Heat Metal

Heat Metal is a level 2 transmutation spell. It allows spellcasters to heat up a metal weapon or armour on the targeted creature, forcing them to let go or receive damage or suffer various penalties.

Description

Cause a metal weapon or armour to glow red-hot and force the wearer to let go or receive Disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks.

If the creature is only wearing metal armour, it always receives Disadvantage. If the creature is still touching the metal, you can use a bonus action on subsequent turns to deal another 2d8Fire and force the creature to let go or receive Disadvantage.

Properties

Cost

 Action +  Level 2 Spell Slot

Damage: 2~16

2d8Fire

Details

CON Save (On Save: Target takes full damage, but suffers Disadvantage on attack rolls instead of being disarmed)

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Concentration

At higher levels

Upcasting: Casting this spell at a higher level deals an extra 1d8Fire damage for each spell slot level above 2nd.

Technical details

UID

Target_HeatMetal

Spell flags

HasSomaticComponent, HasVerbalComponent, IsConcentration, IsHarmful, IsSpell

Grants:

•  Reapply Heat Metal

Condition: Heat Metal

 Heat Metal

Duration: 10 turns

Spell save DC  Constitution saving throw

• Heats up a metal weapon or armour on a creature with no save (weapon is automatically prioritized).
• Metal weapons are dropped if the creature holding it fails their initial Saving throw.
• If the creature is touching the heated metal item, they receive Disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks.
• Each subsequent turn, if the creature is still touching the metal, the spellcaster can use  Reapply Heat Metal to deal another 2d8Fire damage, forcing the creature to pass a Saving Throw again or drop the item (if it is a metal weapon).

Condition: Heat Metal: Reapply Damage

 Heat Metal: Reapply Damage

Duration: 9 turns

Constitution saving throw

Creature can reapply the damage dealt by the heated metal.

How to learn

Classes:

• Class level 3: Bard, and Druid

Used by creatures: Magma Mephit

Other ways to learn:

• There are no scrolls available for wizards to scribe to their spellbooks.

Notes

• The bonus action cast provided by the  Heat Metal condition receives the same upcasting damage bonus as the main cast.
• The bonus action recast is not available until the caster's next turn.
• Having resistance or immunity to fire does not prevent the weapon disarm effect.
•  Reapply Heat Metal is a "granted" spell, or one that can be recast. Granted spells are issued to the caster after casting the original, and can be cast again without spending another spell slot as long as  Concentration is not broken. Granted spells such as this are not directly tied to the casters' repertoire of known spells (i.e., their spellbook icon in the game). Therefore, if a granted spell is cast when multiclassing, subsequent recasts (in this case,  Reapply Heat Metal) use the spellcasting modifier of the most recently acquired spellcasting class rather than the spellcasting modifier that was used for the initial casting of Heat Metal. In this case, it may result in an unexpectedly low spell save DC.

Bugs

• Due to a coding error, the condition which provides Disadvantage to the target (applied after a successful saving throw) is removed if another unrelated condition is removed from the target.
  • This particular bug only affects the level 2 version of this spell.
• Due to a coding error, the condition which provides Disadvantage to the target is not automatically removed if the Heat Metal spell is ended early.
  • This particular bug affects all levels of this spell.
• Heat Metal cast at level 4 deals only 2d8Fire, and its tooltip does not display the damage which Reapply Heat Metal deals.
  • It additionally lacks several other functors found in other levels of this spell.
  • Reapply Heat Metal cast at level 4 correctly deals 4d8Fire.
• Reapply Heat Metal cast at levels 5 and 6 incorrectly displays its tooltip damage as the level 3 version.

External links

• Heat metal on the Forgotten Realms Wiki