Do you think the ___ Orb line of spells are too powerful?

[Obergnom]

I think them to be both to powerful and I do not like them being conjurations.

That put aside, every spell that effects others from the SC uses Spell Resistance in my game, which fixes the orbs just in the right way. (And lessens the issue of SR being useless and "overprized")

 

[Nifft]

Ah, when I say "broken", I'm lumping in the Energy Balls with the Lesser Energy Balls and the Force Balls.

IMHO the Energy Balls (4th level) are not broken. They should be Evocation (with SR: Yes), but otherwise they're fine. Only acid ball should be Conjuration with SR: No, IMHO.

The others (Lesser + Force) are bad and must be stricken from my game.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mistwell]

If they didn't bypass spell resistance, they would be a tad weak. With bypassing, and including the other spells that came around the same time as the orb spells, I think they are about right.

 

[Draxo]

I woulndt call them overpowered at all. They're at 4th level: a level where you're already finding save or lose spells.

I get the feeling that they're there to give a little more versatility for damage spells.

Also, and i think this is the main reason for their existance: to give mages the ability to combat golems and creatures that are nigh magic immune.

My sorcerer took Orb of Force. I really had to think about taking it.. there was that much goodness at that level and below that were preferable in many ways, I actually felt that i was biting a bullet taking it (since i assumed that we would at some point be fighting inorporeal undead). And I -still- havent cast it, since theres always been much more power and practicality in spells like slow and Web

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I only don't like them because they're not evocation. Schools should keep their divisions. But otherwise they seem fine.

 

[Arkhandus]

They didn't ignore Spell Resistance in 3.0 Tome & Blood, and they shouldn't be ignoring it in 3.5E either, but they do. Broken.

Also, in 3.0 they were all Evocation.

 

[shilsen]

I don't like the fact that they bypass spell resistance, so in my game they (and most other spells that ignore SR) simply provide a bonus to beat SR equal to their spell level (+4 in this case). Has worked out pretty well so far (we're up to 13th lvl).

 

[kaomera]

As written they are powerful enough to be an obvious choice. Also, IMO they can be a poor choice as well. Arcane blasting, especially single-target elemental blasting, just isn't fun for the group most of the time, IMHO.

 

[paragondragon]

I personally think they're fine, never had a trouble with them before. And I do think they should be conjuration because they do bypass SR...conjuration is about the only school that can regularly bypass it. Think of it as summoning a orb of energy that you're throwing at something, which would be conjuration territory not evocation, which basically just makes stuff go boom. Now Evard's Black Tentacles, thats too powerful in my book for bypassing SR, but that's not what this is about...especially friggin warlocks with it, ooh I squeeze and do cold damage, as often as I want...fly around, litter the battle field with writing tentacles of freezing death, fair fair. Also the fact that they're only close range which means that if the wizard can hit something with it then more then likely whatever its hitting can charge the poor wizard who just got somethings attention. I think they're when compared to other spells at about those levels.

I also don't understand why the lessers do 1d8 up to max of five and the regular orbs do 1d6 up to a maximum of fifteen, except force which is only 10d6 max and sound which is 15d4 max. I personally use the lesser sound because very few things have sonic resistance and its a good spell to finish something quickly.

 

[Felix]

Cons:
1) They allow a save (except for orb of force, which has no secondary effect).

I just thought I'd make sure we're on the same page here. The save does not affect the elemental damage. These spells will do their full elemental damage when they hit, and they will hit often relative to how often people will save versus "Reflex: Half" spells: touch AC does not scale like saves do.

2) They are a touch attack, so you can miss. Usually when you need them the most. As such you also get cover, concealment, in combat, etc bonuses.

Relative to a target's Save bonus, their Touch AC does not scale with level. You can miss, but it's more likely that you'll hit than it is that your target will fail his save.

You do mention the relative ease of a touch attack, but paramount to the balance argument of the Orbs is that Touch AC doesn't scale.

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IMC:

Orbs of Acid exist.

Orbs of Force are painted and used by extraplanar entities to play Bocce Ball. (What with them being permanent, indestructible, and perfect spheres of Force thanks to a contradiction in the Conjuration rules that I enforce.)