When a priest casts Earthquake, a local tremor of fairly high strength rips the ground. All creatures within the area of effect are exposed to the tremors and cracks, friend or foe.
Description[]
| “ | When this spell is cast, a local tremor of fairly high strength rips the ground. The shock is over in several rounds. The earthquake affects all creatures in its area of effect. There are 3 tremors that are caused by the earthquake: – 1st: All creatures affected take 6d6 points of damage and fall to the ground for 4 rounds. A successful Save vs. Spell with a -6 penalty halves the damage and negates the fall. – 2nd: All creatures affected take 3d6 points of damage. A successful Save vs. Spell with a -2 penalty halves the damage. – 3rd: All creatures affected take 2d6 points of damage. A successful Save vs. Spell halves the damage. This spell will affect both enemies and friends of the caster's, so care must be taken in its use. Finally, earth elementals dislike mere mortals toying with the land and there is a 2% chance that casting this spell will cause an earth elemental to appear and attack the party. |
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Gameplay[]
The caster applies this spell onto a point designated on any area map using the targeting cursor - click on the point desired from which the Earthquake shall radiate an area of effect using the targeting cursor.
The earthquake spell can be cast indoors, underground or outdoors, and if the caster happens to be on a battlement/roof of a castle or on the third floor of a building it will only affect that part of the structure and that particular map and only affects a 15-feet radius circle centered on the designated point the caster selected - this is an extremely localized magically created "earthquake".
Once the lengthy casting time is finished, a text will display, reading <Caster>: Casts Earthquake.
If there are no creatures in the area of effect when the spell is released/cast, the spell is essentially finished with no audio or visual effects will be present to indicate some kind of disturbance - the earthquake never happened, no one was affected, no one turned hostile (See Notes section below for one exception).
However, if any creature is present in the spell's AoE (even a lone bird flying overhead) is enough to trigger the spell's effects.
This spell is actually applying a series of timed interval effects upon creatures present in the AoE at the initial release of the spell - it isn't designating an earthquake zone where any creatures entering within the area will be affected.
In fact, after the spell is cast, it is safe for any creature to venture into the initial designated AoE, and that creature will be unaffected.
Any creature in the initial spell AoE will be exposed to the spell's effects, as described below:
- All creatures are made Unconscious for 24 seconds unless resisted with a Saving throw versus Spells (with a 6-point penalty).
- Three separate applications of Crushing damage are applied:
- 6d6 initial damage, halved with a successful save vs. spells with a 6-point penalty.
- 3d6 damage 12 seconds later, halved with a successful save vs. spells with a 2-point penalty.
- 2d6 damage 24 seconds later, halved with a successful save vs. spells.
During the spell's duration, there will be a series of "screen shake" effects and sound effects audibled.
The spell will halt all operations when all the initial affected creature(s) are killed, if that isn't the case the spell's total duration is 24 seconds.
This entire spell can be negated with a Spell Immunity: Alteration.
The spell's unconsciousness effect can potentially be blocked by Magic resistance - the damage is unaffected by MR.
There is a 2% chance that a hostile Greater Earth Elemental appears, spawned by this earthquake event after an 18-second delay.
This spell is flagged as "hostile" and will harm any creature and will elicit a hostile reaction from innocent/neutral creatures, and possibly others in the vicinity.
Notes[]
In relation to the angry elemental that can spawn when casting this spell (2% chance), there are a few things to know:
- It's actually a Greater Earth Elemental with 128 Hit Points.
- It may spawn even if no creature is actually hit by the earthquake.
- It remains indefinitely.
- The spawned elemental will always be aligned against the caster.
Trivia[]
The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition Earthquake spell lasts only 1 round, and is a potential destroyer of land features, structures and potential terrain changes commensurate with a tremor.
The PnP spell isn't directly causing folks to go unconscious or suffer damage - that implementation is a BG video game feature only, as well as the angry earth elemental chance.
In fact, an earth elemental present can oppose and reduce the effects of an earthquake spell in this PnP spell rules.
The spell is cast by a priest, a local tremor of fairly high strength rips the ground. The shock is over in one round. The earthquake affects all terrain, vegetation, structures, and creatures in its area of effect. The area of effect of the earthquake spell is circular, with a diameter of 5 feet for every experience level of the priest casting it. Thus a 20th-level priest casts an earthquake spell with a 100-foot-diameter area of effect.
Buildings suffer 5d12 points of structural damage from this spell. The spell also caves in mines and tunnels and can cause the ground to crack open and swallow up war machines as though they were large creatures. Siege towers have a 50% chance to fall over even if they do not fall into a crack.
See also[]
- Earthquake (Elemental prince), caster party friendly version used by Sunnis and Ogremoch.
Gallery[]
Mod content[]
This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.
Spell Revisions mod has changed this divine spell, revising its effects, saving throw, spell level and description. See below:
Earthquake
Level: 7
School: Alteration
Sphere: Elemental (Earth)
Range: Long
Duration: 3 rounds
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: 30’ radius
Saving Throw: Special
When this spell is cast by a druid, a local earthquake rips the ground. Once every round for the spell’s duration, a tremor will take place, affecting all creatures in its area of effect. Earth elementals and flying creatures are unaffected by this spell.
There are three tremors that are caused by the earthquake. The first tremor causes all creatures affected to suffer 6d6 points of damage (save vs. paralyzation at -6 for half damage). Those who fail their saving throw fall to the ground unconscious for 2 rounds. The second tremor is less severe, causing 4d6 points of damage (save vs. death at -4 for half), but is accompanied by fissures opening in the earth, which all affected creatures have a 20% chance to fall into and die (save vs. breath at -4 negates). The final tremor causes 2d6 damage (save vs. death at -2 for half) and there is a 10% chance affected creatures will be trapped within the fissures, causing death (save vs. breath at -2 negates). Creatures knocked unconscious by the first tremor automatically fail any saves to try to avoid falling into or becoming trapped in the fissures.
This spell will affect both enemies and friends of the caster, so care must be taken in its use. Magic resistance does not affect this spell.
Mod gallery[]
External links[]
- Earthquake on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Forgotten Realms.
- Advanced D&D 2nd Edition Wiki - Earthquake (Priest Spell)