So you've decided to specialize in a single element? Maybe you're a Dragon sorcerer looking to get your Charisma bonus to damage with all of your spells, maybe you're a tempest cleric, or maybe you're just doing it for roleplay reasons. So what element to choose? Knowing how many spells there are that deal damage of your chosen element isn't really useful information, what you want to know, is how many good spells there are in your element. To help you out, I've created a list of every spell you have access to as well as how I would rate it, from the perspective of someone who wants to use that element. So let's begin with Fire
Ratings Scale:
Red Even on a character dedicated to only using spells of this element, You shouldn't use this. It's that bad.
Purple Not great. If you're restricting yourself only to spells of a particular element, You'll probably end up needing to take some of these, but you won't be happy about it.
Black These spells aren't a reason you're excited to play a character specializing in their element, but you'd still pick them.
Blue A solid choice you'll be happy you have
Skyblue Something outstanding, these spells are a reason to look into focusing on their respective element
Cantrips
Fire Bolt (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Long range and deals a very solid 1d10 damage (scaling as you level).
Create Bonfire (Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Requires a Dex save instead of an attack roll and forces you to break concentration, you get a tiny (5-foot cube) zone that deals good damage (1d8, scaling) to any creature that enters it. It's situational, but with the right geography this can be very effective, especially early when you're not using your concentration for anything.
Green-Flame Blade (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) If you're trying to melee with a character that doesn't get Extra Attack, the Blade cantrips are your best option, and this one is quite strong. It doesn't deal fire damage to the primary target until you hit level 5, but if you can hit two targets with it, you're dealing great damage for a cantrip. This spell does require you to have a competent melee attack though, since your attack roll is not made using your Spellcasting modifier (Unless you're a Hexblade)
Produce Flame (Druid) Compared to Fire Bolt, you trade 1 damage (scaling up to 4) and 90 feet of range for some utility in making a light. Still pretty good, especially if you don’t have darkvision.
Level 1
Burning Hands (Light Cleric, Sorcerer, Fiend Warlock, Wizard) 15 foot cone is decent range, but 3d6 damage (with half on a save) isn't very good. You'll need to position this in such a way that you hit two or three enemies (and preferably no allies) with it in order for it to feel impactful.
Chromatic Orb (Sorcerer, Wizard) 3d8 damage to a single target is also not very good, and this spell inexplicably requires a material component that costs 50 gold
Hellish Rebuke (Oathbreaker Paladin, Warlock) 2d10 damage is weak, and this spell also requires you be damaged by the creature you target. Saved from a red rating because of the reaction cast time.
Searing Smite (Paladin) In order for this to be better than a Divine Smite, the enemy needs to take the damage three times, which simply isn't going to happen reliably enough to make this spell worthwhile. If your DM rules that your steed gets the benefit from this spell as well and can attack, this does get better.
Level 2
Aganazzar’s Scorcher (Sorcerer, Wizard) Lines are, in general, a terrible AOE type. You would need to hit three enemies with this in order for it to be any good, and that’s just not going to happen reliably.
Dragon’s Breath (Sorcerer, Wizard) Mediocre if you need to cast this on yourself or a party member, and excellent if you can cast it on someone’s familiar.
Flame Blade (Druid) This uses your concentration, and you need to make three attacks with it for it to be better than Scorching Ray, and it’s melee range.
Flaming Sphere (Druid, Wizard) Uses your concentration, but does great damage and provides a small amount of area denial.
Heat Metal (Bard, Druid) Great if there’s an enemy with metal armor or a metal weapon, causes them to take 2d8 damage unconditionally and be forced to make a save or suffer disadvantage.
Scorching Ray (Sorcerer, Fiend Warlock, Wizard) Solid damage with high scaling, can divide the damage how you wish, and has good range. A great pick.
Level 3
Elemental Weapon (Paladin, Hexblade Warlock) +1 to hit and +1d4 fire damage to someone’s weapon (hopefully someone with extra attacks) can add up to a lot of damage, especially if you can get in two encounters during the one hour duration. Scales well.
Fireball (Sorcerer, Fiend Warlock, Wizard) At the level you get it, this does excellent damage, has great range and a large area of effect. Shame it doesn’t scale well.
Flame arrows (Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard) Uses your concentration, lasts an hour but can only effect 12 pieces of ammunition total (hit or miss) and only adds +1d6 to damage. It's real bad.
Glyph of warding (Bard, Cleric, Wizard) It takes an hour and 200 GP to cast, but it lasts until someone triggers it. If you're high level with gold to burn, you could make a few of these out of throwable objects, use a spell glyph with a high-level fire spell, set the trigger for the spell glyph as the object touching the ground, and use them like grenades. For 200 Gold apiece, though, it would have to be a pretty high level spell.
Melf’s Minute Meteors (Sorcerer, Wizard) Compared to a Fireball, this trades some range, some area of effect, and some immediate damage for higher damage if you can fire off every meteor and better scaling. If you’re not using your concentration for anything else, I would take this over fireball.
Level 4
Elemental Bane (Druid, Warlock, Wizard) Gives the target a save, and if they fail they take 2d6 more fire damage (once per turn) and lose their fire resistance, and it uses your concentration. That’s not good enough to justify a fourth level spell slot.
Fire Shield (Fiend Warlock, Wizard) No concentration, lasts 10 minutes, deals 2d8 fire damage to anything that hits you, and grants you cold resistance. Decent.
Wall of Fire (Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard) In general, effects that rely on your opponents to stand in a damaging area aren’t very useful. Your enemies will either stay away, or take the damage once to walk through the wall.
Level 5
Flame Strike (Cleric, Devotion Paladin, Celestial/Fiend Warlock) Does the same damage as Fireball (which is two spell levels earlier) with less range and less area. If you don't have access to Fireball, this is servicable but not great.
Immolation (Sorcerer, Wizard) The damage is awful (same initial damage as a level 3 fireball, but only to one target, it gives a saving throw every round to end the ongoing damage (which is also low) and it uses your concentration.
Level 6
Investiture of Flame (Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) By the time you get this spell, your fire bolt cantrip will already be doing 3d10 damage, almost as much as this spell's attack. The area of effect damage is unfriendly (as in, it hits your allies) and it requires concentration. That said, Fire immunity and cold resistance could be helpful.
Level 7
Delayed Blast Fireball (Sorcerer, Wizard) At its worst, this is a level 7 fireball that breaks your concentration. At its best, you could theoretically get 22d6 of damage (AOE) out of this, but that seems like a stretch. It's still fine, but not remarkable.
Fire Storm (Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer) 7d10 damage isn't very good for a level 7 spell, but the spell has good range and a great area (10 cubes of 10x10x10 each, which you can arrange as you choose so long as each cube touches at least one other) For battles against huge hordes, this might see some use. It's better if you don't have access to Fireball
Level 8
Illusory Dragon (Wizard) 7d6 damage isn't great, but a 60-foot cone is good, it only takes your bonus action to use, and it's repeatable. Plus the dragon can block paths for you. It takes a creature's whole action to try and determine that the dragon isn't real, many creatures have poor Investigation, plus it's a check and not a save so legendary resistance doesn't help.
Incendiary Cloud (Sorcerer, Wizard) For a level 8 spell, this just doesn't offer enough. 10d8 damage is abysmal, and the spell isn't good for zone control since it moves away from you.
Level 9
Meteor Swarm (Sorcerer, Wizard) Ridiculously long range, a huge AOE, and incredible damage.
Prismatic Wall (Wizard) Even more damage than Meteor Swarm (though not as much fire damage), plus it applies two conditions to creatures that try to walk through it. Doesn't require concentration, and your allies can pass through it at will. Phenomenal.
Options for a Fire-based character:
Feats
Elemental Adept Treating any roll of 1 as a 2 increases the average damage of a d6 from 3.5 to 3.66, which is not a very substantial increase, so the effectiveness of this spell largely depends on how much you need the ability to overcome fire resistance. I definitely wouldn't take this before getting my casting stat to 20.
Flames of Phlegethos (requires Tiefling) Rerolling any 1 increases the average damage of a d6 from 3.5 to 3.91, which is a little bit better but still not a substantial increase, and the melee punish deals weak damage and never scales. However, this feat is saved by the fact that it gives +1 to Int or Cha, which means you can start with 17 Cha and take this while still getting a bonus to hit and to damage. This feat makes Tieflings the premier choice for fire-based characters.
Magic Initiate (Wizard/Sorcerer) This feat allows any character to access two fire cantrips (Fire Bolt and Green-flame Blade) as well as a first-level spell from either class. If you want to play a fire-based Bard or similar, I'd recommend it.
Magic Initiate (Druid) This allows any Wisdom-based class to get a fire-based cantrip in Produce Flame, as well as another Druid cantrip and a first-level druid spell (of which there are no Fire spells but plenty of strong choices)
Dips into other classes
Warlock of the Fiend 3 3 levels in Fiend Warlock gets you two level 2 spell slots that recharge on a short rest, Hex to boost your damage, Scorching Ray, Fire Bolt and Green-Flame Blade, as well as Darkness+Devil's Sight for advantage on attack rolls, and another Invocation of your choice (I'd recommend Pact of the book and Book of Ancient Secrets) Much worse for builds without attack-caliber Charisma
Warlock of the Hexblade 1-3 1 level in Hexblade lets you make weapon attacks with your Cha, which is invaluable for a charisma-primary classes looking to make use of Green-flame Blade, Elemental Weapon, or both, and you also get a solid damage buff in Hexblade's Curse, and two fire cantrips in Fire Bolt and Green-flame blade, as well as two solid utility spells in Hex and Shield. Two levels gets you Invocations, and three gets you Darkness+Devil's Sight and a pact option. Much worse for builds that don't want to attack with their Charisma.
Shadow Sorcerer 3 It's not flavourful, but if you're only going to three sorcerer levels, Shadow is a better choice than Fire Dragon. You can still get your Fire Cantrips (Fire Bolt and GFB) as well as Metamagic. Careful spell allows you to drop fireballs without worrying about them hitting your allies, quicken spell allows you to weave together spells and melee more easily (or add another fire bolt to your turn) and twin spell costs less SP than quicken to double a fire bolt. In addition, you can spend two sorcery points to cast Darkness (while being able to see through it) and give yourself advantage on attack rolls.
Fire Dragon Sorcerer 6 We're getting a little out of the realms of a dip here, but this merits special mention as one of the only always-on bonuses to your fire damage, in addition to metamagic and access to fire cantrips, Fireball, and Scorching Ray.
Ratings Scale:
Red Even on a character dedicated to only using spells of this element, You shouldn't use this. It's that bad.
Purple Not great. If you're restricting yourself only to spells of a particular element, You'll probably end up needing to take some of these, but you won't be happy about it.
Black These spells aren't a reason you're excited to play a character specializing in their element, but you'd still pick them.
Blue A solid choice you'll be happy you have
Skyblue Something outstanding, these spells are a reason to look into focusing on their respective element
Cantrips
Fire Bolt (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Long range and deals a very solid 1d10 damage (scaling as you level).
Create Bonfire (Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Requires a Dex save instead of an attack roll and forces you to break concentration, you get a tiny (5-foot cube) zone that deals good damage (1d8, scaling) to any creature that enters it. It's situational, but with the right geography this can be very effective, especially early when you're not using your concentration for anything.
Green-Flame Blade (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) If you're trying to melee with a character that doesn't get Extra Attack, the Blade cantrips are your best option, and this one is quite strong. It doesn't deal fire damage to the primary target until you hit level 5, but if you can hit two targets with it, you're dealing great damage for a cantrip. This spell does require you to have a competent melee attack though, since your attack roll is not made using your Spellcasting modifier (Unless you're a Hexblade)
Produce Flame (Druid) Compared to Fire Bolt, you trade 1 damage (scaling up to 4) and 90 feet of range for some utility in making a light. Still pretty good, especially if you don’t have darkvision.
Level 1
Burning Hands (Light Cleric, Sorcerer, Fiend Warlock, Wizard) 15 foot cone is decent range, but 3d6 damage (with half on a save) isn't very good. You'll need to position this in such a way that you hit two or three enemies (and preferably no allies) with it in order for it to feel impactful.
Chromatic Orb (Sorcerer, Wizard) 3d8 damage to a single target is also not very good, and this spell inexplicably requires a material component that costs 50 gold
Hellish Rebuke (Oathbreaker Paladin, Warlock) 2d10 damage is weak, and this spell also requires you be damaged by the creature you target. Saved from a red rating because of the reaction cast time.
Searing Smite (Paladin) In order for this to be better than a Divine Smite, the enemy needs to take the damage three times, which simply isn't going to happen reliably enough to make this spell worthwhile. If your DM rules that your steed gets the benefit from this spell as well and can attack, this does get better.
Level 2
Aganazzar’s Scorcher (Sorcerer, Wizard) Lines are, in general, a terrible AOE type. You would need to hit three enemies with this in order for it to be any good, and that’s just not going to happen reliably.
Dragon’s Breath (Sorcerer, Wizard) Mediocre if you need to cast this on yourself or a party member, and excellent if you can cast it on someone’s familiar.
Flame Blade (Druid) This uses your concentration, and you need to make three attacks with it for it to be better than Scorching Ray, and it’s melee range.
Flaming Sphere (Druid, Wizard) Uses your concentration, but does great damage and provides a small amount of area denial.
Heat Metal (Bard, Druid) Great if there’s an enemy with metal armor or a metal weapon, causes them to take 2d8 damage unconditionally and be forced to make a save or suffer disadvantage.
Scorching Ray (Sorcerer, Fiend Warlock, Wizard) Solid damage with high scaling, can divide the damage how you wish, and has good range. A great pick.
Level 3
Elemental Weapon (Paladin, Hexblade Warlock) +1 to hit and +1d4 fire damage to someone’s weapon (hopefully someone with extra attacks) can add up to a lot of damage, especially if you can get in two encounters during the one hour duration. Scales well.
Fireball (Sorcerer, Fiend Warlock, Wizard) At the level you get it, this does excellent damage, has great range and a large area of effect. Shame it doesn’t scale well.
Flame arrows (Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard) Uses your concentration, lasts an hour but can only effect 12 pieces of ammunition total (hit or miss) and only adds +1d6 to damage. It's real bad.
Glyph of warding (Bard, Cleric, Wizard) It takes an hour and 200 GP to cast, but it lasts until someone triggers it. If you're high level with gold to burn, you could make a few of these out of throwable objects, use a spell glyph with a high-level fire spell, set the trigger for the spell glyph as the object touching the ground, and use them like grenades. For 200 Gold apiece, though, it would have to be a pretty high level spell.
Melf’s Minute Meteors (Sorcerer, Wizard) Compared to a Fireball, this trades some range, some area of effect, and some immediate damage for higher damage if you can fire off every meteor and better scaling. If you’re not using your concentration for anything else, I would take this over fireball.
Level 4
Elemental Bane (Druid, Warlock, Wizard) Gives the target a save, and if they fail they take 2d6 more fire damage (once per turn) and lose their fire resistance, and it uses your concentration. That’s not good enough to justify a fourth level spell slot.
Fire Shield (Fiend Warlock, Wizard) No concentration, lasts 10 minutes, deals 2d8 fire damage to anything that hits you, and grants you cold resistance. Decent.
Wall of Fire (Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard) In general, effects that rely on your opponents to stand in a damaging area aren’t very useful. Your enemies will either stay away, or take the damage once to walk through the wall.
Level 5
Flame Strike (Cleric, Devotion Paladin, Celestial/Fiend Warlock) Does the same damage as Fireball (which is two spell levels earlier) with less range and less area. If you don't have access to Fireball, this is servicable but not great.
Immolation (Sorcerer, Wizard) The damage is awful (same initial damage as a level 3 fireball, but only to one target, it gives a saving throw every round to end the ongoing damage (which is also low) and it uses your concentration.
Level 6
Investiture of Flame (Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) By the time you get this spell, your fire bolt cantrip will already be doing 3d10 damage, almost as much as this spell's attack. The area of effect damage is unfriendly (as in, it hits your allies) and it requires concentration. That said, Fire immunity and cold resistance could be helpful.
Level 7
Delayed Blast Fireball (Sorcerer, Wizard) At its worst, this is a level 7 fireball that breaks your concentration. At its best, you could theoretically get 22d6 of damage (AOE) out of this, but that seems like a stretch. It's still fine, but not remarkable.
Fire Storm (Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer) 7d10 damage isn't very good for a level 7 spell, but the spell has good range and a great area (10 cubes of 10x10x10 each, which you can arrange as you choose so long as each cube touches at least one other) For battles against huge hordes, this might see some use. It's better if you don't have access to Fireball
Level 8
Illusory Dragon (Wizard) 7d6 damage isn't great, but a 60-foot cone is good, it only takes your bonus action to use, and it's repeatable. Plus the dragon can block paths for you. It takes a creature's whole action to try and determine that the dragon isn't real, many creatures have poor Investigation, plus it's a check and not a save so legendary resistance doesn't help.
Incendiary Cloud (Sorcerer, Wizard) For a level 8 spell, this just doesn't offer enough. 10d8 damage is abysmal, and the spell isn't good for zone control since it moves away from you.
Level 9
Meteor Swarm (Sorcerer, Wizard) Ridiculously long range, a huge AOE, and incredible damage.
Prismatic Wall (Wizard) Even more damage than Meteor Swarm (though not as much fire damage), plus it applies two conditions to creatures that try to walk through it. Doesn't require concentration, and your allies can pass through it at will. Phenomenal.
Options for a Fire-based character:
Feats
Elemental Adept Treating any roll of 1 as a 2 increases the average damage of a d6 from 3.5 to 3.66, which is not a very substantial increase, so the effectiveness of this spell largely depends on how much you need the ability to overcome fire resistance. I definitely wouldn't take this before getting my casting stat to 20.
Flames of Phlegethos (requires Tiefling) Rerolling any 1 increases the average damage of a d6 from 3.5 to 3.91, which is a little bit better but still not a substantial increase, and the melee punish deals weak damage and never scales. However, this feat is saved by the fact that it gives +1 to Int or Cha, which means you can start with 17 Cha and take this while still getting a bonus to hit and to damage. This feat makes Tieflings the premier choice for fire-based characters.
Magic Initiate (Wizard/Sorcerer) This feat allows any character to access two fire cantrips (Fire Bolt and Green-flame Blade) as well as a first-level spell from either class. If you want to play a fire-based Bard or similar, I'd recommend it.
Magic Initiate (Druid) This allows any Wisdom-based class to get a fire-based cantrip in Produce Flame, as well as another Druid cantrip and a first-level druid spell (of which there are no Fire spells but plenty of strong choices)
Dips into other classes
Warlock of the Fiend 3 3 levels in Fiend Warlock gets you two level 2 spell slots that recharge on a short rest, Hex to boost your damage, Scorching Ray, Fire Bolt and Green-Flame Blade, as well as Darkness+Devil's Sight for advantage on attack rolls, and another Invocation of your choice (I'd recommend Pact of the book and Book of Ancient Secrets) Much worse for builds without attack-caliber Charisma
Warlock of the Hexblade 1-3 1 level in Hexblade lets you make weapon attacks with your Cha, which is invaluable for a charisma-primary classes looking to make use of Green-flame Blade, Elemental Weapon, or both, and you also get a solid damage buff in Hexblade's Curse, and two fire cantrips in Fire Bolt and Green-flame blade, as well as two solid utility spells in Hex and Shield. Two levels gets you Invocations, and three gets you Darkness+Devil's Sight and a pact option. Much worse for builds that don't want to attack with their Charisma.
Shadow Sorcerer 3 It's not flavourful, but if you're only going to three sorcerer levels, Shadow is a better choice than Fire Dragon. You can still get your Fire Cantrips (Fire Bolt and GFB) as well as Metamagic. Careful spell allows you to drop fireballs without worrying about them hitting your allies, quicken spell allows you to weave together spells and melee more easily (or add another fire bolt to your turn) and twin spell costs less SP than quicken to double a fire bolt. In addition, you can spend two sorcery points to cast Darkness (while being able to see through it) and give yourself advantage on attack rolls.
Fire Dragon Sorcerer 6 We're getting a little out of the realms of a dip here, but this merits special mention as one of the only always-on bonuses to your fire damage, in addition to metamagic and access to fire cantrips, Fireball, and Scorching Ray.
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