Call Lightning--under what conditions?

[Dorloran]

This question kind of brought our game Friday to a not-so-friendly halt. A druid was outdoors, casting Call Lightning. The conditions: northern penninsula near a frozen coast, overcast skies, not snowing, but windy due to "lake effect" wind--blowing pretty strongly, but the snow that had fallen for days had cleared, so there was no precipitation--but it is always perpetually overcast and windy there.

The spell description reads: If you are outdoors and in a stormy area—a rain shower, clouds and wind, hot and cloudy conditions, or even a tornado (including a whirlwind formed by a djinni or an air elemental of at least Large size)—each bolt deals 3d10 points of electricity damage instead of 3d6.

Question: does the druid do 3d6 or 3d10? Does overcast and windy mean "clouds and wind"? At what point does "stormy conditions" become "clouds and wind"? Aren't there always clouds and wind around? And then would the druid always get 3d10 if she casts outdoors?

Opinions?

Thanks.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Perpetual cloud cover and lake effect wind a storm do not make.

That would be no. stormy conditions usually involve an actual storm in the area.

 

[FireLance]

Stormy conditions are whatever the DM defines it to be.

That said, to avoid arguments with druid characters capable of casting call lightning, weather conditions in my game are always either bright and sunny or overcast and rainy, with no halfway conditions in between .

Seriously, though - if I was the DM in the game, I'd allow the lightning bolts to do 3d10 damage. The overcast skies are close enough to stormy for me, and more importantly, doing the extra damage makes the druid player feel good, and an average extra 6 points of damage per round is not worth spoiling a game for.

 

[Li Shenron]

Stormy conditions are whatever the DM defines it to be.

Yep.

If you are outdoors and in a stormy area—a rain shower, clouds and wind, hot and cloudy conditions, or even a tornado (including a whirlwind formed by a djinni or an air elemental of at least Large size)—each bolt deals 3d10 points of electricity damage instead of 3d6.

From your "overcast skies" and "blowing pretty strongly", that would make yes.

 

[Tonguez]

Pretty much I'd rule anytime the weather is NOT bright and sunny (which includes bright and sunny and raining) means that it is potentially stormy and so the Druid wins

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Stormy conditions are whatever the DM defines it to be.

Exactly. IMC the exchange would go like this:

PC: What kind of weather conditions have we got?
ME: It's somewhat overcast, and there's a stiff breeze coming off the lake.
PC: I cast Call Lightning. Is it stormy enough for me to do d10s instead of d6s?

Sometimes the answer will be "not quite" and sometimes the answer will be "sure is, roll 'em." More likely, if I've already described the weather as cloudy with a breeze, I'll go with yes, but in the end it's each individual DM's call.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Hmmm, interesting. I suppose the conditions only have to be conducive of for lightning to provide the higher damage dice, after looking at both the DMG and the Call Lightning description. I had originally thought the wind had to be associated with the clouds in the area to provide the bonus but as long as the conditions are there, higher damage dice, sounds alright to me.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

If it's always overcast and windy there, then it's always a good place for Call Lightning, because the spell description is just asking for clouds and wind, not where the clouds and the wind came from, whether it's common or rare for that area, or anything like that; it only cares about whether it's there or not. Overcast is obviously cloudy. Windy obviously means there's wind. Go ahead and tell the druid to break out the d10s, because it passes the test.

It doesn't surprise me at all that there will be places where the conditions are almost always favorable for Call Lightning, any more than it surprises me that there will be places where it will practically never be favorable. If the bad guys are unlucky enough to be facing off against a druid in a place where 3d10 lightning bolts are never more than one spell away, that's their problem, isn't it?

--
if it worries them that much, they should stay out in the middle of the desert
ryan

 

[Stalker0]

I'd say in general let the driud do d10's outdoors, while only getting d6's indoors. It really isn't that much more damage.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think the described condition wouldn't be enough. It's close, mind you.

However I'm stuck on the clouds. I'd ask the DM how fast the clouds were moving. If they're moving fast (so it looks like a mini-hurricane) then I'd argue it really is stormy. If they're just placid, that suggests to me that it's not really a storm.