The fireball spell through the editions

[lukelightning]

The banker in town wal well surprised when we asked to exchange the leg for trade bars and gems. hehehe

And henceforth the people of the land would refer to terribly expensive things as "costing an arm and a leg" in honor of the heroes' deeds.

 

[rgard]

“thirty-three 10' x 10' x 10' cubes”

If the mage (with the party at P) throws a fireball into room A (30’x30’ with 10’ ceiling), the blast will fill the room, and the back blast will carry 50’ down the hall (engulfing the party), fill room B (30’x30’ with 10’ ceiling), continue another 50’ down the hall, and partially fill room C.

***     ***     *
*A**P****B*******C*
***     ***     *

Not too many people threw fireballs around in dungeons.

Fireball – when you absolutely positively have to kill every mamma jamma in the dungeon.

Quasqueton

I've seen it happen. TPK.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Lanefan]

Just to add my voice to the love for the 33-cube fireball and the rebounding lightning bolt.

Various other threads of late have covered whether 3e is more tightly reined in (and therefore less fun) than prior editions; all other considerations aside, I merely point to the changes to these two spells as evidence that it is.

To any "official" designers who might be reading: fix this for 4e, dammit!

Lanefan

 

[painandgreed]

That melting point issue makes me realize that alot of the DMs I've played under don't really remember to count this in... When was the last time that your DM ruled that all the coin the monsters were carrying in little pouches on their belt were melted into small multi-colored balls of precious metal?

I was the RBDM in such cases. I made everything in the AoE save. So not only did the PC save versus damage but also his weapons and armor, back pack, etc. teh saving grace was that if a container saved, so did the things inside of it. So the coins didn't need to save unless the pouch failed first. PCs were very concious of having very good backpacks, scroll tubes, seperate bags for books and such (all of which would go inside the back pack), etc. This ruling was instituted originally not only because of versimiltude but also because I had a party of multiclassed magic-users and they would just use multiple fireballs and destroy anything they came across. They quickly decided against AoE spells so they could continue to get treasure.

 

[frankthedm]

I'm far more disappointed by the changes to Lightning Bolt than Fireball.

That melting point issue makes me realize that alot of the DMs I've played under don't really remember to count this in... When was the last time that your DM ruled that all the coin the monsters were carrying in little pouches on their belt were melted into small multi-colored balls of precious metal?

I do this any time the damage is fatal to the victim. I'll accept for playability "your stuff survives if you do", but if you don't heroicly survive the blast or zap, what you wear won't either unless it is a lot tougher than you were when you took that blast.

 

[Quasqueton]

Various other threads of late have covered whether 3e is more tightly reined in (and therefore less fun) than prior editions; all other considerations aside, I merely point to the changes to these two spells as evidence that it is.

D&D3 fireballs are more like the OD&D* and ED&D versions, and I’m glad. The expanding fireballs of AD&D1 and AD&D2 were unfun (either unused by wise PCs, or used once by unwise PCs, or used repeatedly for widespread destruction by cheesy PCs). Other spells didn’t have their AoE expanded by being in the most common adventure locale (dungeons).

I’m quite happy with the OD&D, ED&D, and D&D3 versions of the spell.

* “Conform” does not mean expand, and “elongate” does not mean expand.

Quasqueton

 

[Lanefan]

I was the RBDM in such cases. I made everything in the AoE save. So not only did the PC save versus damage but also his weapons and armor, back pack, etc. teh saving grace was that if a container saved, so did the things inside of it.

This is exactly what I still do, except that if the PC makes the save, all possessions are considered to have made it as well. (and even if the PC fails, I don't worry about trivial non-magic gear, but tents, ropes, weapons, armour, shield, and anything magic all need to save; backpacks also need to save but they for some reason always survive, to the point where we've decided that when all other races are long since gone, backpacks will inherit the world)

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

D&D3 fireballs are more like the OD&D* and ED&D versions, and I’m glad. The expanding fireballs of AD&D1 and AD&D2 were unfun (either unused by wise PCs, or used once by unwise PCs, or used repeatedly for widespread destruction by cheesy PCs). Other spells didn’t have their AoE expanded by being in the most common adventure locale (dungeons).

The AoE doesn't expand, though...it's always the *volume* of a 20' radius sphere; the only difference is that the spell tries to fill that volume no matter what, as opposed to many other spells whose effect stops at a set distance even if all the potential volume hasn't been used up.

And, I have *no* problem with PC's (and opponents, for that matter) potentially frying themselves with their own spell...if you want to chuck an area-effect damage spell into an unexplored area, go ahead; but if the area's not big enough to hold it, the result ought to be unpleasant.

Lanefan

 

[Glyfair]

I just loved sitting down for an evening of fun and having then having to perform mathematics to determine how much area was effect by a common spell. Oh, yes, and as a DM having to pull out your map and methodically work out exactly which areas were effected by the fireball spell. I thought people were arguing that earlier editions of D&D were faster in combat

Of course, the longest running game I played in had 3 physics majors, and few of the rest of us didn't at least have some familiarity with it. I still remember being in falling elevator and having them sit down to work out what velocity it would hit at, and then realize that the gravity of the campaign world might not be the same as ours.

Oh yes, and the dungeon the DM designed after finishing a long grueling study session for his optics final. Rays all around, each creating an artifact level effect (having my paladin end up with a poison touch was very campaign changing).

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

The AoE doesn't expand, though...it's always the *volume* of a 20' radius sphere; the only difference is that the spell tries to fill that volume no matter what, as opposed to many other spells whose effect stops at a set distance even if all the potential volume hasn't been used up.

And, I have *no* problem with PC's (and opponents, for that matter) potentially frying themselves with their own spell...if you want to chuck an area-effect damage spell into an unexplored area, go ahead; but if the area's not big enough to hold it, the result ought to be unpleasant.

Lanefan

I totally agree.