4th level evocation spells kind of blah?

[Plane Sailing]

The damage spells are fun, but Otiluke's Resilient Sphere can eliminate a clumsy monster from a battle. 3 Hill Giants becomes 2 Hill Giants, heal, buff, then 1 more Hill Giant, that is a much easier fight...

As long as you can fit it inside the dimensions! - I guess that at 11th level you could technically capture a 10.5ft hill giant

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another great (non evocation) 4th level spell - evards black tentacles.

 

[Urbanmech]

Ice Storm is actually pretty good at 7th lv. 5d6 (17.5ave) with no save is often times better than 7d6 (24.5 or 12.25) with a save vs quite a few types of enemies. Plus most evocation spells at higher levels aren't about outright killing something as much as doing damage to multiple enemies at once. Sure 17 damage seems weak vs one enemy but if there are 3 or 4 caught in the spread things are looking good.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Gah, plane sailing beat me to it.

My votes for evocation 4th:

Explosive Cascade
Wall of Fire/Ice

 

[Thanee]

He would have lost the fight if he would have used Flamestrike.

And why is that? Fire protection? There's still a lot of divine damage.

And someone who has fire protection can also have cold protection.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Staffan]

Oh, and as for the various Orb spells, and others that require a ranged touch attack, my brother/player seems to think that those spells are generally just a waste because he never makes his attack rolls. Do you guys find that this is generally the case?

Not really. Remember that they're touch attacks, which means they ignore armor, shield and natural armor bonuses to AC. That means that those opponents that are most likely to have really high ACs usually have pretty low ACs against the orbs - a 10th level fighter will probably have a regular AC of 30 or so (full plate +3, large shield +2, Dex +1, Deflection +2, natural armor +2 - the latter two from ring of protection and amulet of natural armor). However, against a touch attack he only has an AC of 13 - much easier.

 

[Davelozzi]

Not really. Remember that they're touch attacks...

I know that, but it just occured to me that maybe he's not pointing it out to me when he makes his rolls, in which case I'm probably telling him that he misses thinking it's a regular attack (remember 8 players - things get pretty hectic). I'll have to ask him to be clear: "14 -- does that hit his touch AC?"

 

[ForceUser]

Your right about 4th level damage dealing, it is pretty poor (and 5th level is as bad or worse since it consists entirely of Cone of Cold)

At 9th level, empowered fireball is a better bang for your buck than cone of cold. Later, of course, that changes.

I will echo what someone else said: 4th-level evocations are about controlling the battlefield. In that sense they are deadly when properly applied. Otiluke's & wall spells = divide & conquer. I have seen this used to great effect many times.

There's nothing wrong with the 4th level evocations. Wizards who rely on boom spells and nothing else aren't very imaginative, and this means they aren't nearly as effective as they could be. Creative applications of wizardry are far more terrifying than a simple boom (solid fog + cloudkill, for instance). Don't get me wrong, though, booms do have their place. It's just sad when that's the first or only trick out of a wizard's bag time & again. They are capable of so much more.

 

[Saeviomagy]

And why is that? Fire protection? There's still a lot of divine damage.

And someone who has fire protection can also have cold protection.

Bye
Thanee

The spell didn't kill the target, but it does last the entire round.

A flamestrike would not have forced a concentration check. Ice storm does.

 

[Nail]

Evard's Black Tentacles is an excellent 4th level spell....but it's a Conjuration (creation) spell, not Evocation. I thought we were talking about Evokers?

That list, given only the SRD (3.5e) is pretty short, especially when it comes to "BOOM!":

• Fire Shield: Creatures attacking you take fire damage; you’re protected from heat or cold.
  
• Ice Storm: Hail deals 5d6 damage in cylinder 40 ft. across.
  
• Resilient Sphere: Force globe protects but traps one subject.
  
• Shout: Deafens all within cone and deals 5d6 sonic damage.
  
• Wall of Fire: Deals 2d4 fire damage out to 10 ft. and 1d4 out to 20 ft. Passing through wall deals 2d6 damage +1/level.
  
• Wall of Ice: Ice plane creates wall with 15 hp +1/level, or hemisphere can trap creatures inside.

Why is Shout a 4th level spell, again?