Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 7036584" data-attributes="member: 6683613">Then why is shatter a 2nd-level spell and thunderwave 1st? What's the difference?Yeah, sort of. You chose to prepare/learn fireball, which is a spell that can only be used with 3rd-level spell slots (or higher). For that opportunity cost of not being able to use lower-level spell slots, you are rewarded with damage. What you're proposing is eliminating the reward without eliminating the cost.Take a look at the total daily single-target damage a 5th-level wizard can do with burning hands vs. fireball if the spell in question is the only damage-dealing one he prepared:Burning hands: 5d6 + 5d6 + 4d6 + 4d6 + 4d6 + 3d6 + 3d6 + 3d6 +3d6 = 34d6Fireball: 8d6 + 8d6 = 16d6Now, don't mistake my point here. I'm not trying to say that burning hands is better than fireball because 34d6 is bigger than 16d6. I'm fully aware that it takes nine rounds and nine spell slots to do all that with burning hands but only two rounds and slots to cast two fireballs. I'm also aware that fireball can multiply its damage with its large area of effect more easily than burning hands. My point is simply that the choice between prepping burning hands and fireball is meaningful. Fireball is not strictly superior just because it says "8d6" instead of "3d6 + 1d6/level". You can potentially deal a lot more damage with burning hands, if the circumstances favor sustained damage over big bursts. That's cool. That's interesting. But if burning hands deals the same or nearly the same damage as fireball --Burning hands: 7d6 + 7d6 + 5d6 + 5d6 + 5d6 + 3d6 + 3d6 + 3d6 + 3d6 = 41d6-- it stops being "interesting" and becomes just "obviously the right choice unless you know today you're going to fight exactly two large, clustered groups of monsters at long range".</blockquote>

Verification