| Acid Ball/Rain of Sorrow | |
|---|---|
| School | Arcane |
| Type | Damage |
| Range | Ball |
| Base cost | 35 |
| Equivalent item | N/A |
Acid Ball summons an acidic cloud around the caster, damaging all beings in its area.
It shares the following features with other ball spells:
- Area-of-effect is determined by the PC's Willpower.
- If used while invisible, the PC's location will be revealed to affected monsters.
- Damages all beings in its radius, including monsters in walls or behind obstacles.
Most monsters lack a specific resistence to acid attacks. This fact, combined with Acid Ball's superior damage, makes it the most powerful offensive spell in the game. For PCs capable of learning the spell, spellbooks of Acid Ball may be considered worthy of a wish.
Notably, Acid Ball is the second-most difficult spell to learn from a spellbook; only a spellbook of Wish poses more difficulty. Given the value and rarity of Acid Ball spellbooks, it would be preferable not to waste them with failed learning attempts. Measures such as blessing books prior to reading and wearing the crown of science can be helpful.
Stats[]
Damage is based mainly on the PC's level (L) and slightly on spell proficiency (P), per the following formula:
max{3, [2 + L / 4]}d9 + L + P
Radius of the acid cloud is solely dependent on the PC's Willpower (W), per the following formula:
max{2, [W / 8]}
Only every even value signifies a different blast size. Radius value should be divided by 2 and rounded down — the resulting number corresponds to actual circle radius counted in tiles. In practice, an observable increase in radius will first occur when the PC attains 32 Willpower. After that, each 16 points of Willpower (48, 64, etc.) will increase the radius further.
Ball spell radius 2, 3 (1-31 points of Willpower) ....... ....... ..xxx.. ..x@x.. ..xxx.. ....... .......
Ball spell radius 4, 5 (32-47 points of Willpower) ....... ..xxx.. .xxxxx. .xx@xx. .xxxxx. ..xxx.. .......
Ball spell radius 6, 7 (48-63 points of Willpower) ..xxx.. .xxxxx. xxxxxxx xxx@xxx xxxxxxx .xxxxx. ..xxx..
Extra
Acid Ball will destroy items on the floor, herbs, and webs.
Some information taken with permission from Andy Williams' Guidebook.