Pulse Wave 5E Guide | Pulse Wave Wildemount Spell

I have an overwhelming wave of ideas flowing through my mind now that The Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount has been released, giving the 5^th edition Dungeon and Dragon’s world access to Dunamis spells. So let’s jump right in and get the Pulse of this new spell.

 Pulse Wave 5E Guide

• School: Evocation
• Level: 3rd
• Casting Time: 1 Action
• Range: Yourself
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Instantaneous
• Class: Wizard – Chronurgy, Graviturgy

You encase several characters in a 30-foot cone that pushes or pulls everything inside with intense pressure. You decide to push or pull the trapped characters away or towards you. All characters inside of the cone make a Constitution Saving Throw. To do that, use the following formula:

To succeed, they must beat your Spell Save DC. To determine that, use this formula:

For every character that fails, they will take 6d6 Force damage and will be pulled towards you or pushed away from you by 15 feet, depending on the choice you made when you cast this spell. For every character that succeeds in making their Constitution Saving Throw, they will take half of the damage that you rolled. They will not be pushed towards or pulled away from you.

All inanimate objects in the cone will also be pulled towards you or pushed away from you. This is true without needing a Constitution Saving Throw.

If you cast this using a spell slot that is higher than the third level, you will increase the damage dealt by 1d6 per level above the third. So if you were to cast Pulse Wave in a level six spell slot, you will deal 9d6 damage instead of 6d6.

Pros

Pulse Wave deals Force damage to all characters that are trapped in the cone. There are no monsters in the base game that has resistance to Force damage. There is only one monster in the base game that has an immunity to Force damage. Because of this fact, the odds of you dealing a lot of damage is very high.

Being able to pull or push the characters stuck in the cone can also be used strategically. You can either force your enemies to come closer to your team and the melee characters on your team, or you can force bigger enemies away from your team so you can continue to hit them with ranged attacks.

Cons

The Helmed Horror is the ONLY monster in the base game that has resistance to Force damage. It is a Medium-sized Construct creature. It is designed to protect a specific location like a tomb entrance or a king’s lair. The list of resistances they hold is extensive, which means it will be hard for everyone to put a dent into this enchanted creature. They have an advantage when they make a saving throw against spells and other magical effects, and they make two attacks at a time. The best way you can avoid running into this monster is to diversify the type of damage that you dish you.

When Should You Use Pulse Wave

The best time to use Pulse Wave is when you are facing a large group of enemies. This is true if you need to either push away or pull closer to you. If the group is larger than what you can handle, you can continually push them away to help distribute the numbers more evenly. You can also pull a bunch of weaker enemies closer to you.  This means your big melee tank can get their fair shots on them.

When Better Options Are Available

At level three, you have a few spells that can deal more damage than Pulse Wave to a group of enemies. Fireball will deal 8d6 fire damage and Lightning Bolt deals 8d6 lightning damage. So if you are only worried about the amount of damage that the spell can dish, you have two options that have a higher damage potential.