KarinsDad said:
Well, they are practically identical to other range touch energy spells with no save except:
1) They have no Spell Resistance. This is big at high levels. The main defense against Orbs at high level is having cover/concealment (or the caster rolling a one which is unlikely) or having mega-hit points and the latter will not last long. Even energy resistance is somewhat limited against them since some casters like Warmages can pick and choose which to cast.
This point I agree with. I would probably change it to Evocation (SR: Yes) or slow the scaling of damage.
2) Most of them have an additional one round effect (or in the case of Orb of Force, it does a lot more damage than other comparable Force spells instead and has few defenses and can blow through incorporeals). "Oh, I dazed you? Great. I get to Orb you again next round and there is nothing you can do about it.". Not exactly the same as save or die, but close enough.
The secondary effect requires a touch attack and a save, so there's a decent chance it will fail. The secondary effect probably is still on the high side of the power curve for a 4th level single target spell.
3) They blow through Golems.
Which is why I want the nerf above.
4) If interpreted one way, they blow through Antimagic Fields.
See above nerf.
5) If interpreted one way, they stick around forever. "Hey Johnny, come play with this Orb of Fire".
See above nerf. (I know, I'm getting repetitive.
)
6) They are Conjuration energy spells that are stronger than any similar Evocation energy spells. That's just plain wrong.
Did I mention my nerf?
If you want me to keep them as conjuration, then I'd scale the damage back to 1d6/two levels.
7) At high level, they often do 50+ points of damage which results in a save versus massive damage. Even if the save is easy to make, anyone can roll a one and there are even high level opponents who might have a 25% or more chance of missing a DC 15 Fort save. It's not always 5%.
To get 50+ points of damage regularly, we're probably looking at 15th level or so and 8th level spells. If your 15th level mage is choosing to do damage and can't trigger a massive damage save, he needs to rebuild his character.
You could also hit 50 damage at about 11th level with Empower. If that makes it overpowered, Fireball is even more so, since it's a level lower and will do about the same damage from a 11th level caster. To a group of enemies.
8) Like other range touch spells, they do double damage on a successful critical. And, sneak attack damage adds to them. Although this is true for other range touch spells and not unique to Orbs, the fact that there are few defenses against them means that about 4% of the time, they are nearly an insta-kill spell (shy of extenuating circumstances and in addition to the massive damage chance). The other range touch spells are not quite this bad due to fewer defenses (and lower damage caps).
4% is your estimate of how often it criticals or sneak attacks? You could say the similar things about Enervation. An average of 5 negative levels (from a Enervation critical) is going to make most people quite unhappy. Especially if it's followed with a save-or-suck spell.
9) They do what no other 4th level (or higher) spell does: extend a single target energy attack to 4th level which raises the damage cap to 15D6. One set of balance to high level area effect energy spells are that a) they have saves for half damage, b) they have spell resistance, c) they have situations in which casting them is harmful to the party. This spell does not have these limitations and introduces a damage power level beyond what normally can consistently be done at higher level.
The DMG guide for damage caps gives 15d6 for a 4th level, single target spell. Single target spells increase their damage caps one level before area effect spells do.
Usually, the caster can get off the area effect spell and not hit any friendlies. In the last campaign I ran (level 3-12 with 6 PCs), the PC's were only hit with friendly fire about twice. Both times it was the raging barbarian who was uninjured before the fireball.
10) Orbs are also a great mop up spell since they tend to do average damage most every time and there are few defenses against them. The Fighter wounded the BBEG? Great. Mop him up with an Orb. Round one or two, the BBEG is dead. Next.
With the evocation nerf, there are more defenses. Also, the damage is as average as for a fireball or cone of cold. Do you generally dislike high-level, single target, ranged touch spells because it makes it easy to mop up the bad guy?
11) Metamagic to improve damage? Orbs are low enough level that Empower and Maximize can both be placed on them even without Metamagic Rods or Sudden Metamagic feats or Arcane Thesis or Incantatrix metamagic abilities.
The same thing applies to fireball and cone of cold. If you just want to maximize damage, there's no reason to cast cone of cold below 14th level if you opponents don't have evasion. Empowered fireball will beat it, no matter how likely they are to save.
They're nice evocation spells. Fix that problem and they're perfectly reasonable.
