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.
My favorite damage dealing spell at low levels is produce flame
Honestly, I have to agree. It's a cantrip, so very much not comparable to Chromatic Orb, but it's exactly how you use fire magic in Skulduggery Pleasant which is a big tick in my book. The click of a finger to turn your hand into a torch is flavour I've always loved.
Buy a gem, keep it in your component pouch.
A "crystal" can be used as an arcane focus. So you can use the diamond you own for chromatic orb as your focus for your other spells.
This saves you 25gp for a component pouch, so the net cost is only 25gp.
I Love produce flame! Once a put a flame in my hand and a shoved it into a ghoul. My favorite part is it can be used as a torch or a weapon
At higher levels magic missile is awesome
Produce flame is nice. However, flame bolt is the only attack cantrip capable of targeting objects . It doesn’t produce light as part of the casting unless you include that it can set objects on fire (generally causing illumination thereafter).
Unless I've misinterpreted your comment, I should note that Produce Flame explicitly does produce light just by existing, as in the text of the spell. Albeit it's rubbish light, and I wish it had ruletext to the effect of "it's fire fuelled and guided by magic but is actual fire" so you could boost it with Control Flames like is obviously a flavourful good thing.
Alas, you're right on the other thing; no explicit targeting of objects. However, I generally assume that Conjuration spells produce actual stuff that has actual effects on the world (except as noted, where the flame doesn't harm your equipment), and don't assume the same for Evocation. That's not explicitly in the rules but I suppose it's a houserule I always run with because... otherwise there's basically no difference because "draws from planar energies to do a thing" spells are the majority of both.
My command of language today is... confusingly inconsistent. My apologies.
I am aware produce flame is also used as a light source. I was using the igniting objects as a comparison to PF. I mean really it matters less as the two cantrips don’t share a list; so one takes what one can.
You are also right about the concept of conjuration versus evocation. However, that works out as flavor over mechanics.
Edit: I want to note that I meant fire bolt not flame bolt as I previously mistakenly wrote. I’m sure all were aware, but I felt the correction was needed nonetheless.
Ah, yes, my apologies for the confusion. I do find it rather unfortunate that Produce Flame is so limited in spell list; I really do feel that it fits classes like the Artificer more than Fire Bolt does.
I am a shadow sorcerer and this and Mage Armor are the only level one spells I still have. Chromagic Orb is awesome, it gets around damage resistence! Nothing worse than finding out fire doesn't work and that is what most of your damage spells are. Just change it up. Or if know what the creature is, even better. Plus you can twin it. A lot of other spells you can't twin and there is great piwer in that.
agreed. Magic missile does damage that pretty much nothing is resistant to, does at least 6 damage in a hit, can not miss, and I think requires no material components
yeah but at 11th level and higher you will mostly deal more damage with cantrips. Great for casters with specific gimmics or niches they need filled
Absolute garbage. You have the same exact chance to hit as a fighter and you have a limited amount of uses. Ranged spells should ignore armor, shields, and natural armor the way they did in previous editions. It makes zero sense that magic is as easy to repel with armor as an ordinary arrow. It doesn't help that compared to 3.5 / Pathfinder the wizard is starved for spell slots because for some inexplicable reason you removed bonus spells derived from high intelligence.
Shield is useless.
How so? A +5 to the AC can be life-saving.
on the one hand an "touch AC" makes a lot of sense but i feel that it is unessesary information and it does from a certain point of view make sense that your well crafted, +3 adamantine plate mail would help deflect the blow of an lesser spell
also note that compared to previous edition the wizard of this edition is much more powerful due to the fact that you can decide what spell to cast with an spell slot when you actiually cast it, and also due to the fact that their hit dice is an cube instead of an tetrahedron becuase oh boy past edition wizard was dumb, and honestly does having more spell slots really make the game more fun?
There’s a factor that was not mentioned in the article: your familiar, which you obtained via ritual, can grant you advantage on your chromatic orb casting each turn (choose an owl for flyby) .
If you’re an elf (*)with elven accuracy (you’d get it as early as lvl 4,) you get triple advantage for a significant increase in to hit and thus expected and average damage.
(*) with point buy elven accuracy is not necessarily a great choice. Compare v.human wizard with resilient con, 16/16/16 starting stats and 20 int at lvl 8 vs an elf with elven accuracy and 19 int with no boost to concentration. (Or 18 with fey teleport which might make it mildly worth it, but you’re still weakening your concentration and only max int at 12 or 16 depending on when you want resilient con) - On the other hand if you rolled a 16 or 18 elf is awesome: +1 int, elven accuracy, boom. Pity no elf variety grants +2 int
yeah becuase having +2 in two stats is quite rare and should only be given to an race in exceptional circumastances, the current formula for elf subraces is +1 to one abillity score, one minor often magical abillity and maybe a few free proficiencies, we will never see a elf subrace with +2 to int, but in the meantime half elf sorcerers could get the feat even if they normally dont get familliars, or you might go for eldrich knight for some bonus feats
If Memory serves me, 3.x had sun elves which were the ‘scholar’ elves, +2 int in exchange of dexterity. I’d be perfectly happy if they were implemented as +1 dex, +2 int in 5e.
don't even need anything else fancy, like an extra cantrip or anything, though I wouldn’t object to more flavour stuff or racial feats added in the future.