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Message: <blockquote data-quote="raleel" data-source="post: 6409777" data-attributes="member: 21664">Lemme guess, fighting things with a reasonable dex? Goblins or something? Your basic goblin has a 15AC and a 14 Dex, making hits against Dex or AC not that much fun (assuming a 17 int, you are looking at a 55% to hit AC, and the goblin has to make an 11+ on his save, which is 50%). Burning hands is going to average 11 on a hit and 5 on a miss, giving him just barely enough to drop regular goblins if he rolls average. Something like sleep is going to be a better choice at low levels, I think. 5d8 averages to 22.5, which should be enough to drop 3 pretty easily. no save too.This is exactly why a wizard should have some legwork done before he goes in to an adventure. Knowing general kinds of foes goes a LONG ways towards impacting his effectiveness. Take, for instance, Shatter at level 2 vs a level 2 burning hands against the same goblins. 4d6 vs 3d8 is pretty dang close to the same (avg 14 vs 13.5) but with it going against Con, the goblins are 15% less likely to save. Now your shatter is kicked up to around 15.5 and a clear winner.Not to criticize your player, of course, more to illustrate how those sorts of bits can make a big difference. Hitting an Ogre with Poison Spray is just dumb (+3), but hitting him with Phantasmal Forces is amazing (-3)</blockquote>