Fireball vs Lightning Bolt
Added 2024-12-28 20:09:56 +0000 UTCSo I think I was pretty far off on my assumptions of the numbers of creatures a lightning bolt would hit.
Comments
Hi Chris, I see that you didn’t acknowledge that creatures after the first creature in the line of Lightning bolt gain half cover. This also can happen in some scenarios with new age fireball. I don’t think this makes too much of a difference in the math, but it’s another point of why fireball was more reliable in 14e and may still have that advantage depending on positioning the fireball origin.
Umustalldie2
2025-01-17 17:26:37 +0000 UTCGiven the geometry of 5ft squares and a 5ft wide line, do you think it's possible to fire a Lightning Bolt on a 45-degree angle between two diagonal rows and not cover 50% of any square? ...if only I could share a picture...
Tessa Morecroft
2025-01-05 23:50:20 +0000 UTCAnd do any of you recall days of the DM saying the lightning bolt rebounds and hits others? That might be a cool metamagic for a sorcerer actually.
Greg Smith
2025-01-03 00:53:49 +0000 UTCMind blown! 🤯 More than once the discussion at the table has been ‘Can I put the lightning bolt just so and hit targets on both sides?’ This seems to clarify that. (We never opened the rules, just discussed it with the DM). I’ve always thought it was the way first shown, just a single line of squares. Now it makes it more takeable and prepable. Thanks!
Greg Smith
2025-01-02 21:49:02 +0000 UTCCool video! I was reading over the rules for point of origin and noticed another upside of fireball: the flexibility in point of origin to bypass cover. Since both spells are DEX saves, being able to bypass cover through Fireball's wider options of points of origin can be a small boon. I don't think this changes when you pick the spell though, and might only come in handy in very niche situations where for instance a group of minions has 3/4 cover from Lightning Bolt which can be circumvented by Fireball.
ianstchalfon
2025-01-02 02:04:23 +0000 UTCGlad to have spell analysis videos coming back! These videos are an evergreen reference that are useful as a DM or for a player. I’m not sure if YouTube rewards these kinds of videos the way I think they deserve, but I hope it does. There are tons of creators making character builds and tier rankings, but precious few who can do the succinct analysis that you do. That’s why I subscribe to your content. I can’t play a million different PCs, but I can think of myriad instances when I can send a link to a video you made to one of my players and clear up a misunderstanding much easier than “assigning” them reading or transcribing long excerpts the PHB or DMG into text messages.
Daniel Lingeman
2024-12-31 12:19:05 +0000 UTCI'm currently playing a Shadar Kai wizard who (at the current level) is focused on blasting and prepares and uses both spells. One thing I've noticed is that the line shape is much more useful when you can combine it with a bonus action teleport.
Daniel Denton
2024-12-30 20:56:26 +0000 UTCProbably not very significant, but 2024 Fireball ignites flammable objects while 2024 Lightning Bolt does not.
Tyler Thorstrom
2024-12-30 15:23:50 +0000 UTCI would love to have more videos like this -fear vs slow vs hypnotic p or telekinetic vs bigby hand vs animate objects- when you get a new level of spells what’s best for control or blast etc
noworries
2024-12-28 22:46:45 +0000 UTCI agree and cannot believe I missed this before.
Keegan MBG
2024-12-28 21:24:03 +0000 UTCWhat a coincidence, I recently was looking at lightning bolt for my air elementalist build (homebrew of Warrior of elements - have only one element but with additional spellcasting similar to old Way of the Elements monk) and I kinda discovred lightning bolt again as it never really got my proper attention previously.
Kaien
2024-12-28 21:01:04 +0000 UTCYou're complete right. Look at the line of sight art work. All the points are using corners. Lighting bolt is supposed cover 40 squares.
Adam Gillis
2024-12-28 20:31:37 +0000 UTCAre we going to get a tier list for spells soon I wonder?
Johnny
2024-12-28 20:25:56 +0000 UTC
![J.A.X [Ai art]](https://xaiju.com/istorage/100248.jpg)
