FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
So this thread is to analze Faerie fire with a Bard in Tier 1 (Levels 1-4)
The primary benefit of Faerie Fire is that it grants advantage to everyone in your party. It's a small AOE effect so it can hit more than 1 enemy. However it also can affect your allies. Let's compare it's use in some basic situations.
Against 4 orcs spread out such that only 2 can be hit at once. You have a very good chance of having faerie fire affect 1. You have a very low chance of affecting 2. Giving up your action and a spellslot to give advantage on an enemy that likely would have died just as fast if you had simply attacked the enemy. In short, faerie fire was a waste of a spell in this situation. Compare to sleep which almost guarantees that single orc is disabled instantly.
Against a solo enemy. You likely have a 40% chance of missing and doing nothing. However, if you hit your allies will be making enough attacks at the solo for the advantage to pay off. By the end of combat it likely results in turning 2-3 would be misses into hits. Hitting 2-3 additional times is essentially killing the enemy 1 round faster. So on the 60% chance that faerie fire lands you kill the enemy 1 round faster. On the 40% that you don't the fight lasts a turn longer. Compare to Tasha's Hideous Laughter. You have the same instance of initial failure. However if you hit the first disable then you have an additional chance to disable after doing so. In short on a failed save tasha's is much more effective than fearie fire for a solo.
So in what situation is faerie fire actually a better spell than the bards other options?
So exactly which situation is
The primary benefit of Faerie Fire is that it grants advantage to everyone in your party. It's a small AOE effect so it can hit more than 1 enemy. However it also can affect your allies. Let's compare it's use in some basic situations.
Against 4 orcs spread out such that only 2 can be hit at once. You have a very good chance of having faerie fire affect 1. You have a very low chance of affecting 2. Giving up your action and a spellslot to give advantage on an enemy that likely would have died just as fast if you had simply attacked the enemy. In short, faerie fire was a waste of a spell in this situation. Compare to sleep which almost guarantees that single orc is disabled instantly.
Against a solo enemy. You likely have a 40% chance of missing and doing nothing. However, if you hit your allies will be making enough attacks at the solo for the advantage to pay off. By the end of combat it likely results in turning 2-3 would be misses into hits. Hitting 2-3 additional times is essentially killing the enemy 1 round faster. So on the 60% chance that faerie fire lands you kill the enemy 1 round faster. On the 40% that you don't the fight lasts a turn longer. Compare to Tasha's Hideous Laughter. You have the same instance of initial failure. However if you hit the first disable then you have an additional chance to disable after doing so. In short on a failed save tasha's is much more effective than fearie fire for a solo.
So in what situation is faerie fire actually a better spell than the bards other options?
So exactly which situation is