, especially since in theory it could be such a useful feat. If you managed to take advantage of weaknesses, you could Split Shot a spell to hit two creatures at once for a minimum of X damage, without wasting one of your bigger AoE spells.
Hopefully Secrets of Magic will do something to give more attack roll spells and make them a bit more useful. I'm missing Scorching Ray.