Make circle of doom rechargable for Priest archetype

[zerotje]

It's such a bad spell, why not

it looks cool at least

[Walrus Warwagon]

Is it just a worse negaitive energy burst at a higher circle atm?

[Egon the Monkey]

I would agree and say 'do it for Healing Circle too'. But adjust both to 2d8/level, so they are essentially Mass Cure/Inflict Moderate. That's then an interesting use of a L5 slot for sustained damage/heal rather than One Big Hit. They are both terrible in vanilla NWN and even a big buff to Circle of Doom isn't that attractive. I've not even seen an Astrologian cast Healing Circle and they get it as a L3!. Making them rechargeable would balance them without making the trinkets with them suddenly OP.

Healing Circle
1d8 + Caster Level healing centred on you.
Spell Focus: Abjuration heals 2d8 +1 per caster level instead.
Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration heals 3d8 +1 per caster level instead.

Circle of Doom
Damage is increased to 4d8, +1 point negative damage per caster level.
All creatures hit by the spell must make a Will save (same DC as the fortitude DC for halving damage) or be Doomed for 1 minute per caster level.

To compare, Hammer of the Gods is L4 rather than 5 and:

• Has the same range and AoE
• Does 4d8 at 9, 5d8 at 10, so very similar damage
• Doesn't have a friendly fire problem.
• Can daze your enemies

Negative Energy Burst
Negative Energy Burst's will save negates the STR drain in addition to halving the damage.

Spell Focus: Necromancy increases damage to 2d8 + caster level.
Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy increases strength drain to 1 + 1 / 4 caster levels if will save fails.

It's not *bad* but anyone seriously down with Necromancy probably has Evil or Undeath domain to drop some Empowered Negative Bursts for better damage and big STR drain.

[zerotje]

i feel like healing circle would be OP in some quests, while circle of doom would never be OP

[Egon the Monkey]

It really wouldn't. The thing I reckon people forget (I usually do) is a 5m AoE centred on yourself. So even if you want to use it to blow up undead, it's essentially a 5m cone for that purpose. And 'right in front of all the monsters' is not a happy place to be for a Priest. At best you will get some of your party and some undead. If it was kept as 1d8+level, it definitely wouldn't be OP. It's a mass top-off. I like using Healing Circle trinkets and they're Fine. Solidly Okay. Might satisfyingly blow up some zombos with Cure Light-alike. But that's not a L5 spell in that can. It's not really even a L3, no Astro ever preps it.

Whereas Circle of Doom is a ranged 6.6m explosion, meaning you can aim that sucker to hit the entire group without wasting it. Much more efficient. Plus if you really want to go wild, just have your tank drink Insulation. no friendly fire problem.

If you're worried it's OP, the proof of it not being OP is that 'Negative burst spamming undead are annoying but beatable'

[MAGIC]

Vaniilla Circle of Doom is terrible spell as a level 5 spell - but making it rechargable would give Priests a spammable aoe damage option for 10-17 damage, no friendly fire.

I'm a proponent of "What's the worse that can happen?" game design. What's the worst that someone could do with this?

If we assume a level 9 cleric with enough WIS for a bonus slot then that's 3 Circles of Doom slotted. If they're going all in on this, maybe they have GSF Necro to boost its saving throw, maybe they have GSF Transmutation to buff their WIS even more. Each circle does 1d8 + 9 damage, fort save for half, only affects enemies (according to the wiki at least)

In combat this level 9 cleric cast 3 Circles of Doom, dealing a total of 3d8 + 27 negative energy damage to all enemies in a fireball radius around them over 3 rounds. They have enough concentration to cast it defensively, they are buffed up and perhaps even start from invisibility to prevent being targeted.
Then there's 2 rounds of downtime where they heal up 2 friendlies.
Then the first circle of doom is regenerated and they begin again.

A priest that reaches lvl 10 or 11 could probably cast Circle of Dooms every round indefinitely.

This can turn priests into walking bombs. Sure the damage each round doesn't do a ton of damage but it is a decent sized aoe, doesn't require a touch attack, is a hard to resist damage type and it adds up.

I don't think priests need to be turned into aoe blasters.

[zerotje]

No a priest cannot cast a circle of doom every round indefinitely, it has a cooldown like the inflicts and you sacrifice significant power (high slot) for a shitty spell

[MAGIC]

They can memorize multiple circles of doom. The priest cooldowns are per spell slot.

[Egon the Monkey]

Thinking back on this, given we have scripts to recharge per 10 min and per 30s, if this was changed they could just have a longer recharge then single target cures.

[zerotje]

They can memorize multiple circles of doom. The priest cooldowns are per spell slot.

How many do you think?

I would invite any to actually cast this spell ingame and witness how wonky, small AoE and low damage it is hehe.

[MAGIC]

They can memorize multiple circles of doom. The priest cooldowns are per spell slot.

How many do you think?

I would invite any to actually cast this spell ingame and witness how wonky, small AoE and low damage it is hehe.

If we assume a level 9 cleric with enough WIS for a bonus slot then that's 3 Circles of Doom slotted. If they're going all in on this, maybe they have GSF Necro to boost its saving throw, maybe they have GSF Transmutation to buff their WIS even more. Each circle does 1d8 + 9 damage, fort save for half, only affects enemies (according to the wiki at least)

In combat this level 9 cleric cast 3 Circles of Doom, dealing a total of 3d8 + 27 negative energy damage to all enemies in a fireball radius around them over 3 rounds. They have enough concentration to cast it defensively, they are buffed up and perhaps even start from invisibility to prevent being targeted.
Then there's 2 rounds of downtime where they heal up 2 friendlies.
Then the first circle of doom is regenerated and they begin again.