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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 9645822" data-attributes="member: 6932123">Somewhat true. Rather, it has the potential for hitting more targets, possibly substantially more. Against a zombie horde or a pack of kobolds, etc, there's no real competition.On the other hand, if targets are too spread out, or you're fighting a smaller group of higher level creatures, that extra potential doesn't really matter. From personal anecdote only, I've only had a couple times where a Fireball managed to hit more than a handful of targets. It was fun when it happened, but those targets also happened to not be that significant, either.For the comparison I mentioned, it was at character level 5, so spell level 3, which means Chromatic Orb was upcast and Fireball was cast at its base level. I set up my spreadsheet to make it easy to switch things around, though, and looked at lots of different spell levels and accuracy levels.Here's some quick numbers for a  high level cast:Fireball, spell level 6, using Innate Sorcery (+1 spell DC, total 18 DC) and Empowered Spell, vs 7 targets with between a +0 and +6 Dex save. Average total damage is between 250 and 298.Chromatic Orb, spell level 6, using Innate Sorcery (advantage) and Seeking Spell, no Empowered Spell, vs 7 targets (up to 6 bounces) with a base accuracy between 60% and 95%. Average total damage is between 252 and 275.The same two, but take away Empowered Spell from Fireball and Seeking Spell from Chromatic Orb:Fireball: 209 to 249Chromatic Orb: 148 to 272 (Roughly on par when at 80% base accuracy.)Seeking Spell is very significant for Chromatic Orb at the low end, but doesn't do much at the high end. Empowered Spell is a fairly hefty chunk of damage for Fireball (~40 damage), but barely noticeable for Chromatic Orb (~10 damage).7 enemies should be a pretty solid number of targets to hit with Fireball, so it looks like things are still roughly on par. Chromatic Orb loses more from not using Seeking Spell than Fireball loses from not using Empowered Spell, though.Eh? That's... not how odds work.  You have a 50% chance to roll a 4, 5, or 6 on a d6. You have a 50% chance to roll a 5, 6, 7, or 8 on a d8. You get a higher average on a d8 because the probability of rolling at least some value N is always higher on a d8 than on a d6. On both the upper half of values and the lower half of values, your results will be better on a d8 than a d6.<table style='width: 100%'><tr><th>Roll at least</th><th>On a d8</th><th>On a d6</th></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>8</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>12.5%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>0%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>7</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>25%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>0%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>6</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>37.5%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>16.7%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>5</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>50%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>33.3%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>4</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>62.5%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>50%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>3</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>75%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>66.7%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>2</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>87.5%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>83.3%</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 33.3333%'>1</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>100%</td><td style='width: 33.3333%'>100%</td></tr></table>That is a different probability issue. That's about the odds of getting a very specific value. In the case of Sorcerous Burst, the specific value for getting it to explode is easier to achieve on a d6 than on a d8.Of course the problem with Sorcerous Burst (as first playtested) was that, even with that higher explosion probability, the base value was low enough that the explosion didn't make up for it (on average; spikes make it appear better in the moment). A straight d8 cantrip did more damage on average than the d6 cantrip with exploding dice.Switching Sorcerous Burst to a d8 base means its total damage is now between a d8 and a d10 cantrip, which is sufficient to go along with its other features. It does make the explosions less frequent, though, which is mildly disappointing.That would be the Transmuted Spell metamagic in the 2024 PHB. And yes, it could be useful.Getting it before level 10 is a hard choice, though, since you only start off with 2 metamagics. At level 2, I find most of the other metamagics more desirable.</blockquote>

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