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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: 7257469" data-attributes="member: 6801445"><p>Sounds to me like another way of saying that vitriolic sphere scales better with your spellcasting mod. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>I use a 65% chance to deal full damage on Dex saves based on observations of ability-score trends in the monster manual. If you are up against a random enemy from that book, about which enemy you know nothing, and if you have a 60% chance of dealing full damage by picking a random ability score (or AC) to target, Dex will, on average, deal full damage about 66.5% of the time. When I'm just scratching something out, I round to the nearest 5% for ease of calculation, making Int/AC 70%, Dex 65%, Wis/Str/Cha 55%, and Con 45%. I use this as a yardstick to compare spells and attacks across ability scores and AC. I would thus calculate cone of cold and sunburst differently than you have above, but that's beside the point.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't disagree with "damage now > damage later" as a rule of thumb, but it's awfully hard to say how devalued damage later ought to be considered. Especially when it comes to damage later within a round, value can vary widely depending on the initiative order. Thus, the consideration to me is not whether, at 4th level, vitriolic sphere's additional damage is worth the loss in immediate damage; it is whether the initial-damage advantage of fireball justifies its retention under the sorcerer's stringent spells-known structure, when vitriolic sphere is clearly the better spell at higher levels.</p><p></p><p>This is actually one reason why I consider lightning bolt on par with fireball, as well. It allows you to retain a third-level AoE without the redundancy of keeping two 20-foot spheres known, and it gives you greater versatility in spell form at higher levels.</p><p></p><p>That aside aside, vit sphere has other advantages over fireball, as I mentioned previously. There are fewer than half as many acid-resistant and -immune monsters as fire-resistant and -immune, and there is less likelihood with vitriolic sphere of heinous property damage.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, agreed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cognomen's Cassowary, post: 7257469, member: 6801445"] Sounds to me like another way of saying that vitriolic sphere scales better with your spellcasting mod. ;) I use a 65% chance to deal full damage on Dex saves based on observations of ability-score trends in the monster manual. If you are up against a random enemy from that book, about which enemy you know nothing, and if you have a 60% chance of dealing full damage by picking a random ability score (or AC) to target, Dex will, on average, deal full damage about 66.5% of the time. When I'm just scratching something out, I round to the nearest 5% for ease of calculation, making Int/AC 70%, Dex 65%, Wis/Str/Cha 55%, and Con 45%. I use this as a yardstick to compare spells and attacks across ability scores and AC. I would thus calculate cone of cold and sunburst differently than you have above, but that's beside the point. I don't disagree with "damage now > damage later" as a rule of thumb, but it's awfully hard to say how devalued damage later ought to be considered. Especially when it comes to damage later within a round, value can vary widely depending on the initiative order. Thus, the consideration to me is not whether, at 4th level, vitriolic sphere's additional damage is worth the loss in immediate damage; it is whether the initial-damage advantage of fireball justifies its retention under the sorcerer's stringent spells-known structure, when vitriolic sphere is clearly the better spell at higher levels. This is actually one reason why I consider lightning bolt on par with fireball, as well. It allows you to retain a third-level AoE without the redundancy of keeping two 20-foot spheres known, and it gives you greater versatility in spell form at higher levels. That aside aside, vit sphere has other advantages over fireball, as I mentioned previously. There are fewer than half as many acid-resistant and -immune monsters as fire-resistant and -immune, and there is less likelihood with vitriolic sphere of heinous property damage. Yes, agreed. [/QUOTE]
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