[RPG] Can Call Lightning be used for the full 10 minutes while running away on a ship

clericdnd-5espells

My Tempest Cleric will be on a ship voyage this week, if we get chased it would be nice to rain lightning bolts on the pursuers during the chase for the full duration of the spell (10 minutes).

Call Lightning

A storm cloud appears in the shape of a cylinder that is 10 feet tall with a 60-foot radius, centered on a point you can see 100 feet directly above you. The spell fails if you can’t see a point in the air where the storm cloud could appear. When you cast the spell, choose a point you can see within range. A bolt of lightning flashes down from the cloud to that point.

My concern is that my ship will be moving away from the initially formed storm cloud. As long my concentration holds up it would be nice to use the spell for the full duration.

Does my movement away from the initial casting of the spell cause me to move out of range of the cloud, if so how far before the spell fails or will the cloud move with me or is it irrelevant to the spell how far I move in the ship?

Best Answer

I did some digging into this particular question and I came up with these relative links.

First and foremost: This one about what happens if you lose line of sight

Followed by this very informative entry here on our very own Stack Exchange: About how you can keep concentration on a spell regardless of line of sight, range to the target(s) or AoE, or even plane of existence.

To answer your question directly, though; yes, there is nothing stopping you (neither in the spell description or rules on concentration and spell casting) from casting Call Lightning and then maintaining it's effects for a full 10 minutes even as your ship drifts away from the storm cloud.

For a more in depth look at the spell, here are a few key points.

  • The cloud appears 100ft directly above you. No more, no less, and fails if you cannot see the point anywhere in the air/sky where said cloud will appear.
  • When you cast the spell, and on each subsequent turn, a bolt of lightning flashes down to a point you can see within range (120ft of YOU not the cloud), and may target different points for each strike.
  • If there is already stormy conditions in the area, you gain control over the existing storm, instead of making a new one (which also has the added benefit of increasing the damage).

I may be wrong (and anyone is free to leave potential corrections), but from all the above resources I've gathered, we seem to be able to conclude the following: You may cast Call Lightning and as long as you do not break concentration; you may continue to call down the full wrath of it's power for 10 minutes, even if you were to be taken to the Ethereal Plane (as per the spell Blink). You only require line of sight to the point you can see that you wish to strike each turn, and the spell only requires that point in question be within 120ft of you, not the 60ft cloud it summons forth.