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[GUIDE] Born to be Wild, a sorcerer guide.
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<blockquote data-quote="Cognomen's Cassowary" data-source="post: 7251908" data-attributes="member: 6801445"><p>4th-level spells:</p><p></p><p>I think you are a little generous to wall of fire. It has a couple of noteworthy shortcomings. For as much damage as it does, you are only rarely going to deal damage to any individual creature more than once in the absence of forced movement. It is also expressly opaque, which limits spellcasting through it and leads to guess targeting of attacks. I'm not sure why you say that the spell has "control and damage." Are you looking at the deterrence effect as control?</p><p></p><p>Vitriolic sphere is underrated. It has several advantages over fireball, beyond the synergy with spell bombardment. It deals more damage, scales better, deals a less-resisted damage type, and doesn't burn down the house. It also has a small advantage with careful spell.</p><p></p><p>If we assume a 35% chance for a successful save, the average-damage comparison looks like this:</p><p></p><p>4th level</p><p>Fireball - 26.0</p><p>Vitriolic sphere - 20.6 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 28.75 total</p><p></p><p>5th level</p><p>Fireball - 28.9</p><p>Vitriolic sphere - 24.75 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 32.9 total</p><p></p><p>6th level</p><p>Fireball - 31.8</p><p>Vitriolic sphere - 28.9 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 37 total</p><p></p><p>By 6th level, even a fire-dragon sorcerer gets more total damage from vitriolic sphere.</p><p></p><p>7th level</p><p>Fireball - 34.7</p><p>Vitriolic sphere - 33 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 41.1 total</p><p></p><p>8th level</p><p>Fireball - 37.5</p><p>Vitriolic Sphere - 37.1 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 45.3 total</p><p></p><p>Note that vitriolic sphere has all but pulled even in initial damage at this point, so the delayed damage is icing. The two questions that will always enter into this comparison are, "How much damage now is damage later worth?" and "What is the danger of delaying damage?" They are difficult questions to answer in a white room, but they become less relevant as you go up in spell level.</p><p></p><p>In my experience, a spell like fireball is almost always cast early in a combat, while enemies are still clustered together and allies are not mixed in with them. In those cases, the delay of damage with vitriolic sphere is less consequential, since the enemies are likely fresh enough that they would not have been one-shot by a fireball.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cognomen's Cassowary, post: 7251908, member: 6801445"] 4th-level spells: I think you are a little generous to wall of fire. It has a couple of noteworthy shortcomings. For as much damage as it does, you are only rarely going to deal damage to any individual creature more than once in the absence of forced movement. It is also expressly opaque, which limits spellcasting through it and leads to guess targeting of attacks. I'm not sure why you say that the spell has "control and damage." Are you looking at the deterrence effect as control? Vitriolic sphere is underrated. It has several advantages over fireball, beyond the synergy with spell bombardment. It deals more damage, scales better, deals a less-resisted damage type, and doesn't burn down the house. It also has a small advantage with careful spell. If we assume a 35% chance for a successful save, the average-damage comparison looks like this: 4th level Fireball - 26.0 Vitriolic sphere - 20.6 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 28.75 total 5th level Fireball - 28.9 Vitriolic sphere - 24.75 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 32.9 total 6th level Fireball - 31.8 Vitriolic sphere - 28.9 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 37 total By 6th level, even a fire-dragon sorcerer gets more total damage from vitriolic sphere. 7th level Fireball - 34.7 Vitriolic sphere - 33 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 41.1 total 8th level Fireball - 37.5 Vitriolic Sphere - 37.1 immediate + 8.1 delayed = 45.3 total Note that vitriolic sphere has all but pulled even in initial damage at this point, so the delayed damage is icing. The two questions that will always enter into this comparison are, "How much damage now is damage later worth?" and "What is the danger of delaying damage?" They are difficult questions to answer in a white room, but they become less relevant as you go up in spell level. In my experience, a spell like fireball is almost always cast early in a combat, while enemies are still clustered together and allies are not mixed in with them. In those cases, the delay of damage with vitriolic sphere is less consequential, since the enemies are likely fresh enough that they would not have been one-shot by a fireball. [/QUOTE]
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