Arcane fire : Whats the point?

[Question]

You sacrifice a level 9 slot to gain this power, and a level 9 spell slot to use it. At level 5 archmage you will do 14d6 damage this way. Not affected by resists.

An empowered orb of force does 15d6 damage and uses a level 6 spell slot. Not affected by resists either.

Why would i want to take this power?

 

[MarkB]

well, the Archmage does predate the Orb spells, so it can't be expected to take them into account. That said, it does have one advantage - Long range instead of Medium.

 

[Bad Paper]

Why would i want to take this power?

Nothing states that you have to burn one of your level 9 spells to use it; that would be stupid. On the other hand, turning Read Magic into 5d6 damage is pretty cool.

 

[Shadeus]

Nothing states that you have to burn one of your level 9 spells to use it; that would be stupid. On the other hand, turning Read Magic into 5d6 damage is pretty cool.

Actually, you do need to burn a 9th-level spell to "power" arcane fire.

Arcane fire is a supernatural ability and is therefore not subject to spell resistance. So the SR 36 demon lord will be hurt by your arcane fire. It's either that or stick to Melf's Acid Arrow or one of the other handful of spell that are also not subject to spell resistance.

 

[Shadeus]

An empowered orb of force does 15d6 damage and uses a level 6 spell slot. Not affected by resists either.

Why would i want to take this power?

I thought they changed the "orb of" spells to be affected by SR in 3.5. But maybe not since they are conjuration spells. If that's the case, then you bring up a good point; the "orb of" spells eclipse this ability...which is a shame really.

 

[nogray]

A few reasons

First, most of the orbs are subject to energy resistance. Arcane Fire, despite its name, is not. (Granted, this does not apply to Orb of Force.)

Second, there is a matter of range. The Orb spells are Close range. Arcane Fire has a much longer range (between the range of Medium and Long).

Third, Arcane Fire can be used spontaneously. Wizards can dump any spell for another attack, if they find it necessary. This is even somewhat useful for Sorcerers, too, since the empowered orb spell would be a full-round action to cast.

Fourth, as a Supernatural ability, Arcane Fire is not subject to counterspelling or attacks of opportunity (though making the ranged attack may be, but then the orb spells would also be subject to that same AoO). The orb spell, despite being empowered to 6th effective level, is actually a fourth level spell, and subject to exclusion by Globe of Invulnerability.

Last (and my personal favorite), you can use Arcane Fire with any spell level. You are right in that a straight comparison with a 6th effective-level spell vs. a 9th level spell dropped into Arcane Fire is not entirely favorable. However, it is nice to do 5d6 with a cantrip (spell level is zero, archmage level is 5: 0d6+5d6=5d6).

 

[Vanye]

Actually, you do need to burn a 9th-level spell to "power" arcane fire.

I think he means that you don't need to burn a 9th level spell to make your ability turn a 1st level spell into damage.

You DO have to sacrifice a 9th level spell slot to gain the ability to convert spells into arcane fire, but that's a one time sacrifice, not something you need to do every time you go to throw fire.

 

[Henry]

Which is one of the several reasons I house-ruled the Orb spells back to Evocations in my 3.5 games; Orb of Force, particularly, out-guns many other Evocation spells, and can't even have energy resistance applied the way "Cone of Flame" can.

But, technically Question's right -- Orb of Force, and probably some other effects, would mostly outclass a 9th level slotted Arcane Fire.

 

[Sejs]

Why would I want to take this power?

Because then, much like a cleric never has to go out of their way to memorize a cure or inflict spell, you wouldn't have to necessarily dedicate spell slots to being able to put out damage. You can just do it on the fly as the situation requires.

Imagine how many utility spells you could pack away if you didn't have to put some aside to making sure you had some blasting magic just in case.

Plus, yeah, it's supernatural. No SR, no components. Silenced? Grappled? Don't have your books? No problem.

 

[Fishbone]

This is a bunch of needless bagging on a class ability that doesn't need to bagged upon. The main points are it can be used almost anytime against darn near anything. Comparing a solid ability to an uber-broken spell proves 1 thing and 1 thing only:The spell is too strong, not the ability is too weak.