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The fireball spell through the editions
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<blockquote data-quote="Glyfair" data-source="post: 2974719" data-attributes="member: 53"><p>You forgot the secondary effect. In AD&D characters hit points almost stop once they reach "name level." Fireball, on the other hand, continued to grow in damage. In 3E character's hit points continue to grow at the standard rate, but fireball stops growing at 10th level. This is one of many reasons that most considered high level AD&D to be the province of magic-users.</p><p></p><p>Let's compare a 20th level fighter with a 16 Con against a <em>fireball</em> from a 20th level magic-user. In AD&D the fighter has an average of 101 hit points, and the <em>fireball</em> does an average of 35 hit points on a successful save. So, 3 fireballs will drop a 20th level fighter.</p><p></p><p>In D&D 3E the fighter has an average of 154 hit points. The <em>fireball</em> does an average of 18 hit points. That means it takes an average of 9 fireballs to drop a 20th level fighter.</p><p></p><p>That's not the whole picture. The AD&D fighter is far, far more likely to save, for example. You also have to take into account the typical bonuses to stats and the differences between editions. However, it's still a good snapshot of the differences.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Glyfair, post: 2974719, member: 53"] You forgot the secondary effect. In AD&D characters hit points almost stop once they reach "name level." Fireball, on the other hand, continued to grow in damage. In 3E character's hit points continue to grow at the standard rate, but fireball stops growing at 10th level. This is one of many reasons that most considered high level AD&D to be the province of magic-users. Let's compare a 20th level fighter with a 16 Con against a [I]fireball[/I] from a 20th level magic-user. In AD&D the fighter has an average of 101 hit points, and the [I]fireball[/I] does an average of 35 hit points on a successful save. So, 3 fireballs will drop a 20th level fighter. In D&D 3E the fighter has an average of 154 hit points. The [I]fireball[/I] does an average of 18 hit points. That means it takes an average of 9 fireballs to drop a 20th level fighter. That's not the whole picture. The AD&D fighter is far, far more likely to save, for example. You also have to take into account the typical bonuses to stats and the differences between editions. However, it's still a good snapshot of the differences. [/QUOTE]
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