Why does Ice Storm suck?

[Ratama]

Ice Storm suckage

Ice Storm is rather underpowered for a 4th level spell.

I don't believe the 3d6 physical damage it does affects incorporeal beings at all, unlike Force effects.

Energy Admixture adds a whopping 2d6 damage, since it only does 2d6 elemental damage (cold). Oh, the fear.

It's basically an AE Magic Missle damage-wise, with added restrictions and bonuses that mostly cancel each other out on the 'usefulness' scale.

Crappy, crappy, crappy.

If you're an NPC Sorcerer that my PC is doomed to face; PLEASE take this spell for one of your Spells Known; I just love adversaries that nerf themselves for me. Thanks in advance.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Back in the old days Ice Storm was a useful spell because it was multi-purpose. You could either cast it to do damage, -or- you could cast it to make double the radius into a slippery blizzard.

It looks as if they stripped out the slippery blizzard part of it but forgot to take it down a level.

 

[TheMighty]

Ice Storm and suck in the same sentance?

Man I have never heard that used in conjunction with Ice Storm before. The main points have been covered. The bigies being NO SAVE, and the fact that not all of the damage is elemental but also partially concussive, which much like sonic not many creatures are immune to. It also gets crazy when you pull meta magic feats into the mix and start enlarging and maximizing it. Our party mage has used it to devistating effect and saved our butts with it on more than one occasion, god bless his shriveled little heart .

 

[Ratama]

Enlarged Icestorm?

Just what, exactly, do you think that Enlarging an Icestorm does?

Icestorm > Underpowered damage spell in a game where damage spells are already underpowered in general. Bad call, Mr. Wizard.

 

[Dingleberry]

Re: Ice Storm suckage

Energy Admixture adds a whopping 2d6 damage, since it only does 2d6 elemental damage (cold). Oh, the fear.

Wrong. Read the sidebar on page 39 of T&B. It even uses ice storm as an example.

 

[Ratama]

Re: Re: Ice Storm suckage

Wrong. Read the sidebar on page 39 of T&B. It even uses ice storm as an example.

Well, slap me silly; how nice of them to make a completely nonsensical exception.

As long as they were breaking the rule of the feat 2 inches to the left of the sidebar anyway, why didn't they buff the damn spell while they were at it?

Of course, that also make Ice Burst just that much better than Ice Storm anyway.

On a related note, is there ANY reason to take Fireball over Ice Burst anymore (well, besides range)?

/slaps Hasbro

 

[Darklone]

Re: Ice Storm suckage

It's basically an AE Magic Missle damage-wise, with added restrictions and bonuses that mostly cancel each other out on the 'usefulness' scale.

Crappy, crappy, crappy.

Well,... Comparing a slightly underrated spell with a spell that IMHO should be lvl2...

IME that spell rocked for knocking out tumbling rogues and monks. Even without metamagicks. Nearly all other area of effect spells have Refl saves and which player does not want evasion?

 

[hammymchamham]

Re: Re: Re: Ice Storm suckage

On a related note, is there ANY reason to take Fireball over Ice Burst anymore (well, besides range)?

If you're surroned by enemies, an Ice Burt won't hurt you, where as a fireball on top of you would.

 

[Tyrrell]

I've found twice since my wizard character has had ice storm (and, no I'd never take it as a sorcerer) that the fact that ice storm is range long rather than range medium has made a huge difference.

Ice storm is one of the few offensive spells that you can throw on a scroll without getting it nerfed do to low saves.

(I also used it to provide a third energy type in addition to fire and electrical, I realize that there are other ways to accomplish this)

 

[bret]

Considering the lack of a save, the ice storm may actually do more damage on average.

Also, there are more monsters vulnerable to cold then to fire.

It depends on how often the creatures save and if Evasion would be effective.

Comparing them at 10th level, the Ice Storm will do an average of 7 pts Cold and 10.5 pts impact damage. Total average damage of 17.5.

A fireball would do 35 damage, which works out to exactly the same 17.5. If anyone fails to save, they take more damage. Only those creatuers with evasion have a chance of taking less damage from an Ice Storm than a Fireball.


Does anyone know if the Impact damage should be applied against DR? I assume so, but haven't ever seen anything official on this.