Moonbeam

Level 2 Evocation spell available to Druids. A column of pale light that burns anything entering it or starting its turn inside it for 2d10 Radiant damage, and you can move the beam 18m each turn with an Action. It is the Druid’s answer to everything that regenerates, and it keeps earning its slot for the entire game.

Spell description: Call down a silvery beam of pale light that deals 2d10 Radiant damage to any creature that enters it or starts its turn in the light. You can use an action to move the beam 18m. On a successful save, targets still take half damage.

Spell properties

• Range: 18m (60ft)
• Area: 1m (3ft)
• Concentration spell
• Save: CON save
• Damage: 2d10 Radiant
• Conditions applied: Grants the Move Moonbeam action.
• Cost: Action + Spell Slot
• Recharge: Per action

Spell upcasting

Damage increases by 1d10 Radiant for each spell slot level above the 2nd.

How to obtain Moonbeam

• Druid at Class level 3

Source items: Sorrow, Scroll of Moonbeam

MOONBEAM

Level 2 Evocation Spell

Call down a silvery beam of pale light that deals 2d10 Radiant damage to any creature that enters it or starts its turn in the light. You can use an action to move the beam 18m. On a successful save, targets still take half damage.

Range: 18m (60ft) Save: CON save AoE: 1m (3ft) Radius

Action Level 2 Spell Slot

AREA: MOONBEAM

Duration: Until Concentration ends

AoE: 1m (3ft) Radius

Creatures that enter the beam or start their turn inside it take 2d10 Radiant damage (Constitution save for half). The caster can move the beam 18m as an Action.

When to cast Moonbeam

Radiant is the reason you take this. It shuts down a great many of the game’s undead and regenerating enemies, and the shadows and wraiths of Act 2 take it especially badly. A Druid with Moonbeam prepared has a hard counter to the whole Shadow-Cursed Lands.

The 1m radius is the price. This is not an area nuke, it is a single-target burn that happens to live on the ground. Park it on top of one dangerous enemy and leave it there.

The trick is that it hits a creature when it enters the beam and again when it starts its turn inside. Something that gets pushed out and walks back in takes two ticks. Combine it with anything that forces movement, or simply move the beam onto an enemy who has already been burned once.

Moving it costs your Action, which is the tension in the spell. Every turn you spend maintaining it is a turn you cast nothing else. Against one big target that is a fine trade. Against a crowd it is not.