Fireball vs lightning bolt

[Felix]

Gotta go with Fireball, it's more flashy and showy.

You do not know the power of the Dark Side.

Fireball may be more practical, but you've gotta go with the flavor of that sweet bolt of lightning.

 

[wingsandsword]

Fireball. . .for when you absolutely, positively must kill every orc in the room. Accept no substitutes.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Lightningbolt. . .for when you absolutely, positively must kill whatever it was you heard on the other side of that door without actually opening it. Accept no substitutes.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Ambrus]

Lightning bolt has style even if it's tougher to use then fireball. Fire is only cool if you've got scales and are exhaling it onto your enemies.

Oh, and it's not a "sonic ball"; it's "thunder-ball".

 

[Set]

I picked Fireball. It's always felt more 'classical' to me. Then again, it could just be too many hours spent playing Missile Command...

I haven't really liked Lightning Bolt since they got rid of the ability to bounce it off a wall and do double damage to someone.

 

[kenobi65]

Lightning Bolt is a cool spell, but Fireball is in most cases more useful. There might be a few more monsters resistant to fire, but there are also a few more vulnerability to it. And the 20 ft radius burst is better then the line in most cases.

Agreed; LB was better in earlier editions, both for (a) the ability to bounce it off a wall and hit someone twice (I loved that), and (b) the ability to fork it, and make it 10' wide.

That said, I just about TPKed my party last night when they were all queued up in a hallway, and the BBEG mind flayer sorcerer shot an empowered LB down said hallway. Schweet.

 

[blargney the second]

Lightning bolt for me. We tend to have a lot of melee guys in our parties, and LB is vastly easier to use without flambeing allies.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Well I voted fireball despite my current sorcerer's lighting-breath-weapon conversion feat.

And one of my fav moments involved a 2ed vampire mage, a paladin, a 10x10 room, and a lighting bolt. The vampire/mist drifted away, giggling.

Fireballs are just more useful - in a lay-waste to hordes kind of way.

 

[zypherillius]

Lightning Bolt or Fireball, huh?

Energy Substitution wins, as always, so ill go for firebolts and lightning balls! or delay blast lightning balls...

and sonic balls are the best kind, because nothing in 3.5 has sonic resistance! too bad there werent a way to learn all these as force type spells...

 

[tzor]

Can't really vote, I like them both. When everyone is lined up nothing says hurting like a lightning bolt. When everyone is disbursed around an area a fireball is best. Back in the really old days (early 1980's) our 1E gaming group had the "keyhole" fireball, which was a fireball centered on the caster except for a small keyhole area around the caster. That's the caster's best friend. (The stomatic component was pumping ones fist in the air.)