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.
I always saw the main strength of magic missile to be for spoiling concentration spells and teasing out shield spells. For concentration breaking, it isn't perfect, but never missing is a big deal against a high AC caster or target with cover protecting them.
Perhaps for Wizards, but what about Guiding Bolt? 4d6 off a first level spell slot and the chances of meeting an enemy at low levels with radiant resistances are low, plus it gives advantage to the next person? Not to mention the benefit you probably have 18 AC and double the HP of a wizard :P poor wizards.
What I like about Chromatic Orb, other than its versatility in damage type, is that it targets AC. Whereas often a spell-caster wants to force a target to make a save for half damage, this spell proves useful when fighting a solo-boss that has high saves or Legendary Resistance. For example, when fighting the Demogorgon in Out of the Abyss , my level 15 Wizard was able to make some pretty big dents into his fiendish, tentacled, monkey-hide by popping off a couple rounds of higher-leveled, thunder-bombs- especially if you have a simulacrum doubling the fun.
I feel like everyone is forgetting Guiding Bolt...
No one has forgotten Guiding Bolt, it is pretty much better than Chromatic Orb, apart from one major drawback - Wizards and most Sorcerers can't learn it!
Almost half the people replying have mentioned Guiding Bolt.
Under Ice Knife you wrote this: The spell’s damage type, cold, is not the most commonly resisted element
The table below shows that Cold Damage is the most resisted.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?379165-MM-Resistances-Immunities-Vulnerabilities-and-Damage
But if you add resistance and immunity, Cold is better than Fire.
But it's not really how many different types of creatures have a resistance/immunity, it's how commonly they are encountered. For example, only 22 creatures are resistant/immune to Necrotic damage. So that's good, right? Apart from that's the undead, which most dungeons are swarming with. Likewise, acid looks good until you realise that oozes get everywhere.
Sure. But I quoted the sentence in the article and that's simply not what was written.
So, a few things about your second paragraph:
1) I agree with your argument, in part, but see my point below.
2) What monsters a group is going to encounter is wildly variable; so much so, I'd argue, that the table I posted ends up being quite handy and relevant since someone can combine them along with some info from their DM when creating a character or when choosing spells as they level.
3) http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18605568&postcount=28 -- this guy's post does a good job of telling even more of the story.
My wizard's backstory is that she comes from a tribe of gnomes that are obsessed with baseball, but they call it batball. As a child she was being groomed as a pitcher on her little league team. Now as a wizard she has tied each variety of Chromatic Orb to a type of pitch. Fastball is lightning, slurve is acid, slider is cold, knuckleball is thunder, curve is fire.
That's just awesome. Perfect use of a spell, haha.
It's among the best that I have used as a Sorcerer, the ability to be flexible in my damage output and cover my bases is amazing, plus as a Single Target Spell, I can Twin it for additional flexibility. As for a chance to miss, there are items out there that you can find or buy to increase your chances. I run a Human Storm Sorcerer who's fall back is twinning Chromatics to bring the Thunder and Lightning down on his enemies. With rolled stats (that I admit I got lucky on) and a Wand of the Warmage at level 5 I'm looking at a +8 for hit, so unless I roll really bad or I'm up against monsters with 20+ AC I hit more often than not. As for bumping up levels on Spells some people play the game where the caster has a little niche they like to live in, I am one of these people, only a handful of spells do Thunder/Lightning damage and even fewer do it at range.
Just... don't... miss.
It's odd to me you don't include its chance to miss affecting its average damage. Especially since you are comparing it against magic missile.
...almost all "average damage" calculations assume a hit since you do no damage when you miss... every spell in the game would need a table of average damage based on die rolls and target AC by your logic. not only is that some D&D 3.5 level complexity that goes against 5e's design, it also goes against the spirit of being accessible to new players. also, magic missile is an even more niche spell than most, because of its incredibly low damage for the spell slot cost. it IS useful, but chipping damage is generally not as good as even a save-for-damage spell. remember that a save-for-half spell will usually exceed the damage of MM if it has more 2 or more damage dice. furthermore, MM scales incredibly poorly (most spells in 5e scale poorly when upcast). all MM is really good for is either a killing blow if you're sure it's gonna die, or interrupting casters, if each missile is a separate concentration check.
I personally never place one spell above another because all spells have situations that they shine. Sure, some are more situational than others but still sometimes you need lower damage output. I mean it is overkill to use Metor Swarm or Power Word Kill on a single zombie.
Who said you cannot go adventuring naked, if I were a low level goblin I would find a naked wizard screaming at me while holding a diamond and a gnarled staff, hurling chromatic orb extremely terrifying :D
i've been wondering for months where the hell caleb got that diamond lol
I'm a big fan of this spell. 3d8 is nothing to laugh at, but to me it's biggest strength is its scalability! Cast at higher levels, Chromatic Orb can really bring the pain, and while an alternative like Magic Missile doesn't need to roll to hit, to look at it another way Chromatic Orb gets the chance to crit when you're lobbing it!
Chaos bolt is my favorite 1st level spell, and i use the Guild masters Guide to Ravnica version, so i can use it as a wizard spell.