Feat: Elemental Adept: Cold - What Spell Should You Choose?

The first thing that I thought of when starting to work on this article was the 5e adventure Rime of the Frost Maiden. With this feat you can choose to maximize the cold damage you can deal while also keeping in the theme of the Dungeons & Dragons adventure. The basics of this feat are that for any cold damage done by spells, you can ignore cold resistance, and any 1s rolled are changed to 2s. You can also take this feat multiple times to add more damage types such as acid, cold, lightning, and thunder.

Here is a list of spells that have the cold damage type including the classes (and subclasses) that have access to the spell:

Cantrip:

• Frostbite (Artificer, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard)

• Ray of Frost (Artificer, Sorcerer, and Wizard)

1st Level:

• Absorb Elements (Artificer, Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Wizard)

• Chaos Bolt (Sorcerer)

• Frost Finger (Wizard) – From Rime of the Frostmaiden

• Ice Knife (Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard)

2nd Level:

• Dragon’s Breath (Sorcerer and Wizard)

• Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm (Sorcerer and Wizard)

• Rime’s Binding Ice (Sorcerer and Wizard)

3rd Level:

• Elemental Weapon (Artificer, Cleric (Forge Domain), Druid, Ranger, and Warlock (The Hexblade))

• Hunger of Hadar (Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind) and Warlock)

• Spirit Shroud (Cleric, Druid, Warlock, and Wizard)

4th Level:

• Elemental Bane (Artificer, Druid, Warlock, and Wizard)

• Fire Shield (Artificer (Armorer and Battle Smith), Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock (The Genie – Efreeti)

• Ice Storm (Artificer (Artillerist), Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard)

5th Level:

• Cone of Cold (Artificer (Artillerist), Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock (The Fathomless and The Genie - Efreeti), and Wizard

• Summon Draconic Spirit (Druid and Wizard)

6th Level:

• Investiture of Ice (Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard)

• Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere (Sorcerer and Wizard)

• Wall of Ice (Wizard)

7th Level:

• Prismatic Spray (Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizard)

8th Level:

• Illusory Dragon (Wizard)

9the Level:

• Prismatic Wall (Bard and Wizard)

• Storm of Vengeance (Druid)

Artificers have access to five of the spells with Armorers and Battle Smiths each having an additional spell while Artillerists have additional two spells. Bards have two high-level spells that can be affected by this feat. Clerics have one spell or two if they are of the Forge Domain. Druids have twelve of these spells on their list. Paladins have access to none of these spells while Rangers only have two. Sorcerers have fourteen of these spells on their list while Aberrant Mind Sorcerers have one additional that they can get access to. Warlocks have five of these spells on their list with The Hexblade and The Fathomless each getting an additional spell and The Genie – Efreeti have two additional spells. And finally, Wizards have access to nineteen of these spells.

The Summon Shadowspawn might be affected by this feat since the summoned creature does do cold damage, but check with your DM first.

The problem with this feat is that the benefits are kind of small and it is very niche. In the right campaign, this feat could be useful, but no feat should be so dependent on outside forces to make it a sound choice. A plus two to your primary ability score is useful no matter the situation and that is how a feat should be. I have said it before and I’ll repeat it here, if this were a half-feat, then I would totally recommend it but as is it is not that useful unless you are in Rime of the Frostmaiden or a similar campaign.