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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Treantmonklvl20" data-source="post: 7176378" data-attributes="member: 55582">TheBigHouse has a wizard guide that does a great job of comparing the scaling of blasts.  You can find it <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?469130-GUIDE-Arrive-on-Time-A-General-Guide-to-Wizardry&p=6707815#post6707815" target="_blank">HERE</a>.  I've had some conversations with him, specifically regarding Erupting Earth's scaling value, and scaling of blast spells in general.  My view is that fireball is a very good 3rd level spell and a terrible 6th level spell.  Doing 39 average damage (on a failed save) with a 6th level spell slot is abysmal.  Being as good as fireball cast with a 6th level slot is not good, it's not even so-so.Essentially, I would argue there is no spell slot where Erupting Earth isn't awful, even though with high level slots it becomes a bit less awful than fireball becomes.To understand how poorly these spells scale - let's take a trip right to 9th level and compare them with a 9th level blast.  Fireball will provide you with 14d6 (8d6+6d6) or 49 damage on a failed save.  Erupting earth will provide you with 9d12 (3d12+6d12) or 58.5 damage on a failed save.  Meteor swarm will provide you with 40d6 or 140 damage on a failed save, this doesn't even take into account the larger area, the longer range, or that it will ignore a globe of invulnerability.TL/DR: Never cast Erupting Earth or Fireball with a 6+ level slot.  Blasts don't scale well. It's no secret I'm a fan of battlefield control - but turning a small area into difficult terrain is almost trivial.  As for resistances/immunities - you are correct that bludgeoning is (significantly) less common, however, I don't agree with the conclusions you've drawn from that.  Keep in mind that at 3rd level (because we aren't using higher level slots, because of terrible scaling), the average damage of a fireball is 28 (pretty good), and the average damage of Erupting earth is 19.5 (pretty bad).  When I hit something with a fireball, and discover it has resistance (I would never intentionally case a fireball at something I knew had fire resistance), I am disappointed, because now my fireball damage drops into the mid-teens.  That's shameful damage for fireball.  For Erupting earth, that's only slightly below average, and you can expect underwhelming damage with every casting, regardless of the enemy's resistances.  That's a kind of consistency I don't find compelling.TL/DR: Erupting Earth's damage is consistently bad, so it doesn't matter if it is seldom resisted.  Making a tiny area difficult terrain is not particularly useful.Imagine you go to a fish market and there is a shrimp vendor there, you like shrimp, so go to take a look what he has.  The smell is overwhelming, and the shrimp vendor explains that this batch is all pretty old, and probably rotting a bit.  He holds out a shrimp to you and explains that this is the "best" of all the expired rotting shrimp he has, as it's expired by less time than the rest.  Do you eat it?This is why that chart is not particularly meaningful.  Blast spells universally scale poorly.  Finding the one that scales the least poorly doesn't mean it scales well.  It scales poorly, just like all blast spells do.  That it scales a bit less terribly than other blast spells is kind of irrelevant.Finally, I would add that there is a reason I don't rate any blast spells between levels 4-8 particularly well, as blast spells seem to hit a "slump" at this point, failing to keep up with the power increase of other spells over this period.  This becomes particularly disappointing if you are a big fan of blasting, as we know how few slots you get of the higher level spells, meaning you get fewer castings of poorer spells.  That said, I have advised since day 1 that in 5e, blasting is a good hobby, but not a good primary focus for wizards.</blockquote>

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