Chromatic orb is one of the most powerful 1st-level spells in Dungeons and Dragons, with the power to do a whopping 3d8 damage of your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage at a range of 90 feet. If you’re a 1st-level wizard or sorcerer, you should definitely consider learning this mighty damage dealing spell, especially if you plan on joining the School of Evocation or playing a damage-focused character.
Chromatic Orb’s Competition
How does chromatic orb stack up against other 1st-level damaging-dealing spells available to 1st-level wizards and sorcerers? It has a few rivals for damage-dealing potential, but all come with significant drawbacks.
Burning hands deals 3d6 fire damage in a 15-foot cone. As far as game balance is concerned, D&D’s balancing math assumes that this hits two creatures in an average casting. Assuming one creature succeeds on its Dexterity saving throw and one fails, this deals an average of 15 fire damage. That’s pretty good, but its drawbacks hurt it. If you’re close enough to enemies to cast this spell, you’d better make sure this spell kills them. If it doesn’t, now you’re in the line of fire, and most 1st-level wizards don’t have sturdy enough defenses to take very many counterattacks. Also, fire is one of the most commonly resisted damage types in the game. Your garden-variety kobolds and goblins won’t resist this magic, but there are a handful of low-level foes that easily resist fire, like fiends, oozes, and incorporeal undead like shadows and specters.
Magic missile is a spell in almost every 1st-level wizard’s spellbook, and it’s easy to see why. Its missiles always hit, can be spread across multiple targets, can be fired from long range, and deal hard-to-resist force damage. This spell’s biggest drawback is its relatively low damage output; only an average of 10 damage. This is enough to kill some of the weakest monsters with a single casting, but only enough to inconvenience any creature stronger than challenge rating 1/4 or so.
Ice knife is an attractive spell that can be fired from long range and do some area-of-effect damage. If the spell hits its target, the target takes 1d10 cold damage. Then, regardless of if the attack hits or not, the ice knife explodes, forcing the target and all creatures within 5 feet to succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 cold damage. Assuming the spell hits and its area-of-effect affects two creatures and one of those creatures succeeds on its saving throw, this spell deals an average of 12 cold damage.
The spell’s damage type, cold, is resisted by many of the same low-level foes that resist fire damage. Fiends and incorporeal creatures laugh at elemental damage like fire and cold.
The Power of Chromatic Orb
Chromatic orb is a single-target damage-dealing spell best used from long range. For wizards and sorcerers, the power to be far away from enemies is a huge boon. When you cast this spell, you make a ranged spell attack against the target. If this attack hits, the target takes an average of 13 (3d8) damage. The type of damage this spell deals can be chosen from a list of five: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. This flexibility is chromatic orb’s greatest strength, though its high average damage is impressive, too.
Other high-damage spells like burning hands and ice knife suffer from a restrictive damage type that make them hard to use against certain foes like fiends. Fiends are often resistant or immune to cold, fire, and lightning damage, and with Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus promising some fiend-fighting action, being able to overcome those damage resistances early is a huge boon. In order to get around those resistances, just use acid or thunder damage.
Another treacherously resistant monster type are oozes, and their resistances are hard to predict. Gray oozes are resistant to cold, fire, and lightning, just like fiends—so use acid or thunder! Ochre jellies are weirdly resistant to acid alone, but also immune to lightning—so use fire, cold, or thunder! And black puddings are immune to acid, cold, and lightning, so use fire or thunder!
The reason this flexibility is so important is because the number of spells you can prepare as a 1st-level wizard (or the number of spells you can know as a 1st-level sorcerer) is at a premium. You could learn a different evocation spell dealing a different damage type for every occasion, but chromatic orb allows you to pack all of these different damage types into a single spell, saving your spells prepared list space for more niche spells like detect magic or levitate.
The Cost of Greatness
Chromatic orb isn’t perfect. It comes with one significant drawback: its cost. Unlike most basic evocation spells, chromatic orb has a costly material component. Namely, a diamond worth 50 gp. Fortunately, casting the spell doesn’t consume the diamond—you can use it to cast this spell as many times as you want. Still, 50 gp is a lot to ask a 1st-level character to spend, and you just won’t have this kind of money if you take the equipment and gold offered by your class and background. If you’re a wizard, the Starting Wealth by Class table (in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook) starts you off with an average of 100 (4d4 × 10) gp, so this diamond costs half of your starting gold!
This is a bit tricky. If you’re a wizard and roll the average starting gold, you’ll only have enough for your diamond and your spellbook, since both cost 50 gp. You don’t want to go adventuring naked, or without an arcane focus. In order to make this really work for you as a wizard, you’ll need just a little bit extra. 110 gold should do, so a slightly above-average roll will work. If you’re a creating a new wizard and roll at least 110 gp of starting wealth, use this equipment list to outfit your character:
- Small diamond for chromatic orb (50 gp)
- Spellbook, for recording your all-important spells (50 gp)
- No armor (use mage armor instead)
- A staff as an arcane focus (which Jeremy Crawford rules can be used as a quarterstaff in combat!) (5 gp)
- Traveler’s clothes; can’t go adventuring naked! (2 gp)
- Ink pen; no need for ink yet, since you’ll need special arcane ink to scribe spells in your spellbook anyway (2 cp)
That’s just over 107 gp worth of gear. If you roll your starting wealth and get 100 gp or under, or just don’t want to take that chance, consider waiting until you complete an adventure or two. Hopefully you’ll have gained a few extra gold pieces from those adventures, and you can buy a 50 gp diamond in town. If you take the starting gear from your class and background and choose the [background]Noble[/background], you’ll only need to get 25 more gp to afford that diamond.
Things are a bit different if you’re a sorcerer. You only get an average of 70 (3d4 × 10) gp to start, but without that 50 gp spellbook to buy, you can get your 50 gp diamond, a staff as an arcane focus, traveler’s clothes, and an explorer’s kit for all your basic adventuring gear, all for just 67 gp. However, as a sorcerer, you have access to one spell that gives chromatic orb a run for its money—one that wizards will never be able to learn.
The Power of Chaos Bolt
Chaos bolt, a sorcerer-exclusive spell introduced in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, is powerful enough to make chromatic orb look like small potatoes, especially because it doesn’t force you to buy a pricy material component. When you cast this spell, you make a ranged spell attack against the target—and with a range of 120 feet, you have 30 feet more range than chromatic orb. If this attack hits, the target takes an average of 12 (2d8 + 1d6) damage. This attack can deal any type of energy damage, except for radiant or necrotic, based randomly on whichever numbers turn up on the d8s you rolled for damage. You get to choose which number you like best.
However, if the numbers on the d8s turn up doubles, the spell jumps to a new target, potentially doubling your damage. If those d8s from the new bolt turn up doubles, it jumps again, and keeps jumping until it stops showing double d8s. You don’t have control over what damage type this spell deals, which can make it troublesome for dealing with damage-resistant fiends or undead, but the potential for the chaos bolt to leap to a new target is tantalizing.
If you’re a sorcerer and just want to choose starting gear or grab a potion of healing with your starting wealth rather than buying an expensive diamond, chaos bolt may be your best option.
Is Chromatic Orb Right for You?
If you have the money, you can’t go wrong learning chromatic orb. Its single-target damage is practically unrivaled among 1st-level spells, and its flexibility allows you to prepare it as your only damage-dealing spell, giving you room for more interesting utility spells. If money is tight, consider waiting until you’ve completed a few adventures and gained some gold, and then buying its requisite material component.
Have you ever used chromatic orb in D&D? What’s your favorite damage-dealing spell at low levels? Let us know in the comments!
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
Probably the least resisted elemental damage type is Thunder (sonic to us oldies).
A point about Magic Missile - it doesn't use a casting stat, so it is a good option for secondary casters like arcane tricksters who may not want to max out their casting stat.
Brilliant article! Chromatic Orb is so useful if your character is clever enough to spot damage resistances; I'm assuming metagaming isn't going to happen because naivety is more fun.
I should note, however, that Chaos Bolt is really mostly useful for Sorcerers, and then only if you take Empower. Without the guaranteed element or damage output, you need to be able to swing the odds to make it stack up (or you'd be better off just blasting your three Magic Missiles; the inability to miss is a boon and a half). Empower lets you do that, because Empower lets you roll each one of those d8s once, including the bounce d8s if your charisma is high enough. Not only is this more control over your element but it also increases your chances of getting that sweet sweet bounce. Plus, it's so on-flavour.
What? Really? This one of the worst 1st-level spells in the game proprably, it is single target, it has chances to miss, why would you use this instead of Magi Missile? Auto hit, multiple targets, the best damage type in the game all of this raises both its versatility and its damage output. At low levels as a Wizard you have more important spells to cast (Sleep, Shield, Thunderwave etc), at high levels this thing does less damage than a frigging Cantrip unless you want to spend a precious higher level slot that you could use to cast any one of the waaaaaay better spells you could cast.
This is a wonderful article! I look forward to using this for a wizard in a new campaign. Only one thing I noticed: In the third paragraph under "The Power of Chromatic Orb," It says:
[Tooltip Not Found] are resistant to cold, fire, and lightning, just like fiends...
Otherwise, this is great and really useful!
Especially if you are a damage focused Evoker Magic Missile is like thousands times better 1d4+4 (based on the average Intelligence of a Wizard at at 2nd level) x 3, auto hit, best damage type in the game, 120 feet range, multiple targets
As a sorcerer you could also take twinning as a metamagic and Chromatic Orb now hits two targets instead of just one.
Great article, as usual!
I would never have guessed that a wizard doesn't get a "free" spellbook, regardless of which option they picked. I had to go re-read the entry, and sure enough the spellbook is listed in starting equipment, so if taking the starting wealth option you would need to purchase it separately. I guess in my games it's never come up because players almost always take the starting equipment options provided by their class and background.
I also only recently realized that the 50 gp diamond wasn't consumed and for this reason never had my arcane casters take it. I really should have questioned that assumption!
Love the article! would you consider guiding bolt to be on par or better than chromatic orb?
Can you please do a spell spotlight on Melf's Acid Arrow? I feel as if that one is overlooked and underestimated.
Additionally, I would say that if you're a sorcerer, you should take chaos bolt over chromatic orb. Even though chaos bolt has a chance to switch targets, against several enemies, you can choose which target it switches to. Also, while you can't really control the damage it deals, you still get to pick one of two choices from the damage table, and if you are unlucky enough to roll two common-resistance damages (i.e. fire and poison spring to mind) you can always fall back upon cantrips or try again with chaos bolt.
At 12.5%, that bounce chance isn't terrible, but I wouldn't get too excited about the possibility. And since you have to roll to attack for each bounce, that uncommon bounce might just miss anyhow. Caveat emptor.
Good point! Expected damage is what matters not average! Expected damage of magic missile =10, expected damage of chromatic orb (for AC 15 enemy with +5 to hit) is 7. Missile out-damages here but note that for lower AC enemies chromatic orb will have higher expected damage. I find this mechanic a lot in 5e, for instance you want to declare a sharpshooter shot on low AC enemies, but after a certain high AC a normal shot has higher expected damage
I like Chromatic Orb, but don't find myself using it often. I think it's a better sorcerer spell than a wizard spell. Being able to twin it is great, and if you go wild sorcerer, you can use your feature to give advantage on an attack roll to help reduce the odds that you wasted a spell slot by missing. IMO, Magic Missile for wizards, chromatic orb for sorcerer, although you do you.
My wizard has had chromatic orb since she started. Sadly, she rarely hits with it. LOL I have a worse than average chance to roll a hit with this spell. Which I know is all randomness, but it does make me rarely use it anymore and almost never prepare it. Will take magic missile every darn day though.
Chromatic Orb allows you to target vulnerabilities (rare as they often are); Magic Missile isn't going to halt troll regeneration, but Chromatic Orb will. Additional, Chromatic Orb can be used to attack objects in ways Magic Missile cannot; CO can ignite targets with a Fire Orb or damage doors/structures with Acid Orb, depending on how generous your DM is with allowing you to manipulate the environment with your spells. Magic Missile may be more reliable but Chromatic Orb has the potential to hit much harder.
No 1st-level damage spell scales worth a damn damage-wise at higher levels. Will Chromatic Orb eventually be obsolete in your spellbook? Probably. Will it help you survive to get to the levels where it's obsolete? If you use it well, absolutely. Remember - orcs and goblins aren't the only things with HP, and nowhere in the PHB does it say this game isn't Minecraft. If you're not looking at your spells, even 'basic damage spells', and going "what else could I use this to accomplish?", you're not spellcastering properly.
Oh, this is actually a really good point, especially in the chaos/chromatic comparison. Chromatic orb can be twinned, but chaos bolt can't, because it can affect multiple targets. Per Jeremy Crawford, any spell that can affect more than one creature can't be twinned.
The initial damage for Ice Knife is piercing, not cold.
(And there is a small typo in the middle of the article: "Another treacherously resistant monster type are oozes, and their resistances are hard to predict. [Tooltip Not Found] are resistant to cold, fire, and lightning, just like fiends—so use acid or thunder!")
Empowered evocation doesn't show up until 10th level, and only applies to one damage roll of the spell -- one missile in this case.
Re chromatic orb, the class that can arguably benefit from the spell the most is neither the wizard nor the sorcerer -- it's the cleric, the tempest domain cleric.
At 2nd level, the tempest cleric gains the ability to maximize lightning or thunder damage once per short rest, via Channel Divinity. Pick up Chromatic Orb via Magic Initiate, Aberrant Dragonmark (only if your Con is high), or a one-level dip into Wizard or Sorcerer (Storm Sorcerer would obviously be thematic) and you can consistently deal out 24, 32, 40 points of damage per hit.
I like sorcerers so I will often work it the other way, starting with 2 levels of Tempest Cleric and then switching to Storm Sorcerer (picking up Twin Spell at 3rd level). It definitely hurts to be running a full spell level behind straight single-class casters, but picking up proficiency in all armor, shields, martial weapons, Channel Divinity, Wrath of the Storm, and 2 great domain spells (fog cloud and thunderwave), plus a few highly useful cleric rites (guidance, bless) are more than worth the slight delay.
Nothing like twinning chromatic orb at you first BBEG for D A M A G E.
Keep in mind that twinned spells have to target two seperate people, but yeah agree
I don't think Empowered Evocation only applies to one missile in Magic Missile. There is a lot of discussion about this, and a lot of unclear answers from the D&D experts. But it seems like Jeremy Crawford is saying here that with Magic Missile, the Empowered Evocation bonus gets applied per each missile:
https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/557820938402947072?lang=en
and on this thread, the answers seem to be leaning toward each missile getting the bonus, and not just one missile -- though not all entries in this thread support this.
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/47140/how-does-the-evocation-wizards-empowered-evocation-feature-work-with-the-magic