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What is the most powerful spell?
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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7214133" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>For a down and dirty comparison, here are the instantaneous area damage spells.</p><p></p><p>They order by their amount of damage, given a hypothetical 50% chance to save. The use of higher level slots for Fireball serves as the benchmarks for typical damage for each spell level, colored orange.</p><p></p><p>In addition to damage, ability save, damage type, avoiding allies, and additional effects can be important considerations. Regaring area, beyond coverage for a room, excessive area can often become irrelevant or even a liability, in most situations.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Instantaneous Area Damage</strong></p><p>[CODE]</p><p>[FONT=courier new][COLOR=#ff8c00][B]L Spell Avg Dmg Save Type Sq's Area Effects[/B][/COLOR]</p><p>4 Ice Storm 17.3 2d8 Dex blunt, 50.2 20 rad diffic. terr. </p><p> +4d6 cold until 1 turn</p><p>[COLOR=#ff8c00][B]3 − 21.0 8d6 − − − − −[/B][/COLOR]</p><p>6 Circle Of [FONT=courier new]21.0[/FONT] 8d6 Con necro 452.3 60 rad</p><p> Death </p><p>3 Lightning 21.0 8d6 Dex lghtng 20.0 100</p><p> Bolt line </p><p>3 Fireball 21.0 8d6 Dex fire 50.2 20 rad</p><p> </p><p>5 Flame 21.0 4d6 Dex fire, 12.6 10 rad </p><p> Strike +4d6 radt </p><p>[COLOR=#ff8c00][B]4 − 23.6 9d6 − − − − −</p><p>[/B][B]5 − 26.3 10d6 − − − − −[/B][/COLOR]</p><p>6 Freezing 26.3 10d6 Con cold 452.3 60 rad if in water, </p><p> Sphere restrain v Str</p><p> action; delay</p><p>[FONT=courier new]7 Prismatic 26.3 10d6 Dex random 72.0 60 alternatively,</p><p> Spray cone [FONT=courier new][FONT=courier new]3/d8 chance var.[/FONT][/FONT]</p><p>[/FONT]5 Cone Of 27 8d8 Con cold 72.0 60ft </p><p> Cold cone </p><p>[COLOR=#ff8c00][B]6 − 28.9 11d6 − − − − −[/B]</p><p>[/COLOR]7 Fire Storm 28.9 7d10 Dex fire 40 10 plant safe</p><p> x10ft </p><p> x10ft </p><p>[COLOR=#ff8c00][B]7 − 31.5 12d6 − − − − −[/B]</p><p>[/COLOR]8 Sunburst 31.5 12d6 Con radt 452.3 60 rad blind save·turn;</p><p> undead dis save; </p><p> anti dark</p><p>6 Chain 33.8 10d8 Dex lghtng 113.1 30 rad (4 hostiles only)</p><p> Lightning </p><p>[COLOR=#ff8c00][B]8 − 34.1 13d6 − − − − − −[/B]</p><p>[B]9 − 36.8 14d6 − − − − − −[/B]</p><p>[/COLOR]7 Delayed 36.8? 14d6? Dex fire 50.2 20 rad delay +d6·turn</p><p> Blast (31.5 (12d6 upto min</p><p> 57.8) 22d6) </p><p>9 Meteor 105 20d6 Dex fire, 804.2 40 rad</p><p> Swarm +20d6 blunt x4</p><p> </p><p></p><p>[/FONT][/CODE]</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Even with this rough comparison, certain evaluations become clear. The differences are simple, and easy to compare.</p><p></p><p>For the spell Delayed Blast, the delay and concentration are the tradeoff for the increased damage per turn. Despite it initially doing damage typical for a 7th-level Fireball, a thoughtful Setup for combat might increase its damage across, say, 2 turns to deal damage for a 9th-level Fireball. Note, a hostile might be able to reverse the damage against you.</p><p></p><p>Prismatic Spray does damage equivalent to a 5th-level Fireball. Randomly it might do some other effect instead, such as blinded or restrained. The unreliability prevents it from functioning as higher than a 5th-level spell.</p><p></p><p>Sunburst deals the damage of a 7th-level Fireball. Additionally, it can inflict blindness. Blinded is a helpful condition because of advantages and disadvantages. But this is more an extra to make the spell a better choice than simply casting Fireball. Moreover Sunburst relies on Constitution saves, which is less useful than the Dexterity saves. Sunburst is defacto an excellent 7th-level spell, and would be substandard as an 8th-level.</p><p></p><p>The 9th-level Meteor Swarm is in a league all its own, far higher than Fireball can achieve.</p><p></p><p>For Ice Storm, a difficult terrain that only lasts until your next turn, is a weak effect. Thus the low damage makes Ice Storm arguably a 2nd-level spell, tho probably a Less Useful 3rd-level spell.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 7214133, member: 58172"] For a down and dirty comparison, here are the instantaneous area damage spells. They order by their amount of damage, given a hypothetical 50% chance to save. The use of higher level slots for Fireball serves as the benchmarks for typical damage for each spell level, colored orange. In addition to damage, ability save, damage type, avoiding allies, and additional effects can be important considerations. Regaring area, beyond coverage for a room, excessive area can often become irrelevant or even a liability, in most situations. [B]Instantaneous Area Damage[/B] [CODE] [FONT=courier new][COLOR=#ff8c00][B]L Spell Avg Dmg Save Type Sq's Area Effects[/B][/COLOR] 4 Ice Storm 17.3 2d8 Dex blunt, 50.2 20 rad diffic. terr. +4d6 cold until 1 turn [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]3 − 21.0 8d6 − − − − −[/B][/COLOR] 6 Circle Of [FONT=courier new]21.0[/FONT] 8d6 Con necro 452.3 60 rad Death 3 Lightning 21.0 8d6 Dex lghtng 20.0 100 Bolt line 3 Fireball 21.0 8d6 Dex fire 50.2 20 rad 5 Flame 21.0 4d6 Dex fire, 12.6 10 rad Strike +4d6 radt [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]4 − 23.6 9d6 − − − − − [/B][B]5 − 26.3 10d6 − − − − −[/B][/COLOR] 6 Freezing 26.3 10d6 Con cold 452.3 60 rad if in water, Sphere restrain v Str action; delay [FONT=courier new]7 Prismatic 26.3 10d6 Dex random 72.0 60 alternatively, Spray cone [FONT=courier new][FONT=courier new]3/d8 chance var.[/FONT][/FONT] [/FONT]5 Cone Of 27 8d8 Con cold 72.0 60ft Cold cone [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]6 − 28.9 11d6 − − − − −[/B] [/COLOR]7 Fire Storm 28.9 7d10 Dex fire 40 10 plant safe x10ft x10ft [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]7 − 31.5 12d6 − − − − −[/B] [/COLOR]8 Sunburst 31.5 12d6 Con radt 452.3 60 rad blind save·turn; undead dis save; anti dark 6 Chain 33.8 10d8 Dex lghtng 113.1 30 rad (4 hostiles only) Lightning [COLOR=#ff8c00][B]8 − 34.1 13d6 − − − − − −[/B] [B]9 − 36.8 14d6 − − − − − −[/B] [/COLOR]7 Delayed 36.8? 14d6? Dex fire 50.2 20 rad delay +d6·turn Blast (31.5 (12d6 upto min 57.8) 22d6) 9 Meteor 105 20d6 Dex fire, 804.2 40 rad Swarm +20d6 blunt x4 [/FONT][/CODE] Even with this rough comparison, certain evaluations become clear. The differences are simple, and easy to compare. For the spell Delayed Blast, the delay and concentration are the tradeoff for the increased damage per turn. Despite it initially doing damage typical for a 7th-level Fireball, a thoughtful Setup for combat might increase its damage across, say, 2 turns to deal damage for a 9th-level Fireball. Note, a hostile might be able to reverse the damage against you. Prismatic Spray does damage equivalent to a 5th-level Fireball. Randomly it might do some other effect instead, such as blinded or restrained. The unreliability prevents it from functioning as higher than a 5th-level spell. Sunburst deals the damage of a 7th-level Fireball. Additionally, it can inflict blindness. Blinded is a helpful condition because of advantages and disadvantages. But this is more an extra to make the spell a better choice than simply casting Fireball. Moreover Sunburst relies on Constitution saves, which is less useful than the Dexterity saves. Sunburst is defacto an excellent 7th-level spell, and would be substandard as an 8th-level. The 9th-level Meteor Swarm is in a league all its own, far higher than Fireball can achieve. For Ice Storm, a difficult terrain that only lasts until your next turn, is a weak effect. Thus the low damage makes Ice Storm arguably a 2nd-level spell, tho probably a Less Useful 3rd-level spell. [/QUOTE]
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