I love this spell and have used it a lot. Very cool in the right scenario, decent-ish and thematic L3 attack spell for a Hatred Cleric. Just because you don't normally get a L3 AoE Attack spell on a Cleric.
Even so, you have to be slightly mad to use it. Because the only way to get the full use out of the AoE is to
deliberately get yourself surrounded .
It's so rarely used that I've literally had players ask me what I just did when I cast it!
It's not really a L4 spell. It's more like a L3 spell that you only get from Hatred Domain.
It's got a lot of good points, but too many drawbacks. Hammer of the Gods does a better job for most of what you want a L4 Evocation with no friendly fire for.
The damage type is fantastic, but actually aiming it is it a right pain compared to HoTG, which also does Divine Damage.
Essentially, Castigate is a cone spell with considerably worse range.- It's Target Self, Radius 6.66m
- A Cone is Length 10m
- If you want it to hit the whole group, you have to run up and deliver it from inside the group, not from just behind your own lines.
Castigate does about 50% more average damage than Hammer of the Gods but Hammer:- Does that nasty 1d6 Round of Daze, which is usually better, as that's a big AoE disabling effect
- Targets Will, a save that characters, especially monsters, are usually worse at than Fortitude.
- Has a nice comfy 20m range, so it's both lower risk and much easier to place where you need it.
It's really bad vs posessed bosses or in PVP, because it is zero range and slow.Any sort of moving target
will escape this spell.
- If I use Hammer of the Gods, I will track my target. The spell will land on them if they were within 20m when I started casting.
- If I use Inflict Critical Wounds, I will chase my target. They will be hit if they were within Touch Range when I started casting.
- If I use Castigate, it drops on my final location. The enemy has to be within the 6.66m range when I finish casting.
- Castigate is wierdly a lot better off an item, as items fire at the start of your round, not the end.
Making Castigate Touch Range (or short, if you can't have a Touch Range AoE) would make it work properly- If it was Touch Range, then the enemy couldn't casually evade it by moving.
- It would also get a 2m range boost that would mean it was viable to fire point-blank, rather than from ahead of your own frontline.