Am I missing something?!? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Am I missing something?!? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
lunarflare1001
01-20-08, 12:29 PM Well, my group recently invested in the Complete Arcane and I read over the new spells... I'm kind of confused... Did they WANT to kill spell balance?

I have always thought that the spell damage balance was:

The AoE spells have a balancing saving throw and usually SR for being able to hit many at once without an attack roll.

The ray spells have the balancing ranged touch and SR for not having a saving throw...

The orb spells have no saving throw, no SR and it's a ranged touch... AND they usually have a neat little status effect, and there's one for each element... AND they scale nicely..

I know that damaging spells aren't optimal, but still.. Am I missing something?
Novacat
01-20-08, 12:38 PM The lesser version of these spells deal significantly less damage than AOE spells of the same level.

The standard version of these spells are 4th level, which means you can already do Fireball by the time you get them. They do the same damage as Fireball, but the Orb spells only affect a single target. Don't you think that's worth a little advantage like ignoring SR?
Neutronium_Dragon
01-21-08, 01:59 AM Essentially, the Orb spells are performing to about what they should be. The problem comes when you compare them to many of the higher level spells in the PHB which work the same way - most of which are moderately to egregiously weak (Polar Ray is cited as an example of the last).

Simply put, "1d6/level to a single target" has a serious falloff which only gets worse as levels increase. The Orb spells recognized that; the PHB spells didn't.
Nephlite
01-21-08, 03:18 PM Essentially, the Orb spells are performing to about what they should be. The problem comes when you compare them to many of the higher level spells in the PHB which work the same way - most of which are moderately to egregiously weak (Polar Ray is cited as an example of the last).

Simply put, "1d6/level to a single target" has a serious falloff which only gets worse as levels increase. The Orb spells recognized that; the PHB spells didn't.

Polar Ray is a 6th level spell for Duskblade I think so they finally realized how weak it was.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lunarflare1001 01-20-08, 12:29 PM	Well, my group recently invested in the Complete Arcane and I read over the new spells... I'm kind of confused... Did they WANT to kill spell balance? I have always thought that the spell damage balance was: The AoE spells have a balancing saving throw and usually SR for being able to hit many at once without an attack roll. The ray spells have the balancing ranged touch and SR for not having a saving throw... The orb spells have no saving throw, no SR and it's a ranged touch... AND they usually have a neat little status effect, and there's one for each element... AND they scale nicely.. I know that damaging spells aren't optimal, but still.. Am I missing something?
Novacat 01-20-08, 12:38 PM	The lesser version of these spells deal significantly less damage than AOE spells of the same level. The standard version of these spells are 4th level, which means you can already do Fireball by the time you get them. They do the same damage as Fireball, but the Orb spells only affect a single target. Don't you think that's worth a little advantage like ignoring SR?
Neutronium_Dragon 01-21-08, 01:59 AM	Essentially, the Orb spells are performing to about what they should be. The problem comes when you compare them to many of the higher level spells in the PHB which work the same way - most of which are moderately to egregiously weak (Polar Ray is cited as an example of the last). Simply put, "1d6/level to a single target" has a serious falloff which only gets worse as levels increase. The Orb spells recognized that; the PHB spells didn't.
Nephlite 01-21-08, 03:18 PM	Essentially, the Orb spells are performing to about what they should be. The problem comes when you compare them to many of the higher level spells in the PHB which work the same way - most of which are moderately to egregiously weak (Polar Ray is cited as an example of the last). Simply put, "1d6/level to a single target" has a serious falloff which only gets worse as levels increase. The Orb spells recognized that; the PHB spells didn't. Polar Ray is a 6th level spell for Duskblade I think so they finally realized how weak it was.