D&D 5E (2014) Guiding Bolt too good for a level 1 cleric spell?

[Xodis]

I think its nice that a "Spell Casting" Cleric is able to contribute like it can, while not leaving the "Battle Cleric" behind. Even a good hybrid would be nice, cast this and next turn run in and hammer to the face with advantage.

 

[Sadrik]

The thing with Guiding Bolt is that it's a single-target attack with a to-hit roll. In other words, even though the average damage is pretty good, the variance per fight is very big. When you miss, it does nothing and if you needed the damage, you are in trouble. If you didn't need the damage, it really doesn't matter too much which spell you use.

I much prefer spells like Thunderwave or Burning Hands that are save for half and targets 2+ enemies. With the way spell slots are used, you should have a good AoE like one of those two, and a secondary single target spell like Magic Missile for when you only have one target. I would prefer MM, because of the utility it can provide when you have 1+ enemies at very low hp.

My decision three would look something like this:

1. Can I hit 2+ enemies with Thunderwave/Burning hands?
   1. Yes: Use it
   2. No: Magic Missile, targetting:
      1. Very low hp mobs
      2. Big Bad guy that's hard to hit

Thunderwave is save negate not 1/2. the other thing about burning hands and thunderwave is the closeness that is required for them. If your wizard is up in the fight they are handy but every wizard I play is valiantly attempting to stay out of melee range and I am usually pretty successful at it. Granted how I play a wizard and how others might play a wizard might be different. Though I do not think it is that far off...

 

[Li Shenron]

Guiding Bolt 4d6 + advantage on next attack on hit
Inflict Wounds 3d10 on hit
Burning Hands 3d6 15' cone save for 1/2
Thunderwave each creature adjacent to you takes 2d8 and 10' push away on failed save, save negates
Magic Missile 3d4+3 + auto hit

At first sight, they seem quite balanced with each other to me...

4d6 = avg 14 + adv on next hit
3d10 = avg 16.5, melee range
3d6 = avg 10.5 + save half, multitarget (max 6)
2d8 = avg 9 + push, multitarget (max 8)
3d4+3 = avg 10.5 + no save, can split targets

Guiding Bolt is high damage, but all the other spells have their own benefits that can make them better in different circumstances. If you catch at least 2 targets with the lowest damage ones, you deal better total damage for example.

I know I always complain about minutia (possibly because I don't have any major issue about 5e to complain about), but in this case I am actually quite satisfied by these minute differences! There are no 2 spells among these that I could say X is always a better choice than Y.

 

[Boarstorm]

Thunderwave is save negate not 1/2.

No it isn't.

The push is negated. The damage is still halved.

 

[Sadrik]

No it isn't.

The push is negated. The damage is still halved.

Thank you, you are correct.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Guiding Bolt 4d6 + advantage on next attack on hit

Let's assume a 12 AC on your enemy. With an 18 Wisdom at 1st level this means You hit on a 6+ or 75% of the time. That means on average it does 10.5 damage. The extra damage from the advantage is hard to quantify. Let's forget it for now and deal with it at the end.

Inflict Wounds 3d10 on hit

12.375 on average.

Burning Hands 3d6 15' cone save for 1/2

Here's the problem. This spell is an AOE. You have to assume people aren't casting it unless they are hitting multiple enemies. So let's assume 3 enemies because it isn't really worth it to cast it on 2.
Let's assume a +0 to Dex Saves.
10.5 damage on average to 3 targets is 31.5 damage. Which is 25.2 since they save 40% of the time.

Since I know it's going to be mentioned. The damage is average 8.4 against one target. 16.8 against 2 enemies.

Thunderwave each creature adjacent to you takes 2d8 and 10' push away on failed save, save negates

Thunderwave is a 15ftx15ftx15ft cube on one side of you. It's a wave. It originates from you and heads in one direction. It is explained poorly and nearly everyone reads it wrong. But the idea was that it functions exactly as it does in 4e: a Blast 3.

This has the same problem as Burning hands. If you assume only one enemy stands in a 5 ft square then it affects somewhere between 1 and 9 enemies. Assuming you only use it on 3+ people again means that it does 21.6 damage and also pushes them back 60% of the time.

Against one person it does 7.2 damage and pushes them back. 14.4 against 2 enemies.

Magic Missile 3d4+3 + auto hit

This just does 13.5 damage on average. It also has the versatility to split its damage if need be.


Which brings us back to exactly how useful the advantage is on Guiding Bolt. Keep in mind that it gives advantage on the NEXT attack against the target. Since you often can't control what order your party acts in, this means it might be another Wizard who decides to attack with a dagger against the enemy as the person who gets advantage.

Let's assume that the person with the best damage in your party is the one who gets it to maximize the effect. That means that a Fighter with an 18 strength goes next and has +6 to hit against the target. That means that advantage roughly gives him a 20% increase in damage. Assuming that damage is 2d6+4 then it's 20% of 11 damage. Which means 2.2 damage. However, you only get the advantage if you hit. So you add 1.65 to the average damage dealt by Guiding Bolt.

That means that it's average damage is between 10.5 and 12.15 depending how how well you use the advantage.

This means that it actually does less damage on average than every other spell in the list....assuming you hit 2+ people with your AOE spells.

 

[FadedC]

And it's important to note that your example uses an 18 wisdom (not possible at lvl 1 by any character creation method other than random roll) and a monster with low AC, both of which benefit guiding bolt. If you assume a 16 wisdom and a higher AC, then guiding bolt does even worse in comparison to other spells.

This means that it actually does less damage on average than every other spell in the list....assuming you hit 2+ people with your AOE spells.