D&D 5E Fireball vs. Spirit Guardians

[Caliban]

For Spirit Guardians, the point of Origin is the caster, does that mean it covers a space 15' a head, behind, beside the character or does it include the characters square, so its effectively only 10' in every direction?

DM's choice, really.

Generally, if you are using a grid, pick one of the corners and it emanates from there.

But the DM can also decide that it emanates 15' in all directions from your square instead of a corner. (Using the logic that it starts in the center of your square and extends halfway into the squares 15' away, which is enough to consider it as affecting the entire square. Because grids.)

 

[FrogReaver]

For Spirit Guardians, the point of Origin is the caster, does that mean it covers a space 15' a head, behind, beside the character or does it include the characters square, so its effectively only 10' in every direction?

I would rule in the players favor. 15' means 15' from you. Anything that can be said to be 15 ft from you is hit even if it would only be 14' from your head.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

No clear answer.

Since fireball does more damage immediately, it is more likely to take foes out of the battle immediately, which gives you an upper hand for the rest of the battle. Spirit Guardians is more likely to leave those foes in the fight, and simply force them to change their tactics. It compensates by being able to theoretically kill more critters if you move around, and providing the melee protection and battlefield control that such a threat invokes.

 

[FrogReaver]

I personally think fireball is in general the better spell. It has a larger AOE. Front loading damage has a quality all of it's own. Killing those orcs all on turn 1 as opposed to turn 2 matters.

That said, spirit guardians is generally a better scaling spell in damage. It's concentration requirement can be more or less negated with feats and a high AC. It has same nice uses for slowing down fast enemies as well.

 

[Staffan]

If I was given the choice between fireball and spirit guardians, I would take fireball. Spirit guardians has its upsides, but generally doing more up-front damage at a distance is the better choice. I would estimate that fireball is the better choice in about 75% of situations.

 

[FrogReaver]

If I was given the choice between fireball and spirit guardians, I would take fireball. Spirit guardians has its upsides, but generally doing more up-front damage at a distance is the better choice. I would estimate that fireball is the better choice in about 75% of situations.

And usually still a good choice in all but 5% of the others!

 

[77IM]

At level 3 Fireball does 8d6 at a distance of 150 feet in a 20 food diamatre.

I know it's just a typo, but my brain won't let go of the notion of a 20 food diameter. For fireball, I'm thinking it's mostly char-grilled meat and habanero peppers. I think spirit guardians has a 15 food radius; probably rum muffins.

 

[Caliban]

The best answer is more of a Meta thing - do you know if your DM prefers throwing waves of monsters at you, or have several small encounters in a confined setting (dungeon crawl mode)? Then Spirit Guardians is more optimal, because it can last for multiple waves or encounters.

If the DM prefers fewer encounters per day with most of the bad guys present in the first round (and conveniently clustered) ...then fireball is going to be much better.