The spell is used to attract lightning.
The new update for “World of Warcraft” includes a number of changes to the game’s blade spells. Although the changes are not as significant as those made to the sword and spellcasting classes, they are still worth taking a look at. ..
Lightning Lure Spell Details
You create a powerful gust of wind that knocks all creatures within 15 feet of you prone.
If you cast this spell on a creature, it must make a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC. On a successful save, the creature is restrained and can’t move for the rest of the turn. If the creature fails this save, it is knocked prone and takes 3d6 lightning damage.
If it fails, it takes 1d8 lightning damage and is pulled up to 10 feet directly towards you. If it ends up within 5 feet of you, it takes 2d8 lightning damage, increasing to 3d8 at lvl 5. The damage increases again at 11th and 17th level.
Who Gets It?
Since lightning lure is a spell, it’s not too hard to learn. ..
Eldritch Knight fighters and Arcane Trickster rogues can find lightning lure on the wizard spell list.
Arcana Domain clerics learn two wizard cantrips as a 1st level domain feature. These cantrips, called lightning lure, allow them to learn spells that deal electricity damage. ..
The high elves can pick this spell for their racial feature, which allows them to use it as a spell-like ability.
Bards can learn the spell using their Magical Secrets feature, but are more likely to focus on some other spell.
The Magic Initiate and Artificer Initiate feats allow a character of any class to learn a cantrip or two from one of the classes that have lightning lure on their spell list. These spells can be used as part of a spell-like ability, or as part of a multiclass spell.
Lightning Lure Interactions
The new spell, like the green-flame blade and booming blade spells, is a lure that can be used to attract creatures to a location.
Lightning lure is a common spell that has been around for many years. There are only a few things to keep in mind about how the spell interacts with other features. ..
War Caster
The War Caster feat. still works with lightning lures, even if the caster is not within range of the lightning bolt.
When a creature provokes an opportunity attack from you, the War Caster feat lets you cast a spell instead of making a melee weapon attack. The spell has to normally have a casting time of 1 action and targets only the creature that provoked the opportunity attack.
Lightning lure only damages one creature, which follows the feat’s restrictions. However, some confusion comes up over what a range of Self (15 feet) means for the feat. ..
Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer for Dungeons and Dragons, elaborated on how the spells work on Twitter. According to him, Self (15 feet) effectively means that you are the spell’s point of origin, but not necessarily its target. This is because Self can be used in multiple ways - as a way to teleport yourself or others, for example.
When casting lightning lure, be aware that the spell’s range is shortened to 5 feet from the normal 15 feet. This means that you may be vulnerable to opportunity attacks if a creature moves within 5 feet of you before you can cast the spell. ..
You can’t kill the creature, but it’ll still be within 5 feet of you and take the lightning damage.
Twinned Spell Metamagic
After the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the spell has a simple range of 25 feet.
Now, the spell has a range of “self”. This means that it is ineligible for use with the Twinned Spell metamagic. ..
There is a long conversation to have about the logic of this being a ‘self’ spell, but the most important thing is that it can’t be used with that particular metamagic.
How to Use It
A lightning lure spell is somewhat unique. There are a few spells that throw a target away from the caster. ..
There are a few spells that can pull the target closer, but there’s an even shorter list.
Pulling Targets
Lightning lures are spells that draw enemies in close to the caster. They are most commonly used by melee spellcasters, who hope to take advantage of the short range to attack their opponents. ..
This is an excellent way to increase your damage output.
All of these subclasses have an ability that allows them to combine melee attacks with spells. ..
A Bladesinger can cast lightning lure, draw in a target, and then hit them with their second attack as part of the Attack action.
The Eldritch Knights have a spell that allows them to cast the spell and then attack with a weapon as a bonus action.
The Valor bards have Battle Magic, which is a spell that they use to fight in battle. This spell is learned by using the bard’s Magical Secrets feature.
Pulling Off The Ground
The spell specifies that it pulls the target 10 feet towards you in a straight line. If you happen to be flying 15 feet above the target, they’re now pulled 10 feet straight up.
There are many ways to use this drone for creative purposes, depending on your positioning and if you can fly. ..
In practice, the spell is not as effective as people thought it would be.
You could stand on a platform above someone else and look down at them.
If you have a fly speed, you could use the spell to harass climbers on much higher surfaces, sending mountain climbers or assassins scaling a castle wall hurtling to their deaths by pulling them away from any solid surface.
When the couple was hit by lightning, it added insult to injury that they also took d8s of damage. ..
Emergency Lasso
This one requires a bit of your DM fiat.
Opportunity attacks are when a hostile creature leaves your reach and begins to move towards you.
If you have the War Caster feat, you can make an opportunity attack when an allied creature falls past or away from you into empty space. ..
This spell can be used to grab a falling friend and bring them back onto solid ground.
Clerics
A Tempest Domain cleric can learn the spell, but the one who benefits most is the Tempest Domain cleric.
The spell functions with the cleric’s features of the Tempest, including the ability to deal lightning damage.
Destructive Wrath allows you to maximize the lightning damage from your spell. You may not want to use this on just a cantrip, but it is always an option.
Thunderbolt Strike has some interesting uses for the spell. It can pull a creature 10 feet towards you, while the Thunderbolt Strike feature pushes it 10 feet back.
You would yank the creature towards you, damaging it, before sending it back to where it came from. ..
This is actually rather useful for a variety of reasons.
When a creature enters an area of effect spell’s area for the first time on a turn, that spell may deal additional damage to the creature. By pulling the creature out of the area and then pushing it back into the zone where the spell was cast, you can trigger that spell again. ..
Ideally, you’re now dealing lightning damage on top of the damage from something like wall of fire or blade barrier.
The downside to this spell is that it is on the sorcerer, wizard, warlock, and artificer lists. ..
A cleric can learn the spell through racial features, multiclassing, or feats, but the spell isn’t a cleric spell.
Charisma or Intelligence is used to determine the DC for any spell you cast. ..
If you have a high score in either Intelligence or Wisdom, it might be worth it to take the spell, if you can make sure your spell DC for it is high enough. ..
Wisdom is the ability score used to cast spells with. A cleric that takes the spell can cast it, but they won’t gain the benefit of Thunderbolt Strike. ..
Warlocks
The pact of the blade is a key part of the warlock’s arsenal, and those that don’t take it will find themselves at a disadvantage in battle.
The Eldritch Blast spell has an invocation called Grasp of Hadar that allows you to drag one creature you hit with the spell 10 feet closer to you.
Lightning lure is generally less effective than eldritch blast because it doesn’t require an attack roll, making it less likely to hit your target. ..
Eldritch Blast is a cantrip that can be used to drag enemies closer to you and your melee buddies.
Artificers
Artificers can find ways to use this spell in their work. ..
The Guardian Armorers spell might be of some use to them in dragging an enemy closer.
