Zardnaar
Legend
A chromatic orb deals up 6d8 damage in a level 3 slot. Vs 8d6.
27 vs 28 average damage.
Ah Zard you drunken kiwi you're delirious. Fireball hits all of the enemies and it's just better!!! Downsides are it's fire damage though and also hits allies.
New chromatic orb only hits up to 4 targets in a level 3 slot, isn't guaranteed to bounce. Drunken kiwis are also bad at maff. And romance, culture, poetry and anything else vaguely French sounding.
At level 3 it bounces 70%+ of the time 92% level 4, 98%+ level 5. Ping pong.
How often do you really encounter mooks in large number? Even if you do there's aways other AoE spells depending on class.
Any spell casting class also gets access to chromatic orb via magic adept if they want it bad enough.
Another key difference is attack roll vs save. Not many ways to buff spell DCs. Lots of ways to boost attack rolls though. Innate sorcerery also exists and advantage isn't to hard to get. Empower spell and seeking spell also exist.
In practice chromatic orb bounces a lot past the early levels, critical hits almost guarantee a bounce. In essence it's a no save fireball level spell. My players often only use it when accuracy is maximized. Sorcerers have the easiest way here. Elven accuracy is also funny. Advantage feeds critical hits.
I've seen it dropped in level 5 and 6 spell slots. At those levels I'm comparing it more to chain lightning. 6 or 7 potentially targets. In essence a no save chain lightning.
Non sorcerers often have access to bless or faerie fire for boosting accuracy. Humans can also get access to one of them so wizards can get in on the madness. Warlocks can get everything via ancient secrets. Everybody can sling chromatic orb.
It also opens up a good level 3 blast spell for dragon sorcerer that are not lightning bolt or fireball. Acid dragon sorcerer seems good. Along with sorcerous burst. Generally I'm not a fan of blasting spells (I rate fireball B tier). But I'm liking what I'm seeing.
Anyone else seeing it in use? Not saying it's broken or OP but as far as damage dealing goes........ It's also fun to use.
27 vs 28 average damage.
Ah Zard you drunken kiwi you're delirious. Fireball hits all of the enemies and it's just better!!! Downsides are it's fire damage though and also hits allies.
New chromatic orb only hits up to 4 targets in a level 3 slot, isn't guaranteed to bounce. Drunken kiwis are also bad at maff. And romance, culture, poetry and anything else vaguely French sounding.
At level 3 it bounces 70%+ of the time 92% level 4, 98%+ level 5. Ping pong.
How often do you really encounter mooks in large number? Even if you do there's aways other AoE spells depending on class.
Any spell casting class also gets access to chromatic orb via magic adept if they want it bad enough.
Another key difference is attack roll vs save. Not many ways to buff spell DCs. Lots of ways to boost attack rolls though. Innate sorcerery also exists and advantage isn't to hard to get. Empower spell and seeking spell also exist.
In practice chromatic orb bounces a lot past the early levels, critical hits almost guarantee a bounce. In essence it's a no save fireball level spell. My players often only use it when accuracy is maximized. Sorcerers have the easiest way here. Elven accuracy is also funny. Advantage feeds critical hits.
I've seen it dropped in level 5 and 6 spell slots. At those levels I'm comparing it more to chain lightning. 6 or 7 potentially targets. In essence a no save chain lightning.
Non sorcerers often have access to bless or faerie fire for boosting accuracy. Humans can also get access to one of them so wizards can get in on the madness. Warlocks can get everything via ancient secrets. Everybody can sling chromatic orb.
It also opens up a good level 3 blast spell for dragon sorcerer that are not lightning bolt or fireball. Acid dragon sorcerer seems good. Along with sorcerous burst. Generally I'm not a fan of blasting spells (I rate fireball B tier). But I'm liking what I'm seeing.
Anyone else seeing it in use? Not saying it's broken or OP but as far as damage dealing goes........ It's also fun to use.