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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 9644966" data-attributes="member: 6932123">Interesting math on Chromatic Orb. I put together a spreadsheet for lots of combinations of stuff.(Spreadsheet <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12f-K7pJvJ-OP2iBlseuYwE9gIv4Cqcpi/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106764127575700045118&rtpof=true&sd=true" target="_blank">here</a>. Caution: It seems completely broken in Google Docs, which doesn't seem to be able to handle the table syntax. It was made using Excel in Office 365.)On its own, it is, as noted, still a bit weaker than Fireball. But for a sorcerer, it really does do pretty well. Getting advantage from Innate Sorcery puts the damage (compared to <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/fireball-lightning-bolt-vs-chromatic-orb.711337/post-9584714" target="_blank">ezo's chart</a>) on par with Chain Lightning (vs the same number of targets) when base accuracy is at least 85%. Add Seeking Spell and it beats Chain Lightning even with a base accuracy of just 60%. You'd likely only need 1 use of Seeking Spell per cast, but it helps nearly guarantee that you'll get the max number of bounces instead of getting cut off early.Meanwhile, Empowered Spell is a modest boost at high level — maybe +20% total damage, regardless of accuracy, if you're willing to burn sorcery points. Technically you could use ES on ~4 dice each on each of 7 damage rolls, for a total boost of about 56 damage (average of +2 damage per die when you reroll a 4 or less).Empowered Spell is actually more useful at lower levels, because you have fewer dice to roll. With lots of dice, the chance of not getting a bounce is minuscule, so the main benefit of ES is the extra damage. With fewer dice, the chance of not getting a bounce is fairly high, so rerolling some of the dice is a drastic increase in the overall damage value of the spell, since each additional target is a big boost in total damage.Using Empowered Spell at spell level 3 is worth an extra 30% to 40% damage, primarily from raising your bounce chance from about 80% to about 95%. Like with Seeking Spell, if you focus only on that aspect, you're probably only using 1 sorcery point per cast of the spell to guarantee max bounces. Using ES to increase damage is less useful, but still allows you to eek out a bit more from the spell.Together, Innate Sorcery, Seeking Spell, and Empowered Spell can double or triple the damage of the spell. At the lowest accuracy, I have it increasing average damage by 362%. So sorcerers can get a lot more from the spell than non-sorcerers.Compared with Fireball:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Assuming 4 targets at character level 5, and using Innate Sorcery in both situations</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fireball uses Careful Spell to avoid friendlies, plus Empowered Spell</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Chromatic Orb uses Seeking Spell and Empowered Spell</li> </ul>Chromatic Orb can expect to do around 96 to 100 total damage, depending on base accuracy. (70 to 72 without Empowered. 112-116 with multiple uses of Empowered Spell.)Fireball can expect to do about 102 to 119 total damage, depending on target saves. (84 to 98 without Empowered.)Empowered Spell gives about a 21% boost to Fireball, but a 37% boost to Chromatic Orb.It's close enough that I'd very much consider it a useful alternative to spells like Fireball and Lightning Bolt, even without the minimum floor of damage.</blockquote>

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