any wizard worth anything will try to prevent the chance of even rolling a Conc save, being far away, behind cover, behind difficult terrain, using Shield if needed,
Yup. Because every fight starts with the Wizard attacking from stealth somewhere in the next county over, far away from the rest of the party. And enemies would -never- ambush the wizard while they're off on their lonesome.
No, sincerely, I recognize what you're saying, Horwath, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
5th level fighter will deal on average 15 damage per round and Fireball will deal on average 22 damage on a single target.
dealing 7 damage more is NOT a good use of your highest spell slot.
And if you hit 2 targets you've done 14 more damage than the fighter would in 2 rounds. And if you hit 3 targets you've done 21 more damage than a fighter would in 3 rounds. You don't have to hit 12 for it to be -very- worthwhile.
And if you're aiming at a single target you'd probably wind up using a single target spell for better efficiency, of course. Also: It isn't always your highest level spell. And even if it -is-, how many targets do you need to hit before it drastically shortens the duration of combat?
now, there is an off chance of situations happening like you said that you manage to hit 12 people with it, but that should be an exception not the rule, because Fireball is just mystified Frag grenade, simple to mitigate, do not march in tight formations and no one will use it on you.
Again, 2 or 3 is enough to make it "Worthwhile". Lord knows I'll use it on my players if I can hit two of 'em. Though, in fairness, my spell slots are far more disposable than a player Wizard's.
in last 2 campaigns to 10th level, we had ONE! fight where we managed to hit 9 targets with fireball. only ONE.
And my Aberrant mind sorcerer only had fireball from magic item(1/day), not even on spells known list, because 1/day is probably more than you will have chance to use it effectively(5+ targets)
I tend to build out the encounter day in a way that specifically MAKES fireball useful once a player chooses it. By including a pile of weaker foes for the Wizard/Sorcerer/Whomstever to bomb off the map with glee.
Guess that's a difference in DM Style, in the end. I try to make sure there are situations which allow players to shine, specifically.
if your whole day is 2 rounds of fighting, then yes, fireball is better by 14 damage than greatsword. On a target that really counts(the Boss)
Ehhh... Again, I think that's a difference in how fights are constructed. If you think the only target that "Really Counts" is the boss, that's a choice. Not a -bad- choice. But not the one I choose.
yes, wizard will deal more damage than fighter if wizards focuses only on damage dealing spells, and there is less rounds of combat in a day than wizard has decent level spell slots. And wizard should be doing more damage then because it's d6 vs d10 and no armor vs heavy armor.
The Wizard will do more damage with 1-2 damaging area of effect spells if there's a bunch of people on the battlefield than the fighter will deal in 10 rounds of combat. If the Wizard hits 4 people with a fireball, by your own math, the wizard will have done as much damage as the fighter would if the fighter spent 6 rounds running around the battlefield swinging twice with their greatsword every turn and -hitting- every time. On Average.
A 5th level Wizard can do that twice, and still have as many second and first level spell slots as they did at 4th level "Left Over" for the rest of the day. If they hit 4 targets, both times, they've done as much damage as the fighter running around for 12 entire rounds swinging on enemies.
And since a 5th level Wizard is probably still mostly fighting low-level enemies that damage is going to wipe out a squad of goblins or bandits or guards or whatever, and make the Wizard look and feel really cool as they dispense with a bunch of the Boss's minions before engaging the boss. And let's be real, the Boss was probably in the area, too.
You don't have to focus only on damage dealing spells, either. Mixing in some crowd control or buff/debuff makes it even more impressive and effective.
As I said, Silvery barbs is just a messy hot fix for RNG problem of the game, same as Lucky feat, Portent feature, Shield, War magic, Bardic inspiration or whatever kind of d20 manipulations are there in the game.
Silvery Barbs is definitely a messy 'fix'... But like most of the others it doesn't fix anything. Just applies an opportunity and resource cost to bend the rules.