I've always wanted to do magic in lucid dreams. I've tried to do the Magic Missiles spell from Dungeons and Dragons in my dreams previously, unsuccessfully.

Last night I got lucid for the first time in a while and thought to give it another shot. This time I called on Skyrim for inspiration. It's been a while since I've played the game, but I distinctly remember the two fire spells that I used most in that game. With one spell you immediately shoot out a column of flame from your hand. With the other you build up a fireball and release it.

On the first try with the column of flame I succeeded in performing my first magic in a lucid dream. However as soon as I started casting it I experienced some of the worst pain I've ever felt (including real life). I've done a lot of cooking and have burned myself accidentally on the stove, but the pain I felt with this flame spell was ten times worse than touching a hot stove, and covered the entire palm of my hand. I had to immediately stop casting it.

I tried the fireball spell with the other hand and experienced no pain from that one. So I conjured an alligator and took some close range shots at it (all of them missed, because I suck at aiming that one in Skyrim too).

Could someone tell me why I would feel pain from the flame column spell, but not the fireball spell. Also, how could I prevent the pain from the column spell because I would prefer to use that one.