The fireball spell through the editions

[Plane Sailing]

I just added the D&D4 version of fireball to the list.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...eball-spell-through-editions.html#post2972187

Quasqueton

Your 'quote' is a bit off for it, I'll fix it for you.

 

[Nikosandros]

This a very cool thread. I missed it the first time around.

While edition wars make me feel sick to the stomach, edition comparisons are extremely fascinating.

I must confess that in most AD&D games that I ran (including my very long campaign), I used a "non-expanding" fireball, 3e-style. Did anyone else ever do the same in AD&D?

 

[diaglo]

I agree with your basic point, but ought to note that thieves didn't come into OD&D until Greyhawk (supplement 1) and they arrived with d6 hd, mirroring clerics.

Of course, in those days clerics didn't even get their FIRST spell until they had accumulated 1500xps, and each orc was only worth, what, 25xp?

Kids TODAY think they have it tough

i won't correct you since Philotomy Jurament already did. d4 hps for thieves.
the error i think you are misremembering was the monk vs assassin.

 

[JDJblatherings]

The fireball has certainly gotten wimpier over the years (relative to PC/NPC hitpoints).

While expanding fireballs are sorta fun the tac-nuke nature of 33,000 square foot fireballs is just a little too much. Of course if they still did that in 4th edition they'd only really be good for cleanign up minions.

 

[ExploderWizard]

This a very cool thread. I missed it the first time around.

While edition wars make me feel sick to the stomach, edition comparisons are extremely fascinating.

I must confess that in most AD&D games that I ran (including my very long campaign), I used a "non-expanding" fireball, 3e-style. Did anyone else ever do the same in AD&D?

Not really. I always enjoyed the volume aspect of fireball, the bouncing lightning bolts, and other quirky parts of magic use. These sorts of things, along with declaring spell use and rolled initiative each round helped keep casters from being quite so dominating in play. Once spells got super reliable and it became more difficult to disrupt casting in 3E, the power of spell use got a boost, which inspired a perceived need to tone down casters. Hackmaster has some really awesome fireball variants that I want to play with sometime.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Pea sized bead like a pellet like something a rabbit excretes i wanna blast people with fire!

 

[Nebulous]

Hmm. The 4e fireball is boring when i look at them all side by side. I'd love to see some variants of that spell as well, it would be so easy to tack on.

 

[Bullgrit]

Something I had never noticed before: The Expert D&D version requires hitting a target for the fireball to explode.

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

 

[ExploderWizard]

That points out one of the sillier things in OD&D/AD&D rules -- measurements are feet indoors, and yards outdoors. Bows and spells become significantly more effective if you take them outside. Just don't ask what happens if you're in a room shooting out the door into the outdoors, or vice versa.

I missed the earlier parts of this thread. IIRC the OD&D/AD&D conversions for feet to yards was strictly regarding range considerations and did not in fact increase the area of effect.

 

[Plane Sailing]

i won't correct you since Philotomy Jurament already did. d4 hps for thieves.
the error i think you are misremembering was the monk vs assassin.

I remember d4 for monks, but didn't remember d4 for thieves. Ah well, I'm not too ashamed of misremembering a detail that I've not looked at for about 30 years!