Call Lightning

Level 3 Conjuration spell available to Druids. 3d10 Lightning in a small area, and then you can do it again every turn for ten turns without spending another slot. One slot, ten castings. Read that again.

Spell description: Lightning strikes all targets within the area of effect. For 10 turns you can call down lightning again without expending a spell slot.

Spell properties

• Range: 18m (60ft)
• Area: 2m (7ft) radius
• Duration: 10 turns
• Concentration spell
• Save: DEX save
• Damage: 3d10 Lightning
• Conditions applied: Call Lightning
• Cost: Action + Spell Slot
• Recharge: Per action

Spell upcasting

Casting Call Lightning at a higher level deals an additional 1d10 Lightning for each spell slot level above the 3rd. This applies to the initial cast and to every free cast afterwards.

How to obtain Call Lightning

• Druid at Class level 5
• Tempest Domain (Cleric) at Class level 5, as a Domain Spell

Source item: None. No item in the game grants Call Lightning.

When to cast Call Lightning

This is the single most slot-efficient damage spell a Druid has. 3d10 a turn for ten turns out of one Level 3 slot is a rate of return nothing else at this level comes close to, and the upcast raises every free cast too, not just the first.

Upcast it. A Level 6 Call Lightning is 6d10 every turn for ten turns, which quietly out-damages every single-cast Level 6 spell in the game if the fight lasts even half that long.

Wet enemies take double Lightning damage. A Druid who opens with Create or Destroy Water and then parks a Call Lightning on the puddle is doing something genuinely unfair, and it works every turn.

Two limits. The radius is tiny, so it is a single-target tool most of the time, and it is Concentration, so it competes with everything else a Druid wants to be holding. The trade is usually worth it.