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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6169459" data-attributes="member: 58197">Has anyone tried actually playing a high-level (15+) blaster mage in 5E? I'd be interested to hear how it plays.But as long as we're doing theorycraft... consider a high-level Knight fighter, with a 20 Strength and a +3 greatsword. With a +14 to attack, we'll say the fighter hits on a 3 or better. Three attacks for 2d6+8, hitting 90% of the time, with crits, results in average damage output of 41.025 per round. Twice per combat, the fighter gets an action surge that spikes that damage output to 95.55. This seems pretty comparable to what the mage is doing with blasting magic (if the mage is going full strength).Now, to the question of "Why would you fireball instead of haste or slow?" Well, the benefits of slow are situational; it does little good against monsters with ranged attacks, or if the fighter is just going to charge in and engage the foe in melee anyhow. Haste only grants one extra attack per round to one combatant, so you're looking at 13.675 extra damage, to one target, per round. A fireball against four foes who save 25% of the time averages 73.5 damage total, which is more than five rounds' worth of haste. That's a pretty strong contender in my book. A lot of 5E combats don't last that long.(True, the fireball can't focus fire. But what's the benefit of focused fire? It lets you drop a target right away. Well, haste can't do that either! Waiting for the damage to dribble out over several rounds is just as bad as splitting it over several targets.)And even if you do conclude that haste or slow is a better choice--fine. You cast it on the first round. Then what? You going to just twiddle your thumbs the rest of the fight? Both spells require concentration. You can't double up on them, or stack them with other buffs and debuffs. Time to break out the bat guano.</blockquote>

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