I often hear or read comments about when evaluating an AOE spell to compare it to Fireballand that makes sense. One argument for this is that if you upcast Fireball, it performs as well as or better than other spell options you can use for that slot. However, sometimes an AOE spell is not what is best for scenario. Like when you are fighting the Ancient Dragon, you might do more harm to your party casting an AOE rather than hitting the monster with a targeted spell.
So is there a similar single target spell on the Sorcerer list to use as a metric. I feel like Magic Missile does not scale well with higher spell slots. And Chaos Bolt is a fun spell but its value peeks at around a 2nd level slot.
Or is it that most spells don't upcast all that well?
The big thing is that spells aren't really made for upcasting and AOE spells will always upcast better than single target spells because for every increase to damage, you are affecting multiple people so it adds up. One of the best spells to upcast for single target encounters is Amour of Agathy's but it's a warlock spell however it really is very worth getting. Magic missile i would say is one of the best to upcast because for every missile it is another attack, so for every +1 +d6 to damage, it is multiplied by the number of missiles you have, and unlike AOE, they can all target the same person. I am pretty sure those are the rules for it, but check with your DM.
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Imagine a sorcerer riding a catoblepas into an epic battle to the last minute of black-heart by two steps from hell.
Personally I really like Chromatic Orb. The flexibility of being able to choose the damage type along with a base 3d8 damage makes it one of the best 1st level spells IMO
Personally I really like Chromatic Orb. The flexibility of being able to choose the damage type along with a base 3d8 damage makes it one of the best 1st level spells IMO
Just curious if you ignore the M component. 50 gp for a level 1 spell is a tall ask (even if it's not consumed), and is often cited as a big criticism of the spell.
Personally I really like Chromatic Orb. The flexibility of being able to choose the damage type along with a base 3d8 damage makes it one of the best 1st level spells IMO
Just curious if you ignore the M component. 50 gp for a level 1 spell is a tall ask (even if it's not consumed), and is often cited as a big criticism of the spell.
It's not that expensive. Characters could get this using Starting Wealth. The starter adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver would easily have characters up to level 2 and about 120 gp by end of Part 1 - typically, the end of Session 1 or 2 depending on group pacing.
Most critics are people who have (or are) a stingy DM who doesn't read their DMG properly or people who haven't actually played D&D yet.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Personally, I like upcasting disintegrate. 19d6+40 damage can do more than Power Word Kill, a spell that I have been continually lead to believe is worse than just up casting other spells.
Historically Magic Missile (MM) was a great baseline. Much like the BA stat in Baseball, it was the 1st measurable & common item. But the BA stat 125 years after it came to be, is now outdated and there are better stats to use to measure a quality offensive for a player. Back then and for the next 70 years there were not any better choices. About 110 years later, you finally had the mathematicians start capturing and creating new stats. So even though it is outdated, BA is still a common stat to measure players.
Every wizard had MM when I played in the 70s. And due to the "age" I think MM is still a default baseline. This is a spell every 1st level wizard has.
The big thing is that spells aren't really made for upcasting and AOE spells will always upcast better than single target spells because for every increase to damage, you are affecting multiple people so it adds up. One of the best spells to upcast for single target encounters is Amour of Agathy's but it's a warlock spell however it really is very worth getting. Magic missile i would say is one of the best to upcast because for every missile it is another attack, so for every +1 +d6 to damage, it is multiplied by the number of missiles you have, and unlike AOE, they can all target the same person. I am pretty sure those are the rules for it, but check with your DM.
That's not how magic missile works. Upcasting magic missile just adds more missiles. (2014 and 2024 versions)
I use scorching ray whenever I do theorycrafting for most amount of damage certain casters can do. I did one comparing draconic sorcerers, evocation wizards, and warlocks before. Was a lot of damage lol. Scorching ray is great for scaling as each level gives you an additional ray, and each ray gives 2d6 fire damage. a level 9 scorching ray would have 10 rays for a total of 20d6 fire damage. Obviously you would prefer meteorswarm as it's double the damage, but using it at 5th and 6th levels can be fun. using a 5th level slot can give you 12d6 damage. granted, each ray needs to hit, but still. Other spells scale by adding more dice. Scorching ray scales by adding more rays, which give 2 dice, so its generally the better (if not the best) scaling option. Can even break up the rays to different targets so it can still affect multiple creatures which is also cool.
Bigby's Hand is probably the best one I can think of. It adds 2d8 damage to it's attack per spell level, and it's a bonus action attack.
Melf's Minute Meteors is also not bad. It does 2d6 per meteor (can fire off 1-2 per round as a bonus action), but you get two extra meteor per spell level for a total of 4d6 per spell level.
Chromatic Orb Is another decent one to upcast, but it is best against multiple monsters. It adds 1d8 per spell level, but it also increases it's chance to bounce to more targets and the number of times it can bounce as the spell level goes up, so it can end up doing some pretty decent damage against multiple targets without the AoE problem of nuking your allies.
Honorable mention to Witch Bolt. It gets an extra 1d12 per spell level, but sadly the automatic bonus action damage after the initial casting is stuck at 1d12.
When nothing else sounds good, just upcast Fly on your whole party to wreak some havoc.
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I often hear or read comments about when evaluating an AOE spell to compare it to Fireball and that makes sense. One argument for this is that if you upcast Fireball, it performs as well as or better than other spell options you can use for that slot. However, sometimes an AOE spell is not what is best for scenario. Like when you are fighting the Ancient Dragon, you might do more harm to your party casting an AOE rather than hitting the monster with a targeted spell.
So is there a similar single target spell on the Sorcerer list to use as a metric. I feel like Magic Missile does not scale well with higher spell slots. And Chaos Bolt is a fun spell but its value peeks at around a 2nd level slot.
Or is it that most spells don't upcast all that well?
The big thing is that spells aren't really made for upcasting and AOE spells will always upcast better than single target spells because for every increase to damage, you are affecting multiple people so it adds up. One of the best spells to upcast for single target encounters is Amour of Agathy's but it's a warlock spell however it really is very worth getting. Magic missile i would say is one of the best to upcast because for every missile it is another attack, so for every +1 +d6 to damage, it is multiplied by the number of missiles you have, and unlike AOE, they can all target the same person. I am pretty sure those are the rules for it, but check with your DM.
Imagine a sorcerer riding a catoblepas into an epic battle to the last minute of black-heart by two steps from hell.
That's basically whats going on inside my head.
Personally I really like Chromatic Orb. The flexibility of being able to choose the damage type along with a base 3d8 damage makes it one of the best 1st level spells IMO
Just curious if you ignore the M component. 50 gp for a level 1 spell is a tall ask (even if it's not consumed), and is often cited as a big criticism of the spell.
It's not that expensive. Characters could get this using Starting Wealth. The starter adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver would easily have characters up to level 2 and about 120 gp by end of Part 1 - typically, the end of Session 1 or 2 depending on group pacing.
Most critics are people who have (or are) a stingy DM who doesn't read their DMG properly or people who haven't actually played D&D yet.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Personally, I like upcasting disintegrate. 19d6+40 damage can do more than Power Word Kill, a spell that I have been continually lead to believe is worse than just up casting other spells.
Historically Magic Missile (MM) was a great baseline. Much like the BA stat in Baseball, it was the 1st measurable & common item. But the BA stat 125 years after it came to be, is now outdated and there are better stats to use to measure a quality offensive for a player. Back then and for the next 70 years there were not any better choices. About 110 years later, you finally had the mathematicians start capturing and creating new stats. So even though it is outdated, BA is still a common stat to measure players.
Every wizard had MM when I played in the 70s. And due to the "age" I think MM is still a default baseline. This is a spell every 1st level wizard has.
That's not how magic missile works. Upcasting magic missile just adds more missiles. (2014 and 2024 versions)
For divine soul sorcerer spirit shroud + scorching ray combo upcast for really good single target damage.
I use scorching ray whenever I do theorycrafting for most amount of damage certain casters can do. I did one comparing draconic sorcerers, evocation wizards, and warlocks before. Was a lot of damage lol. Scorching ray is great for scaling as each level gives you an additional ray, and each ray gives 2d6 fire damage. a level 9 scorching ray would have 10 rays for a total of 20d6 fire damage. Obviously you would prefer meteorswarm as it's double the damage, but using it at 5th and 6th levels can be fun. using a 5th level slot can give you 12d6 damage. granted, each ray needs to hit, but still. Other spells scale by adding more dice. Scorching ray scales by adding more rays, which give 2 dice, so its generally the better (if not the best) scaling option. Can even break up the rays to different targets so it can still affect multiple creatures which is also cool.
Bigby's Hand is probably the best one I can think of. It adds 2d8 damage to it's attack per spell level, and it's a bonus action attack.
Melf's Minute Meteors is also not bad. It does 2d6 per meteor (can fire off 1-2 per round as a bonus action), but you get two extra meteor per spell level for a total of 4d6 per spell level.
Chromatic Orb Is another decent one to upcast, but it is best against multiple monsters. It adds 1d8 per spell level, but it also increases it's chance to bounce to more targets and the number of times it can bounce as the spell level goes up, so it can end up doing some pretty decent damage against multiple targets without the AoE problem of nuking your allies.
Honorable mention to Witch Bolt. It gets an extra 1d12 per spell level, but sadly the automatic bonus action damage after the initial casting is stuck at 1d12.
When nothing else sounds good, just upcast Fly on your whole party to wreak some havoc.