My playtest of new Mage (Essentials) spells

[alastersan]

Ty Nork.

I think they should errata Versatile spell-book and Refocus so it can be used with encounters.

Soooo, if i use chain lightning (electricity) and i change to radiant, i remove all the resistance of the mob vs radiant for this spell? cool

 

[Stormtalon]

Delayed Blast Fireball
Wizard 25 daily
Minor action
You create an orb that can be used as a standard action
Sustain Minor: The orb lasts until the end of your next turn

Standard action
Area burst 2
int vs reflex
hit: 5d8 + int damage, plus 1d8 for every round you sustained the orb (max 3d8)
miss: half damage

That seems like a pretty bad spell considering the other options available at that level.

Well, considering that creating the orb and then sustaining it are both minor actions, you'll be launching other attacks while you power it up. Like, I dunno, a beguiling blast at just the right time to put a buncha baddies right in this thing's sweet spot in round 4.

It's not like it prevents you from casting other spells as you bring it to full power. Seems not too bad, all things considered. Besides, think of all the DBZ jokes you can make while charging it up!

 

[Nork]

Well, considering that creating the orb and then sustaining it are both minor actions, you'll be launching other attacks while you power it up. Like, I dunno, a beguiling blast at just the right time to put a buncha baddies right in this thing's sweet spot in round 4.

It's not like it prevents you from casting other spells as you bring it to full power. Seems not too bad, all things considered. Besides, think of all the DBZ jokes you can make while charging it up!

Or you get stunned and lose a daily before it did anything. Even if you don't get stunned, you've got to wait until the 4th round of combat to get the full power of the spell, and pretty much all of the monsters will have unloaded their action points, encounter powers by that point, and some of the monsters should have been killed, leaving your delayed blast fireball to finally hit when the battle is point of the spear has already been blunted.

Maybe if the spell gave you a bonus to your attacks while you were sustaining it, it might be useful.

As it is, Prismatic Spray ought to do as much or more damage (especially since it adds your static mods twice), and it inflicts some nasty status effects while it is at it.

 

[Aegeri]

Yeah I agree with you Nork, it's a pretty lackluster spell to be honest.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm still lamenting the "death" of fireball ... after all this time.

In all seriousness now:

Fireball died in 3.0, not in 4e...

 

[alastersan]

With empower or maximize fireball was not so bad. 60 damage or 15d6 was nice in 3.0 or 3.5

 

[DracoSuave]

Sadly, level 5 and 6 spells generally end the fight quicker. 60 damage < win the fight.

 

[alastersan]

In my case it was 1 level less with my pc incantatrix, but yes, there are better spells at those levels, my level 5 favorite spell was firebrand, 15d6 to 15 targets.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

a saving grace for fireball in 4e:

a simple reagent that cost only 200gp will add ongoing fire damage 5... (You could throw no fireball at all without reagents in AD&D)

So in the end we have a spell that is good in some circumstances with the right preparation at least now... a good spell to have stored in your spell book, not a lot more...

and of course, dealing damage is worth a lot more in 4e than it was in 3.x (If you are in a group with power gamers)

 

[ObsidianCrane]

Dealing damage for a Wizard is nice but no where near as effective for your party as applying conditions (dazed, stunned) and positioning (push,pull,slide) to ensure the rest of the party has their effectiveness maximised.

The damage thing for Wizards is a hold over from prior editions. Fireball is bad in 4E because all it does is mediocre damage over a lot of squares - something that isn't going to matter in the vast majority of cases, and that can be negated by applying good control effects in the lead up rounds to hitting the daily.

Glad to see that the new controller wizard works as well as it looks like it does. It will be interesting to convert my Staff Wizard over when the book becomes legal for LFR.

Now we just need the spellbook to be more flexible, Tome of Readiness makes having multiple Daily and Encounter powers good, otherwise they are really worth having, which makes the feature pointless more often than not.