Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 1259579" data-attributes="member: 2629">Apples and oranges. I'm comparing damage spells. MM is far better than other spells of 1st level. I tend to agree that fireball and magic missile are in balance with each other (with a slight edge towards fireball, perhaps). The problem is that these spells are 2 levels apart. Fireball may have a larger area of effect, but that is a two edged sword. Fireball can be hard to use in large battles when your allies and your enemies begin to get mingled together. And you just try telling your party rogue not to get in flanking position around the BBEG. An area of effect spell that deals fire damage will always be different than a magic missile spell. The abilities of magic missile are too strong. Never misses? No energy resistance? That is just too strong. This spell needs to lose one of those qualities to be balanced.  Doesn't outpace the fighter or barbarian? A 10th level barbarian with a 30 strength (when raged) and a +5 weapon has a BAB of +25, gets 2 attacks and does about 30 damage per strike. Against a foe with an AC of 45, his expected damage for a round is roughly 3 points. This first level spell cast by a 9th level wizard does 17.5 damage to the same target (unless empowered or maximized to be more effective).This isn't exactly a 'corner case' situation, though the example above is a bit extreme. High ACs are not that rare. When you take into account damage resistance and other abilities that reduce physical attacks, this type of situation arises often.In some situations, like the one above, this spell far outpaces pretty much everything out there. An attack that never misses and deals damage that can only be resisted with select short duration spells (or a special broach) is really strong in certain situations.Regardless, it is in 3.5 and that isn't going to change. To that extent, this entire discussion is moot.</blockquote>

Verification