D&D 5E Lightning Bolt should be better.

TheSword · Apr 20, 2021

The lightning bolt spell should be better.

Maybe a minor stunning or shocking effect. Or increased damage again metal armour. Not sure what, but lightning is too damned cool to be stuck with a little used spell.

jgsugden · Apr 20, 2021

Why? If we took fireball out of the game, wouldn't Lightning Bolt be the best damage spell at 3rd level by a large margin?

It doesn't get the fame of fireball, but it still does damage above the recommended amount based upon guidelines, and when it is useful, it is incredibly useful. It is resisted less than fireball, and it can impact enemies spread over a much greater range (they can be 100 feet apart rather than 40 feet apart). Also, and often overlooked - it is lightning, not thunder, so it is much quieter. A fireball announces your presence to those outside line of sight - but a lightning bolt may not (DM discretion, of course - but fireballs make a low roar, while lightning bolts are not described as making any sound, and we all know that lightning is the visual and thunder (which is a separate thing in D&D) is the sound).

When I have a fellow PC with push or pull effects (warlocks, open hand monks, etc.. for example), it is a better spell IMHO. In early 5E I played a Svirfneblin wizard that was teamed with a warlock who was excellent at setting up lightning bolts and my other line spell (homebrew).

It might not be the favored spell over fireball by most casters, but it is still really good.

humble minion · Apr 20, 2021

Being a line just makes it impractical (and that goes for other line effects too). It's a red-letter day when you can hit three opponents with a line effect, where radius effects can affect multiple targets much, much easier.

Sure if you have a lightning bolt prepared you can use it to pump 8d6 damage into a large single enemy with not too many problems. But by the time you're 5th-8th level, large single enemies won't be too frightened by that, and the archer ranger with hunter's mark and colossus slayer will be doing almost as much every round, at a longer range and not limited by spell slots.

Paul Farquhar · Apr 20, 2021

It aught to bounce off walls, preferably in completely unpredictable directions.

Voadam · Apr 20, 2021

Lightning bolt's range 0 has made it a considerably less useful combat spell than the equal level fireball since 2e. (4e was the exception where fireball was a level 5 daily and lightning bolt was a level 7 encounter power so not supposed to be directly comparable power).

Having to be on the front line and only getting targets in a line are significant downsides compared to being able to cast from behind front line tanks and affecting a group in a burst.

AD&D lightning bolt with range for the start of the lightning bolt was fantastic.

Dausuul · Apr 20, 2021

In at least one older edition, you could choose between a single bolt (5 feet by 80) and a forked bolt (10 by 40). That might improve it significantly.

Ruin Explorer · Apr 20, 2021

jgsugden said:
It doesn't get the fame of fireball, but it still does damage above the recommended amount based upon guidelines, and when it is useful, it is incredibly useful. It is resisted less than fireball, and it can impact enemies spread over a much greater range (they can be 100 feet apart rather than 40 feet apart). Also, and often overlooked - it is lightning, not thunder, so it is much quieter. A fireball announces your presence to those outside line of sight - but a lightning bolt may not (DM discretion, of course - but fireballs make a low roar, while lightning bolts are not described as making any sound, and we all know that lightning is the visual and thunder (which is a separate thing in D&D) is the sound).

Whilst I agree with your numbers points, the idea that lightning is the visual and thunder is the sound is pretty fantastically silly in the context of the spell Lightning Bolt. There is absolutely no possible way, if we agree that Fireball makes a noise (probably an enormous boom or woosh or both), that an electrical discharge, however magical, of the size involved in Lightning Bolt isn't going to be pretty ear-splitting - at the least equally loud.

But yeah it's an above average spell.

houser2112 · Apr 20, 2021

humble minion said:
Being a line just makes it impractical (and that goes for other line effects too). It's a red-letter day when you can hit three opponents with a line effect, where radius effects can affect multiple targets much, much easier.

Sure if you have a lightning bolt prepared you can use it to pump 8d6 damage into a large single enemy with not too many problems. But by the time you're 5th-8th level, large single enemies won't be too frightened by that, and the archer ranger with hunter's mark and colossus slayer will be doing almost as much every round, at a longer range and not limited by spell slots.

While it's hard to get a bunch of targets perfectly lined up for a lightning bolt, it's far easier to use it in the first place than fireball. I play a Light Domain cleric, and last session when I cast fireball, I got a response from one of the players "Whoa, you can fireball?!". Yes, Mike, I can fireball, but since I care about the well-being of my party and am not an evoker with Sculpt Spells, the fireball doesn't see much use.

Larrin · Apr 20, 2021

My gut level instinct has been to make fireball 6d6 keep lightning bolt 8d6. Useful award would still go to fireball, damage award would go to lightning bolt.

TheSword · Apr 20, 2021

Yeah the lightning bolts damage isn’t the issue. It’s the need for a single line emanating from the caster.

I also don’t buy the ‘lightning bolt is silent’ if you’ve never heard the crack of a lightning bolt then you’ve never lived. The fact that it lights the sky up in a 5 mile radius doesn’t help it’s stealth capabilities either

The forked lighting 30ft cone option is a really good idea.

In this world of having to carefully chose Int + Level spells I see lightning bolt passed over every time because it’s just too circumstantial.