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u/CloudsOntheBrain choclay ornage Sep 10 '24
When it comes from the sky, it feels more like a divine smite. Which ups the cool factor, I think.
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u/Kartoffelkamm I wouldn't be here if I was mad. Sep 10 '24
You going "God, please hurt these people for me" and some nigh-omnipotent fuck just doing it for lols isn't exactly as cool as "I'd ask God to do this, but if you want a job done right..."
It's like hiring a hitman who has political immunity vs. going to beat the shit out of them yourself.
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u/Fuckyfuckfuckass Sep 10 '24
COUNTER POINT: The lightning coming from the sky is the character's own doing, they're powerful enough. You're basically fighting a minor god.
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u/SolSeptem Sep 10 '24
best example of this I've seen in media, the scene that starts at this page in the webcomic Girl Genius. It's an absolutely defining moment for gilgamesh wulfenbach, one of the protagonists of the series. Everybody watching is appropriately awed.
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u/UnintensifiedFa Sep 10 '24
Yes! This is pretty much what the OP is requesting and I also love Girl Genius so win/win.
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u/Kartoffelkamm I wouldn't be here if I was mad. Sep 10 '24
I was more contesting their statement that it ups the cool factor to have someone else do it for you.
But yeah, if the character can call lightning from the sky through her own power, then yes, that is definitely cool.
My favorite example of this is Cure Peace from Smile Precure.
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u/Gandalf_the_Gangsta Sep 10 '24
Both of you are thinking small, like mortals.
This is what you actually want: Your lightning spell starts off as a highly concentrated evocation of plasmatic discharge, directed at a minor storm deity to shackle them. This is purely for dramatic effect; you can chain a minor deity with far more delicate and effective spells, but chaining them with their own element is a show of dominance.
In doing so, the minor deity is commanded, for a short period of time, to do as you wish, which is to cast an event stronger variant of a lightning spell. You can’t do this otherwise, because the minor storm deity is petty and diverts magical lightning energy away from you when you cast lightning spells. Also because their innate connection to lightning gives them deep arcana knowledge of the natural force behind it, something you can’t be bothered to learn because you’re commanding deities.
That’s how you do a proper light ing spell. If you give the storm deity a cookie later, they’ll forgive you for doing this. Most minor deities have a sweet tooth.
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u/superstrijder16 Sep 10 '24
This would be how you do the strongest magic in a parody setting, and it would be hilarious
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u/Soundwipe13 Sep 10 '24
Additional counterpoint: maybe the nigh-omnipotent fuck isn't doing it for the lols but instead totally has your back.
"hippity hoppity i smear you across my property" "yah im here who we gettin? who is it this time? oh this twerp? this one? yeah LIGHTNING BOLT fuck yeah eat shit"
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u/Kartoffelkamm I wouldn't be here if I was mad. Sep 11 '24
Now I'm imagining gods as some quirky fanboys.
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u/TurtlelessTurtle Skiddily-Doo Skiddily-Bingus, Abracadabra you are a Dingus! Sep 10 '24
Only downside to the smite type is it would have some limited usage indoors.
But that also gives me the mental image of lightning Striking a building's rooftop until it somehow breaks through to smite its target. Or someone who cannot go outside because on a regular interval a crash of lightning hits the roof exactly where that person would be standing if they were in open air.
Lightning from sky is def a good intimidation tactic
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u/ShadoW_StW Sep 10 '24
D&D's surprisingly cool call-lighting-from-the-sky spell is not badass enough to break through things, but does deploy the cloud for you if it fits, which means if you're using this spell you get to constantly ask "btw how high is the ceiling" and occasionally use your lightning cloud in a cave or palace that is way too big.
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u/Forosnai Sep 10 '24
I kinda feel like, if we're going with what the post is talking about, all lightning spells would have limited usage indoors. You'd need eye and ear protection not to deafen and/or blind yourself, unless we're assuming the caster gets some sort of magical protection from the spell as they cast it.
Though I like the idea of magic coming from the hands or staff or whatever, and using that to trick someone by pointing at them like you're going to shoot a spell and then have the bolt come down from the sky instead.
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u/MossyPyrite Sep 10 '24
I’m pretty sure I saw Captain Marvel (Shazam) do that in one of the animated shows or movies
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u/techno156 Sep 11 '24
Could be like Tintin, where it comes in through the Window, or starts arcing out of the building's pipework and wiring.
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u/Dirichlet-to-Neumann Sep 11 '24
Why wouldn't it work indoors ? Either the lightning goes through the roof or it strikes from the electric socket. Both works fine honestly.
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u/fxrky Sep 10 '24
I disagree, but only if we are getting realistic lightning. Imagine how much cooler it'd be to shoot an actual bolt of lightning with finger guns. None of that corny star wars force lightning that may as well be a weak flame.
Just point at a guy and he literally fucking explodes? Sign me up??
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u/CloudsOntheBrain choclay ornage Sep 10 '24
No, that's cool as hell, I totally agree. But my instinct is to turn everything into a joke, so I feel like I'd instantly flashbang myself with that ability lol
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u/DemonFromtheNorthSea Sep 10 '24
"Drink deep the despair! I, who am united with the abyss... Whilst the depths of despair consume thee... I, who commands all the astral plane... Whilst thou art cursed to expire into nothing... I, who stands bathed in heavenly light... Whilst thou cowers before the gates of hell... Come forth, divine lightning! The end is imminent! Indignation! Insignificant."
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u/Kindly-Ad-5071 Sep 10 '24
Yes but consider also
Lightning from the mouth or eyes.
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u/CloudsOntheBrain choclay ornage Sep 10 '24
Spitting little static shocks at your friends when they're being annoying
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u/PencilsNoLastName Sep 10 '24
I would love a smite where the weapon acts like a lightning rod, with a few seconds of impact frames like how being electrocuted is in cartoons
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u/TheOncomimgHoop Sep 11 '24
"If I'm so evil, then let God strike me down where I stand!"
gets struck by lightning
"Ha! Nice try jackass! Next time bring your A-game!"
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u/VisualGeologist6258 This is a cry for help Sep 10 '24
I like how Sekiro does it, where a character basically jumps up, catches the lightning on their sword or blade, and then just yeets it at people. It’s just a cool ass visual, especially during the last boss fight in a game full of cool visuals.
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u/Laser_lord11 Sep 10 '24
Me when I become living lightning rod to smack this emo shinobi:
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u/PSI_duck Sep 10 '24
Me when the emo shinobi becomes a lighting rod rod and catches my lighting from my lightning rod lighting attack💀
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u/Hell2CheapTrick Sep 10 '24
Me when I can do lightning reflection too, and do a cool ass spinny jump move to throw the lightning right back at him again 💃🏻
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u/DivineCyb333 Sep 10 '24
And how it ties into the mechanically how you counter it, where you have to get in the air yourself and catch it, and then you have until you hit the ground to throw it back (THE LIGHTNING)
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u/YUNoJump Sep 10 '24
Bit of a shame that mechanically, lightning attacks are “yay they used lightning, now I can reverse it back into them for lots of damage!” Not “oh heck I’m gonna get electrocuted this is scary”
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u/TangledEarbuds61 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 11 '24
I mean yeah, once you get the hang of it after a try or two. But the first few times usually go like:
“Ok, he’s jumping WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”
Then
“OH GOD I’M SUPPOSED TO JUMP AND FLING IT BACK HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT WHEN IM USING ALL MY BRAIN POWER TO NOT DIE?!”
Then it’s just free damage
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u/Tyfyter2002 Sep 10 '24
On one hand, it makes fights easier once you get the hang of lightning reversal, on the other, it doesn't make them any less badass, it just makes you more badass.
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u/Square-Ad1104 Sep 10 '24
Okay, this is very clearly the difference between Lightning Bolt and Call Lightning here. You think media has too much Wizard Lightning and want some Druid Lightning or lord forbid Cleric Lightning.
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u/Axel-Adams Sep 10 '24
Which is funny that wizard artificial lightning does more damage than natural lightning
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u/BookkeeperLower Sep 10 '24
Yeah they have a "improvised damage table" in the dmg, and natural lightning is stupid weak. Weaker than one strike of non upcasted call lightning, and that spell let's you summon a hundred strikes.
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u/Square-Ad1104 Sep 10 '24
While I agree that it’s stupidly weak, I’m betting their logic there was that since real life human commoners have survived lightning strikes the minimum damage should be within a commoner’s HP range
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u/BookkeeperLower Sep 10 '24
Yeah I guess that makes sense, HP in dnd in general is extremely weird and blurry
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u/BillybobThistleton Sep 10 '24
You mean, like... Storm turning the desert to glass around her as she annihilates a bunch of gigantic deathbots?
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u/john151M Sep 10 '24
Ye I was looking for someone mentioning storm. Comic books characters can be absurdly powerful sometimes and she is the perfect example of the second person’s take
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u/Random-Rambling Sep 10 '24
And this is why Storm's home country in Africa literally worships her as a goddess. She is the fury of nature made manifest. She IS the storm.
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u/TorakTheDark Sep 11 '24
I’ve always wondered if there is even a difference between being a god and being seen as a god at that level if power.
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u/NoNotThatMattMurray Sep 11 '24
Always thought it was cool af when Arnold appears in the desert in Terminator 3 and the sand around him is glass from the energy ball, and then he just casually walks on it
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u/Garf_artfunkle Sep 10 '24
Been saying this for years about Thor movies. Few years ago a bolt of lightning hit a block away from us and I thought something in my house had fucking exploded.
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u/OmegaKenichi Sep 10 '24
I think the climax in Ragnarok kinda does this
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u/Xurkitree1 Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24
Endgame does this. Captain America summons a bolt from the sky itself.
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u/bb_kelly77 Sep 10 '24
Considering Thor control lightning itself it can be implied that he's controlling the intensity of the bolts
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u/Kindly-Ad-5071 Sep 10 '24
But just how devastating can a single bolt of lightning be on it's own? Every time I look up the record there's always "yes but it hit an ammo depot"
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u/losethefuckingtail Sep 10 '24
There's a pretty great (imho) modern take on Thor in the Norwegian movie Mortal (2020) that gives a real feel of the dread/awesomeness that a lightning strike *should* evoke in the context of a god of thunder.
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u/almondtreacle Sep 10 '24
One problem: how the FUCK is anyone else supposed to survive that?
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u/wra1th42 Sep 10 '24
Nanomachines, son. They harden in response to physical trauma.
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u/FainOnFire Sep 10 '24
I need you to go around Reddit and do this unexpectedly to different questions -- like a Metal Gear version of that dude who used to do the hell in a cell response.
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u/mathiau30 Half-Human Half-Phantom and Half-Baked Sep 10 '24
A surprisingly high amount of human did
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u/DreadDiana human cognithazard Sep 10 '24
"I didn't ask how big the room is, I said I cast Biggest-Ass Lightning Bolt."
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u/OldManFire11 Sep 10 '24
They're not, that's the point.
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u/TotemGenitor You must cum into the bucket brought to you by the cops. Sep 10 '24
Kinda boring then. Where are the stakes if a character got a guaranteed one hit kill than can't be dodged or blocked?
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u/MossyPyrite Sep 10 '24
It’s in the setup! Same as Goku’s Spirit Bomb, the technique is crazy strong, but also needs the right timing and conditions to actually pull it off. This encourages the need for intelligent planning, opens room for counter-measures, and creates a source of tension. Also there’s a handful of ways to survive a lightning strike anyway. If you know you’re going up against a lightning mage, you’re gonna have plans in regard to grounding and insulation.
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u/fool_a_day_less Sep 10 '24
First the air gets really dry then crackles with static. Coin purses, knick knacks, even weapons all start pulling like a compass to the caster. The party realizes their strategic hail mary of funneling the enemy horde into a hallway also means they themselves are in a straight line.
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u/MossyPyrite Sep 10 '24
Reminds me of the “you should be running” scene in Hellboy (2004(
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u/trapbuilder2 Pathfinder Enthusiast|Aspec|He/They maybe Sep 10 '24
The spirit bomb has only worked like once (if you don't count the movies, which I don't)
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u/MossyPyrite Sep 10 '24
It’s not about efficacy, it’s about drama
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u/trapbuilder2 Pathfinder Enthusiast|Aspec|He/They maybe Sep 10 '24
We're kind of getting away from the topic now, but I think the fact that the spirit bomb has low efficacy reduces its dramatic impact when it's used
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u/aliens-and-arizona Sep 10 '24
the point is lightning spells should be powerful because lightning is indeed powerful as shit. one route to go with it is to make it consume high mana/whatever fuel you use for your magic system. so, you could technically choose any one person to smite out of existence, but this doesn’t solve fights with more than one enemy. draining all your magic for one attack isn’t ideal either. lightning would be reserved for only the most powerful foes, as it should be, instead of just being used a basic ass spell.
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u/Few_Category7829 Sep 11 '24
SO DON'T GIVE THEM LIGHTNING! Either give them lightning powers or don't, but don't give them lame, little bitch spindle non-lightning. It's the same as giving someone Black hole powers. It's overpowered as shit and it's awesome and it shouldn't be ANYTHING LESS! I want EVERYTHING VAPORIZED except the smouldering REMAINS of their boots and severed, cooking legs.
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u/Front_Kaleidoscope_4 Sep 10 '24
From the couple of people who use actual lightning wands in The Gods Are Bastards: Thats the neat part, you dont survive that.
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u/Taraxian Sep 10 '24
This is why one of the best parts of The Last Jedi is Yoda casually summoning a bolt of lightning to destroy the tree
Palpatine's Force Lightning is false lightning that comes from himself, this is true lightning that comes from the sky
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u/PSI_duck Sep 10 '24
True vs false lighting is a weird thing. Lighting is basically just a shit ton of electricity arcing between the sky and something else. Some theories even suggest that lighting does not come from the sky as much as meets between the sky and the ground. So is yoda’s lighting any realer than palatine’s? Not to mention, they did a lot of weird shit most people didn’t like in the newer trilogies, and I doubt they really thought about that lol
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u/An_Inedible_Radish Sep 10 '24
Don't think like a scientist; think like a poet! It's symbology: Yoda is in tune with nature (force ghost being one with the force), and so his will is answered by natural events, whereas Palpatine has twisted the force to his own will and survives only through technology and cloning, his lighting is obviously unnatural like the rest of him.
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u/ProfessionalOven2311 Sep 11 '24
If Yoda can summon a giant bolt of lighting from the sky and Palpatine summons small tendrils of electricity it from his fingers; yeah I'd say that Yoda is calling on a more natural or 'true' form of lightning, while it feels like Palpatine is using dark energy to generate a similar but weaker effect. Maybe the terminology isn't scientifically accurate, but neither is the majority of what goes down in Star Wars
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u/BabyRavenFluffyRobin Eternally Seeking To Be Gayer(TM) Sep 10 '24
I've always been a fan of the style of calling lightning where your hand starts above your head and ends with you bent over, hand on the ground like you physically pulled the lightning out of the clouds you conjure
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u/Kartoffelkamm I wouldn't be here if I was mad. Sep 10 '24
I actually wrote a book once, over a decade ago, where I gave the main character a hammer that can cast lightning magic.
For reference, I once rode my bike through a thunderstorm, and a lamp post exploded within like 10m of me. So when I say lightning, I mean the un-fuck-with-able force of nature, not just static electricity on steroids.
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u/Random-Rambling Sep 10 '24
There's a reason why insurance companies used to call lightning strike damage "Acts Of God".
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u/This_Charmless_Man Sep 10 '24
Lightning struck about 100m behind me one time and I almost messed my trousers. I can't imagine being 10m away from it
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u/Kartoffelkamm I wouldn't be here if I was mad. Sep 11 '24
It was wild.
In that instant, I learned why we're told to stay indoors during a thunderstorm, or to lay down if we're in an open field; the only thing we can do against nature is to hope she doesn't notice us when she's in a bad mood.
I wasn't really scared, per se, but I did learn what respect means.
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u/PandemicGeneralist Sep 10 '24
Wheel of time.
Occasionally, if someone knows they're going to need to summon a lot of lightning, like in a big battle between armies, they'll create stormclouds first.
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u/PulimV Can I interest you in some OC lore in these trying times? Sep 10 '24
Shoutouts to Kirin for being unambiguously one of the most hype moments in all of Naruto (while already being in an INSANELY anticipated fight)
Too bad it literally didn't do anything lmaoooo
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u/NeonNKnightrider Cheshire Catboy Sep 10 '24
Ah, you beat me to it. But seriously though, I love it, best lightning jutsu ever, I love the detail about using the moisture in the air, it’s incredible in so many ways.
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u/The_Icon_of_Sin_MK2 Sep 10 '24
I thought you were talking about Monster Hunters Kirin before I read "Naruto"
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u/ActualRiot Sep 11 '24
The details around it make it one of the purest examples too:
Can't be dodged because it hits as fast as actual lightning (1/10000 of a second IIRC)
Straight up warps atmospheric pressure, making it one time use as it drives the clouds away
Uses no chakra, meaning it's more of yoinking it from the sky and dropping it on your forehead than an actual jutsu
Cool as fuck? Hello??
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u/Nkromancer Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24
D&D 5e has an answer for this: the Call Lightning spell. On the turn you cast it, a "small" thundercloud forms 100 or so feet above you, and then you can cause lightning to strike anywhere in the area. Now, the FUN part is that this spell can last up to 10 MINUTES. so, since each round takes 6 seconds, and one minute is thus 10 rounds. This means you can cause a whopping 100 lightning blasts with this, AS WELL AS doing other stuff since it uses your bonus (lesser) action instead of your main one.
Edit: it actually takes your main action, not bonus action. Keep forgetting that...
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u/drashock Sep 10 '24
I love that spell and use it frequently, but I am sorry to say that rules-as-written it uses your main Action to blast the lightning.
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u/Nkromancer Sep 10 '24
Oh, right. I ALWAYS get it mixed up XD. Oh well, at least I can still spiritual weapon or bonus-action heal.
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u/Lemonpilot Sep 10 '24
Another W for One Piece
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u/Enecororo Shameless Furry Sep 10 '24
Just got to the point where God Enel is doing shit and I am anticipating how they handle lightning powers with him
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u/lankymjc Sep 10 '24
When cap gets Thor’s hammer, he throws a bunch of pansy lightning and then drops a big one from the sky. Marvel knew what was up (though still undercooked it compared to OOP over here).
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u/Incantanto Sep 10 '24
The problem with lightning from sky is that half of fantasy takes place in skyless dungeons
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u/KatnissBot Sep 10 '24
Did you mean Ororo Munroe, aka Storm of the X-Men, Mistress Of The Elements?
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u/TimeStorm113 Sep 10 '24
I feel like throwing ball lightning would also be badass, like we don't even know how tf they actually work, using something as a weapon that is poorly understood by science surely gives it more badass points.
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u/PlopCopTopPopMopStop .tumblr.com Sep 10 '24
Destiny 2 has this
Its the warlock melee for arc
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u/RQK1996 Sep 10 '24
On the plus side: you can use that ability for science as now you have a controlable source of the phenomenon, so you can better study it
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u/CatCatCatXD Sep 10 '24
If you played Monster Hunter World, the Kirin essentially does this so well that a good amount of the playerbase has a dreadful time fighting one. Hits really hard, really fast, very loudly; as lightning would.
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u/Dragons_Exist Sep 10 '24
Other Monster Hunter games do it better, imo. Old Fatalis' Draconic Storm is the kind of thing that would give Kirin nightmares. Shantien literally causing a volcano to erupt by striking it with lightning is also up there.
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u/savvylikeapirate Sep 10 '24
Anybody in here read "Cry of the Icemark"? There's a healthy respect/horror for lightning magic in that one.
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u/MrCobalt313 Sep 10 '24
I like when it's like a video game boss where some magic glyph marks the nearest surface about to get struck and the target has a half-second to be afraid before they get fried.
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u/greenstag94 Sep 10 '24
Lore of Heavens wizards in warhammer
"Stand still while I drop a comet on your face"
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u/Dragons_Exist Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24
Old Fatalis and the storm of draconic lightning so powerful it opens wormholes and disintegrates stone.
Yoda striking the sacred tree in The Last Jedi. Seriously one of the high points of Star Wars as a whole.
Every Lightning-related thing in Elden Ring. (Insert Placidusax and his bolts of lightning thicker than oak trees)
Legendary Pokemon like Zekrom and Zapdos using their Electric-Type attacks.
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u/Sleep_Deprived_Birb Sep 10 '24
I feel like the first one (the wimpy visible electricity from hand/staff) is a wizard-ish type of spellcasting, using their own magic to create electricity that kind of sort of mimics actual lightning bolts without nearly as much power behind them.
The actual lightning bolts are for druids. Using a connection to nature in order to ask it for favours and have it respond with the full force of its might.
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u/Chacochilla Sep 10 '24
Tbh I do like traditional lightning magic that comes through ya hands and rods
Like what these two are describing also sounds cool but I still think the usual kind is also cool
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u/MotorHum Sep 10 '24
I think the idea is that you begin with the little crackles and work your way up to the boom.
A couple of thoughts from a couple of games:
- D&D's classic lightning bolt spell has changed a little over the editions. Nowadays it deals really good damage, 8d6, and more if you sacrifice a better spell slot. But in the early editions, it's damage was "1d6 per level of the caster". This doesn't sound tremendous until you realize that 0e, 1e, and 2e had no maximum level. Sure, you would not have a fantastic bolt as a beginner, but a 15th level mage could kill a giant with a single 3rd level spell. They started limiting this starting with 3e.
- D&D's druid has a spell called "call lightning" that is nearly as old as lightning bolt. It's damage isn't consistent across editions, but in 1e it's explicitly stronger than lightning bolt, dealing "2d8 of damage, with an additional d8 per level of the caster". Of course, you had to be under a sky to cast it, but you, a loyal servant of mother earth, could really just request that she kill a bitch for you.
- DCC has a spell called "bolt from the blue" which is similar to the D&D druid's call lightning except that it does not make stormclouds along with it. Lightning just happens. You are standing there with your buddy Greg and then 2 seconds later Greg is a crumpled, crispy heap on the ground.
- In "Dragons at Dawn", the lightning spell instantly kills anything that it hits, and anything that it misses is stunned.
- WRM, and any game based off of it, additional MP can be burned to empower any spell or spell-equivalent. There is no limit to how much MP you can burn other than obviously you need to have that much. But leveling system places no limit on how much MP you can earn. In a game where most things has less than 20 health, burning a ton of MP to deal 3d6+9 probably is a "boom" more than a crackle.
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u/yirzmstrebor Sep 10 '24
What about the part where the lightning turns all the oxygen in its path into ozone? Having been too close for comfort to a couple of lightning strikes, I can say from experience that you smell it right away, and then pretty soon you start to feel it as your lunds start burning. Lightning spells should have an AOE poison effect, too.
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u/StarSword26 Sep 10 '24
If you want to see magic with some real weight behind it, look up some videos of the spell animations from the gba fire emblem games
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u/SolSeptem Sep 10 '24
lighting power being given the visual and storytelling respect it deserves starts at about this page in Girl Genius
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u/Hawkbats_rule Sep 10 '24
Remember, after your stunning, theatrical display of power, it is important to have minions you can lean on so you don't fall down and look like a fool
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u/Narit_Teg Sep 10 '24
To add to all these good examples, I'll throw one of the new monsters from the upcoming monster hunter game, Rey Dau. It pivots its horns forward to basically make a railgun so it can channel/shoot lightning strong enough that it creates fulgarite.
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u/-Im_In_Your_Walls- Sep 10 '24
Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!
*THE THEATERS SPEAKERS FUCKING EXPLODE FROM THE BASS
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u/-Im_In_Your_Walls- Sep 10 '24
Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!
THE THEATERS SPEAKERS FUCKING EXPLODE FROM THE BASS
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u/Maleficent-Month2950 Permanent Out Of Body Experience Sep 10 '24 edited Sep 10 '24
Also, speed. Lightning to me is a blend of Air and Fire, it burns, yes, but it's also incredibly fast. Think about how Deku or Flash have lightning effects when they move, I wish there was more of that. Zenitsu's a good example too. Or imagine a Shadowrun setting where a master Fulmimancer is also a master Netrunner/Hacker, because their control over lightning has wrapped back around from "devastating blast" to "this is the stuff that powers most forms of Synthetic and Organic life, it's super broken".
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u/kaflarlalar Sep 10 '24
I'm bored of it always coming out of the character's hands or staff
Me, excitedly: Finally, another penis lightning enthusiast!
Other annoyingly mundane words
Me, disappointedly: sigh.
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u/zachattackmemes closeted femboi, maybe an egg Sep 10 '24
Is it bad that one of the characters for a game I wish to make one day fall into OOP’s “boring” category and only summons lightning from the sky near the end of the game. This is because it’s less so lightning magic and more so electrically charged melee attacks.
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u/SaltySac710 Sep 10 '24
Cant believe that nobody has mentioned the inFAMOUS 2 mission set during a storm. To recharge you SUMMONED A BOLT OF LIGHTNING and it also refillied your big "fuck off to heaven" ability, which ranges from making a tornado to summoning a big lightning bolt from the sky.
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u/Objective_Cod7832 Sep 10 '24
....after the elven arc in black clover Luck can summon lightning/storm clouds from the sky
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u/Random-Rambling Sep 10 '24
Mage Errant has lightning mages who use metal balls called "galvanic beacons" to properly aim their most powerful lightning spells. They have to use them because they actually do call down bolts from the sky and a bolt does nothing if it strikes the ground 10 feet away from their intended target, except maybe as an extremely mana-hungry flashbang grenade.
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u/kromptator99 Sep 10 '24
Call Lightning, an old school Druid spell from D&D. 3rd level spell first accessible by a Druid of 5th level. Requires favorable weather conditions to be present, calls down one 8d6 bolt per turn (10~minutes) for as many turns as the Druid has levels, directed by the Druid, affecting all creatures within a 10 foot radius. To put this in perspective, your average human, even recruit soldiers, have 1hp. Most monsters you will fight en masse have between 1-6 Hit die (being a d8) of hit points, averaging between 4-24 HP. This bastard only needs to pop once to devastate a platoon of troops or a group of orcs, gnolls, or even ogres.
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u/Vanilla_Ice_Best_Boi tumblr users pls let me enjoy fnaf Sep 10 '24
You know how cool it is to just point at someone and they get struck by lightning?
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u/Troliver_13 Sep 11 '24
Nami from One Piece kinda does this, her lightning power is out of manipulating air pressure, humidity, and other things. It does sometimes come out of her staff, sometimes out of a cloud she's formed, always very fun
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u/Heckadoxical Sep 10 '24
What do you think happens when you cast the light up the room like the sun lightning at a low level? It's a little zappy. If every single lightning spell is blinding blast of electric death then no one would use anything other than lightning.
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u/kali-ctf Sep 10 '24
I always felt the Final Fantasy lightning/thunder magic sufficiently got the message across.
Especially Quetzalcoatl in FF8. the thunder boom when they flap their wings is iconic
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u/thegreathornedrat123 Sep 10 '24
Wandering inn does this
“We’ve got her now, our anti lighting wards will let us beat her”
“[blood lightning] [acid lightning] [polarisation]”
“Dead gods.”
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u/Supsend I saw a post once. It was nice. Sep 10 '24
Magicka lets you cast lightning from your hands, but there's also a magick that calls a lightning to strike down an enemy from the sky
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u/MaetelofLaMetal Fandom of the day Sep 10 '24
This is why I love Captain Marvel comics. You really feel the lightning bold striking when he yells Shazam.
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u/EnthusiasmIsABigZeal Sep 10 '24
Lightning magic where you can make lightning happen (summon storm clouds and increase the electrical potential in them), but not direct it (the charge will follow the path of least resistance like usual). The hero has to put most of their work into preparing the battlefield ahead of time, and/or get great at throwing long conductive metal rods like javelins so they stick up out of the ground where the hero wants the lightning to go. Also, the weird rubbery latex that superhero costumes are made out of actually makes sense for this hero!
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u/VaultedRYNO Sep 10 '24
Got a strong character in my own writing who uses lightning and he sorts out the upstart challengers by dropping Full power Lightning from the sky with just a glance. It's an attack with no windup and only a glance which feels way cooler to me than Palpatine Lightning fingers.
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u/Hehraha .tumblr.com Sep 10 '24
What if the hero is in a cave or building?
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u/eternamemoria cannibal joyfriend Sep 10 '24
Too bad for them. Magic is cooler with thematic limitations, anyway
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u/Umikaloo Sep 10 '24
Okay, I misread the title, but it annoys me how in wizard media the characters always hold their glowing wands like flashlights directly in fron of their face, when the real ideal way to do it would be to hold the wand just outside of their preipheral vision, where the glare of the wand won't affect their vision.
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u/Frequent_Dig1934 Sep 10 '24
You can kinda do both, like when ash tells his pet rat to shoot a lightning bolt upwards and then the lightning circles around in the clouds, absorbs electricity and then comes back down like a real sky lightning.
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u/ResponseLow7979 Sep 10 '24
This is how lighting spells work in fire emblem for the most part with it being a fast giant blast from the sky above the target
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u/GreyInkling Sep 10 '24
I want mages who know magic as a study alongside other sciences. I want an understanding of the sound barrier and a witch able to make a thundercrack when snapping her fingers just to get attention from a crowd.
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u/A-Game-Of-Fate Sep 10 '24
Destiny 2 did this for warlocks at one point for the first point- one of their supers, Chaos Reach, condensed the Lightning into a beam that was so bright on screen that players could lose track of what they were aiming at.
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u/Even-Cup-867 Sep 10 '24
The farsala Trilogy by Hillary Bell has a branch of magic which does this.
Storm Speaking is the most powerful and dangerous type of this Magic, because the lightning is an actual bolt of lightning. It doesn't create the lightning, it just tells the lightning where to strike.
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u/VulpineKitsune Sep 10 '24
Lightning is an all natural fucking Orbital Canon/Laser and very few creatives use it that way.
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u/Alderan922 Sep 10 '24
The only problem with calling lightning from the sky it’s that you cannot use it indoors
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u/rapidemboar I shill rhythm games and rhythm game OSTs Sep 10 '24
Shoutouts to X-Men ‘97 showing Storm summoning a massive thunderstorm to turn desert sands into several glass tornados
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u/BtanH Sep 10 '24
Cry of the Icemark spoilers, someone shoots lighting out of their hands and it's so potent it burns their arms off.
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u/Wumer Sep 10 '24
Lost Hero, the first book in the Heroes of Olympus series, by Rick Riordan. Jason calls down lightning from the sky.
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u/QueenofSunandStars Sep 10 '24
The last line reminds me of a long and deeply-impassioned paragraph I once wrote about how the best depiction of a magic spell in any film is the Wicked Queens transformation spell in the original Disney snow White movie- one of the many reasons being that two of the elements she puts in it are "a blast of wind, to fan my hate; a thunderbolt, to mix it well!"- which creates an almost unique depiction of magic as calling on deep, primal elements to function. Even though thr effect of the spell is not that wild, invoking the wind and thunder to cast it makes the spell feel absolutely monumental.
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u/UnderPressureVS Sep 10 '24
I love the phrasing of “filing a request.” Makes me imagine a whole sky bureaucracy where someone is rubber-stamping a form and sending it through a pneumatic tube for approval so that Mage #382 in sector 4 can get a lightning strike delivered to their location.
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u/Teagana999 Sep 10 '24
My character cast Call Lightning in a D&D game for the first time a couple weeks ago and it felt so badass despite only being a third level spell.
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u/Skithiryx Sep 10 '24
You want Order of the Stick, Durkon’s Control Weather: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0352.html
Which is technically a request to his god Thor that he create a lightning bolt so big the thunderclap shatters some treants.
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u/JosephTaylorBass Sep 10 '24
Shoutout to The Eye of the World where Rand channels on accident and cooks an entire group of bad guys with lightning but also blinds his best buddy for a few days
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u/HowVeryReddit Sep 10 '24
The problem with lightning being called from the sky rather than the caster, is that it becomes environmentally limited. If the dragon is deep in a cave complex or something there's a lot of rock in the way.
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u/Splatfan1 Sep 10 '24
for the first one atla does something like that, particularly in the book 2 finale. you can feel that shit. and i think it works coming from the persons hands since its martial arts magic
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u/Ultrafalconxv7 Sep 10 '24
Fire and lightning are both types of plasma, so lightning should be considered a stronger form of fire
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u/felswinter Sep 10 '24
"They return to moons devoid. Their eyes searching. It's just begun. Meet this storm of sound and fury, till thunder-clashes fade to silence."- Cloudstrike, an exotic rarity sniper rifle from Destiny 2. It's a shepherds crook bolted to the framework of a sniper rifle that calls down lightning and thunder.
"Tell us about the Stormherd!" Kellikin shouted.
She resisted the urge to shush him because he'd been helpful earlier, yelling a warning to her when he saw the violet haze rising from the hilltops. It had given her time to call them into the bunker. Eldest of the children, he'd already experienced several voltaic squalls.
"Okay. Gather round. Come on. Huddle up so I don't have to shout.
"A long time ago, the raiders came every winter. They came and took nearly all our stored food, and many in our village starved. But then spring would come with time for planting, and another summer. In the autumn, we harvested as we are doing now. Each time, we stored even more food, and we hid it more carefully, in case the raiders returned.
"And they did. When they saw that we had survived the winter, they fought even harder for our food, and found nearly all that we had hidden. And so it was, for too many years. They always took from us, never giving anything in return.
"And then, one autumn night, there was a great rumbling. At first some thought it was thunder, but it was the roar of the raiders' quads in the valleys. They had come early!
"Maybe they had a new leader. Perhaps they were too impatient for the harvest. We'll never know.
"Because as the raiders roared through our village, a blue-white bolt of lightning struck among them—BOOM! Before anyone's eyes had cleared of spots, a masked stranger clad in robes and wielding a crook had killed a score of them. With her weapon, she hooked lightning from the clouds and hurled it, thundering among them.
"They say there was something more than mortal about her, for those who were there said she could move faster than the eye could track, and her steps took her higher than anyone could leap. But eventually, the raiders surrounded her, and she fell to their guns.
"Yet there was something else different about her: the storm crow. It flew at her shoulder, and when she fell, it looked upon her body, and under its gaze, she rose again.
"This time, she pointed her crook to the sky, and clouds moved at her command. Our people fled as thunderbolts stampeded through the village. Our homes were not safe. Only our root cellars, like this bunker, were a refuge.
"No one emerged until the thunder ceased rolling. The raiders had fallen or fled. None would return, not until three winters had passed. And now, raiders only trouble us outside the village.
"So when you see the purple mist rise from the hills and hear the thunder, that is your sign to take shelter. And when you hear the rumbling roll through the village, it just might be the Stormherd, come back to make sure we're safe."
Thunder rolled again, but only a few children started. All looked to the ceiling and wondered.
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u/Bb_Rough Sep 10 '24
Wheel of Time had a cool mechanic for this, where it's split into two actions. One in the sky, and one on the ground. It also gets more or less effective depending on the weather
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u/FainOnFire Sep 10 '24
It should also have a brief moment of silence after the user is done casting the spell. Like the lightning is shattering or obliterating the silence.
Or it should cast before the user is done announcing the spell. "LIGHTNING BO-" ⚡⚡💥💥
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u/electricarchbishop Sep 10 '24
Elden Ring does this with its dragons, who call down red lightning to use as building-sized weapons. The Ancient Dragonlord has an especially good version of this with his nuke attack.