Orb Spells

[Pants]

Toss in blast of flame, and I'd never use evocation again.

Blast of flame really isn't that good... Cone of Cold, a spell that blast of flame is often compared to, also isn't that good. BoF really isn't the problem, it's nowhere near as good at 'explodin' stuff' that fireball is.

The Orb spells... well, I have a hard time justifying them and I don't feel that they are truly overpowered, but, added together, they give something to Conjuration (one of the stronger schools) that it really doesn't need. These spells don't make Conjuration BETTER than Evocation, but they do make Conjuration stronger than it really needs to be.

They are Mis-Schoolized, plain and simple.

 

[Voadam]

As it seems every so often these spells are brought up as not making sense for conjuration, as the energy damage is energy. However it seems that many of these could simply be explained as matter that is heavily charged with energy.

Orb of Acid doesn't generate many complaints because acid is already established.
Orb of Cold would imply liquit nitrogen or something along those lines.
Orb of Electricity would be explained as plasma.
Orb of Fire would be very very very hot air.
Orb of Force is my only real concern as by definition "force" shouldn't use matter.
Orb of Sound eludes my descriptive abilities at the moment.

Anyone have explanations for either of the last two?

Conjures pure magical matter, force. The same thing that makes up walls of force and magic missiles. The visual is the same.

 

[Staffan]

I have a theory: it could be bunnies. Well, not really, but:

The Orb spells are Conjuration's revenge for Evocation stealing one of its direct damage spells: ice storm. Now that's a conjuration spell if I ever saw one.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

If you conjured all the air OUT of the orb then the resulting vacuum would create a thunderclap....aka an orb of sonic damage. That doesn't explain how you throw it, though.

DS

 

[ARandomGod]

Bah!

I frown on attempts to justify these spells. I see them as, plain and simple, a misguided attempt to put conjuration in evocation's place. I think they're broken- direct damage should almost always allow SR.

Now, I'd be fine with them as evocations that allow SR... but then, arguably, they would be too weak.

Heck, I think it's plain that these are all an attempt to 3e-ify chromatic orb. It could have been done much better imho.

I'd be fine with having them be evocations with no SR. They are higher level, so this particular evocation penetrates SR by 'evoking' the energy so fully that it's more real, less magical... but still it's evocation, summoning energy. If you're going to continue to have this as two schools of magic, you do need consistency, if only for the wizard specialist's sake! And they're clearly evocation material.

As for continued justification... well, force can be justified by just having it be a semi-matter, which it is. Mage armor is force armor that's already conjured, so you have precidence. And sonic... conjure something that explodes, especially dense air from the plane of air, when it's conjured into this plain it "explodes", but since it's only air all you get is a lout boom. Like a reverse thunderclap. (or, yes, all the air out of the orb, as I now see someone else suggesting...)