Should D&D have more spells like Chromatic Orb ?

cbwjm · Mar 26, 2018

aco175 said:
Be careful giving away reflavoring spells. Damage is based on types of damage and ease of countering or having monsters that are less affected by it. Fire is the most common type of spell damage, but there are many monsters that have resistance to it and it is also the first type other people would take to be resistant to. Look at the cantrips and how they do different amounts of damage and add other minor powers like slow, or burst or something else. You would be giving casters a big boost in power if you allow them to reskin spells like fireball to acidball or even the cantrip fire bolt.

I may be more open to creating spells that so something from scratch or even allowing some of the inexperienced player to reskin if they took downtime and did research spending gold.

There was an AMA or interview or something where the DnD team said that they didn't develop spells based on the number of resistances or immunities, it is more to do with theme than anything else. Even before I heard this, I was always of the opinion that spells should be reflavoured to fit a theme, a dragon sorcerer focused on acid should be able to choose an acid version of fireball, it shouldn't cause any real problems.

CubicsRube · Mar 26, 2018

Like i mentioned above, if some people are worried about the impact of reflavouring, a half option could be to allow it when cadt at higher level. So a caster could cast an acid ball at 4th level, etc.

Satyrn · Mar 26, 2018

cbwjm said:
There was an AMA or interview or something where the DnD team said that they didn't develop spells based on the number of resistances or immunities, it is more to do with theme than anything else. Even before I heard this, I was always of the opinion that spells should be reflavoured to fit a theme, a dragon sorcerer focused on acid should be able to choose an acid version of fireball, it shouldn't cause any real problems.

Aye. I never even found 3e to be usefully balanced around damage types as @aco175 talks about, and there's no way I'd ever see 5e built like that.

But I'd encourage a player reflavoring fireball with acid to make at least one more change to make it feel more distinct and be a better fit for a spell that deals acid damage. Like lightning bolt is a line of electricity instead of a blast of flame, I'd think the acid version might be called acid rain. Maybe it conjures a cloud that dumps acid on everything below it.

Something more interesting than "acid ball," anyway.

cbwjm · Mar 26, 2018

Satyrn said:
Aye. I never even found 3e to be usefully balanced around damage types as @aco175 talks about, and there's no way I'd ever see 5e built like that.

But I'd encourage a player reflavoring fireball with acid to make at least one more change to make it feel more distinct and be a better fit for a spell that deals acid damage. Like lightning bolt is a line of electricity instead of a blast of flame, I'd think the acid version might be called acid rain. Maybe it conjures a cloud that dumps acid on everything below it.

Something more interesting than "acid ball," anyway.

Oh yeah, I'd definitely prefer some kind of change to fit an element, like acid dealing damage in round one and round two but if we were in a hurry then I'd just let a player pick fireball and change the damage type to acid.