4th level evocation spells kind of blah?

[Darklone]

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.

Right. Spoiler:

Spoiler

The sorcerer in Standing Stones has puny hitpoints and may have been killed by a level 7 Flame Strike, but the PC does not know that... actually, no PC should ever assume to get so cheesy easy high level opponents in adventures. The player DID know though that he wouldn't survive the next fireball... he barely survived the first one in bear wildshape due to high con and more hitpoints.

SPOILER END.

Edit: Ah well... and the pc didn't see the opponent, he just knew approximately where he was (where the bead came from). So no readying to disrupt spellcasting.