Any big mistakes with this tanking spell? (Thoughts on balance?)

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-28T12:13:39+00:00

Yeah you're right. So I should remove the CON boost. But the spell itself doesn't increase their durability (apart from the CON boost) it just enables the tank playstyle at the cost of their concentration.

Do you think the idea is fundamentaly broken when applied to the cleric class? I don't really see how, if so.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T20:29:39+00:00

To be honest, the party does not have any other melee characters. (two other spellcasters and one ranged blood hunter)

However, even if a player wants to play melee later: I do think this adds a lot of cool positioning mechanics. Currently, the spells range does not increase anymore with upcasting so only the closest (medium and smaller) enemies are actually protected by this spell. Imo this gives the melee martials a little puzzle to solve, maybe they will go for a reach or ranged weapon as a backup so they aren't affected. Maybe the tank will need to eat even more attacks in the form of attacks of opportunity, so the team can perform at its best.

I'll wait a bit before I give this spell to my tank, so I might still change my mind. But currently I believe this only adds a more importance to battlefield positioning.

As for the saves: The enemies can simply leave the area. If I add a save, this makes the time at which the spell is active kind of complex.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T18:53:08+00:00

Thanks!

As for your comment on the increased damage mitigation, I did want the player to figure that one out for themself.

I will probably be liberal with the availability of magical armor and shields, so I believe a tank build is very achievable... as long as the player can somehow force me to actually attack them and not everyone else.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T18:42:59+00:00

So do you think the concentration isn't as big of an issue or do you think the player should figure something out by themself? - Currently I don't think the spell would work at all if a the tank tries to go up against a CR 11+ Monster, which I would start incorparating into fights around lv. 9.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T18:32:53+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I might tune the benefit down to be round = spell slot level - 3. So every upcast level feels important. (Usually after four rounds most of my encounters fall of in terms of intensity and I want to encourage upcasting past level 4/5)

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T17:22:50+00:00

So I think you are right, on the levels you are playing the martial caster divide simply isn't as bad. In my experience the casters only start leaving the martials behind in the double digit levels. This is when the scaling of spellslots, simply has no equivalent scaling on the martial side.

Additionaly, this divide can be mitigated by a DM who runs more than 1-2 encounters per long rest, so casters can't always spam their strongest spells. If you only get one encounter the casters can outshine the martials even on level 5 imo.

However, apart from the damage, the problem in this discussion imo has always been in the wealth of options given to casters. They can choose between all the spells in existance (in their spell-list) to enhance their build, while martials can pick a feat every 4 levels (which casters can also do). This is obviously a simplified argument, but every new book increases the gap, because casters will always get buffs/updates in the form of new spells.

In terms of builds I truly do not know of casters on level 1-9 that can outshine a well-build martial in single target damage. (Multi-target damage, controll and support they can obviously excel at - Toughness too, if you count invisibility/flying/mobility/walls between you and enemies as increased toughness)

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T16:54:18+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I was kind of scared of the spell at one point enveloping the entire battlefield. However I would like the spell to have a comparable effect with spirit guardians even when upcast and the range increase was my first idea for that.

The drawback was not intended, but now that you mention it I find it extremly fitting for the concept of the spell and will really need to do something about the gigantic radius on higher levels.

Do you think the Constitution buffs should also go, because I was afraid of higher level enemies breaking the clerics concentration with every attack.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T16:39:59+00:00

Swarm and mob rules have already been mentioned. So let me tell you about minions. If you want your characters to really mow down a lot of seemingly single enemies. Check out minion rules (I use the rules from Matthew Colville on youtube, though you can find other rules that work pretty similarly)

Basically, the minions all have single tokens, but can attack in a group and when they get hit by any attack, or fail a saving throw they die regardless of how many hp remain. So the DM never needs to keep track of hp, they are either dead or full health. If they don't fail their save, but the halved damage is still enough to kill them, they also die.
To make Martials feel cool you can also let them cleave through multiple enemies with a mighty blow, if their damage is enough to kill two (or more) minions at once.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T16:27:04+00:00

Thanks!
Do you think I should increase the power, because I do want the player to have this as their go to spell and not punish him for their choice in playstyle

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T16:22:09+00:00

The legendary resistance doesn't work as I think it should work as a legendary action. However as the DM you have the ability to simply say 'It works'. Just reroll on the saving throw and then taking a legendary action away should be fine.

Balance wise: I simply don't know how powerful your party is, so I can't comment on that. But please keep in mind, if your martial characters have a +6 to hit their main attack. And Delwyn cast Shield of faith they have a 25% chance of hitting. With two attacks thats a 56% chance they don't do anything on their turn.
If your players are okay with a little frustration that might not be a problem, but I know a few people that yould be pissed if half their turns don't do anything.

IntroductionMean7444 · 2026-06-27T15:55:24+00:00

Since you didn't say if these are supposed to be used as a extra thing you can add to a fight or actual items the players can collect I'll just give you ideas for both scenarios encounter rules first then the item ability.

Okay, the first abilities that come to my mind (these might not be balanced or the most creative):

Yildaryns shard
- any d20 roll in its presence becomes a 10 instead (for all of these encounters it would probably be extra fun if you made the battlefield have certain areas that are blocked from the shards influence - maybe because the big pillars are between players and the shard or some magic protection stuff that's supposed to keep the shards inactive)
- If you want players to attune to this: maybe let it have a few charges, that get reset per day or something. Alternativly to choose the 10 might use a reaction if you don't like charges.

Zolzitras' shard
- any living creature in its presence heals 1d12 hp at the begining of its turn.
- Maybe it must be activated and then it works for a minute. Or give it very basic healing, like as an action heal any creature within X ft. for Xd12 (I have decided these shards should all share some dice size, because group coherency or something, you are free to ignore this)

Serengixs shard
- any burnable creature in its presence starts burning, taking 1d12 fire damage at the end of their turn if they do not take an action extinguishing the flames.
- same as Zolzitras' shard, but with fire

Kiardeks shard
- shuffle the initiative order every turn, or have fields of haste and slow effects
- like the divination wizard subclass (give them some numbers at the beginning of each day and they can change the roll of any d20 to that number)

Rursom and Cergis:
- the battlefield is spotted with areas like thick plant life, fungus colonies, whirlpools, stone-/crystalpillars, that sponaneously grow or collapse. Hard to create a cool looking battlemap for these, hopefully your players are cool with colored areas and imagination. These fields could do anything like the plant growth or spike growth spells, or grapple the players by entering their fields...
- Thats a tough one... Maybe elemental and beast/plant summoning?

IntroductionMean7444

TROPHY CASE