Acid Splash

D&D 2024: Point and Sphere

• The caster chooses a point within 60 feet rather than choosing an initial creature.
• Every creature in the 5-foot-radius Sphere is affected, including allies.
• The spell sets no fixed creature limit; the practical number depends on positioning and occupied spaces.
• Normal area, line-of-effect and cover rules apply from the point of origin.

D&D 2024: Save and Damage

• A successful Dexterity save prevents all damage; the spell does not deal half damage on a success.
• The spell deals only Acid damage and imposes no condition.
• Its scaling uses character level, not spellcasting-class level or spell-slot level.
• It is a cantrip and cannot be upcast with a spell slot.

Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e

• The caster makes one ranged touch attack. There is no Dexterity or Reflex save.
• A miss deals no damage.
• Spell Resistance does not protect the target from this spell.
• Apply the active edition’s normal rules for cover, concealment, critical hits and attacking objects.

What the Spell Does Not Add

• No ongoing damage.
• No armour corrosion or Armour Class penalty.
• No blinded, poisoned, weakened or burning condition.
• No splash damage in Pathfinder 1e or D&D 3.5e despite the spell’s name.
• No special neutralisation rule involving water, alkali, sand or mundane equipment.

Edition Drift to Avoid

• Do not use the 2024 Sphere with the PF1e/3.5e ranged touch attack.
• Do not give the 2024 spell the older Conjuration school.
• Do not add a Dexterity save to the PF1e or 3.5e version.
• Do not apply Spell Resistance in PF1e or 3.5e; both versions state that it does not apply.
• Do not use the legacy two-creature 2014 form as the current 2024 rule.

Before or During the Casting

• A legal Counterspell or equivalent interruption can stop the spell before it resolves, using that edition’s own countering rules.
• Preventing the caster from supplying verbal or somatic components can make the spell impossible to cast.
• In 2024, spread out and avoid leaving several allies within the same small Sphere.
• In PF1e and 3.5e, cover, concealment and effects that impair ranged attacks make the touch attack less reliable.

Damage Protection

• Acid Resistance reduces the damage according to the active edition; Acid Immunity prevents it.
• In PF1e and 3.5e, Resist Energy can absorb the entire 1d3 result.
• In PF1e and 3.5e, Protection from Energy can absorb the damage while its capacity remains.
• A successful 2024 Dexterity save prevents all damage from that casting.

Objects and the Environment

In D&D 2024, the spell’s effect is written for creatures, so damaging doors, locks, weapons, armour or scenery is outside its stated effect. In PF1e and D&D 3.5e, resolve any permitted attack against an object with the edition’s ordinary attack, hardness, energy-damage and object rules. The spell gains no special corrosion exception.

Collecting or Selling the Acid

The spell provides no stable commodity. Its magic is instantaneous; Pathfinder 1e explicitly removes the acid after 1 round. Repeated casting therefore does not establish a free supply of bottled acid unless the campaign deliberately introduces a separate house rule.

Appearance

The colour, odour and visible form can vary without changing the rules. A caster might produce a green glassy bubble, yellow vapour around a clear droplet, black alchemical liquor or a pale sphere that hisses only on impact.

Consequences in the Fiction

Acid damage can leave painful burns and damaged clothing when the fiction calls for it, but cosmetic description should not create extra damage, conditions or equipment penalties. Mechanical consequences must come from the active ruleset or an openly declared house rule.

An Apprentice’s Dangerous Proof

Acid Splash is often taught as a lesson in exact control: the caster must create a destructive substance, direct it and end the working before it becomes a hazard to everyone nearby. The cantrip is simple enough for students, yet unforgiving enough to reveal poor judgement immediately.

Alchemy and Battle Magic

Alchemists recognise the spell’s resemblance to strong mineral acids, while battle-mages value its ability to threaten lightly protected foes without consuming a spell slot. The resemblance is not identity: the magical discharge follows the chosen game rules rather than the full chemistry of a laboratory reagent.

Aqua Fortis and the Strong Waters

Aqua fortis, literally “strong water,” was nitric acid. Historical alchemists used it to dissolve silver and many other metals, while gold resisted it. Other mineral acids were known as oil of vitriol and spirit of salt; together these substances gave corrosive liquids a practical and fearsome place in the history of alchemy.

Distillation, Secrecy and Authority

Producing strong acids demanded controlled heat, suitable vessels and specialised knowledge. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton project records nitric, sulfuric and hydrochloric acids among the mineral acids used in early modern chymistry. In fantasy, that history naturally turns a small globe of acid into a sign of trained, dangerous learning.

Occult Meaning

Corrosion is a fitting magical image for separation and reduction: a surface is stripped away, a compound is broken apart and a hidden substance is revealed. Acid magic therefore suits traditions concerned with dissolution, testing, purification through destruction and the exposure of what lies beneath appearances.

From Workshop to Cantrip

The spell compresses the labour of the laboratory into a gesture and a word. No furnace, retort or stored reagent is required. That convenience is precisely what makes the cantrip unsettling in a historical setting: a destructive product of skilled manufacture can be summoned in an instant by anyone who has learned the formula.