I'm working on homebrewing a number of variant options for the Metamagic options available to Sorcerers, and I need some assistance proofreading the wording on one such option that I'm working on. I am not soliciting feedback on the Balance of this feature right now, and will be ignoring any such feedback.
The following is intended to be a new Metamagic that Sorcerers may learn. Within the context on this homebrew I'm working on, this is intended to be a kind of "Advanced" Metamagic, meaning (among other things) that its complexity is expected to be higher than normal Metamagics.
Despite that concession, however, I am worried that it may still be too wordy or cluttered to be easily understood, and I am looking for feedback to try to make it easier to read or more intuitive to understand. Also, obvious grammatical errors or ambiguities would be good to call out as well.
Artillery Spell
When you cast a spell that has a targeted Area of Effect that isn't yourself, you may spend 5 Sorcery Points to change the spell's range to be equal to your character's visibility range. Then, before the spell comes into effect, the DM will roll four sets of 5d4, in order, and multiply each of these values by a value equal to the distance between you and your target, divided by 15. Then, for each distance:
- Push the spell's location away from you by this much, parallel to the ground
- Pull the spell's location towards you by this much, parallel to the ground
- Move the spell's location to your left by this much
- Move the spell's location to your right by this much
The intent of this math is to generate a [roughly] normally distributed area within which the spell will land. The entire area within which the spell may land is intended to be a box, centered on your chosen targeted location, with a size equal to twice the distance between yourself and that location. If my math is not producing that kind of distribution, or if the wording of the math doesn't imply that kind of distribution, I'd like to know that as part of the feedback I'm soliciting.
A few additional clarifications (as they come in):
- It should be possible for the caster to accidentally target themselves, though note that it requires pretty astronomically low odds for that to happen (~0.01%-0.20%, depending on the spell's AOE and your distance)
- This affects the spell's range, not its AOE. So a Fireball spell could be launched miles away, but it still only has a radius of 20 feet.
- The facing of this spell's "right" and "left" is based on the direction from the caster to the target.
Here's an example of how this would work, using the rules I've provided, as I intend for them to function:
- The Sorcerer declares "I'm casting Circle of Death on that mountain over there, to try to hit the Assassin's Village"
- The DM rolls 5d4, 4 times: 1+3+2+2+4=12, 2+2+1+1+1=7, 4+4+1+3+1=13, 3+4+4+1+1=13.
- Because the DM has system mastery, they know the village being targeted is 2 miles away, or about 10000 feet.
- Each of these values is multiplied by this distance: 120000, 70000, 130000, 130000, then divided by 15: 8000, 4667, 8667, 8667
- The spell is then adjusted by 8000 feet away from the Sorcerer, then 4667 feet towards them (a net total of 3333 feet away from them), then pushed 8667 feet to the left, then to the right (a net total of 0 feet to the left or right), meaning the spell probably targets a location outside the village.
In total, the spell targeted a location 10000 feet away from the Sorcerer originally, but was instead pushed by this metamagic to a location an additional 3333 feet away, at a total of 13333 feet away.
Yes, this is highly inaccurate, even for modest rolls; I am soliciting feedback on the wording and clunkiness of this feature, not the practicality or benefit of this feature.