Quote from DogBoydethief >>

We played D&D and one of us is a sorcerer with fireball. Can it burn down an entire damn forest?

Yes; however, it will more than likely evaporate enough water from the organic matter it burned to build a massive rainstorm and extinguish itself after a few hours, unless the forest isn't healthy (Examples Given: Drought conditions, or nearby Black Dragon Lairs). A Green Dragon Lair would actually resist burning due to extremely healthy foliage.

Fun Fact: “EG” & “E.g.,” both = “Example Given”.

Quote from LiloTheDM >>

lmao dude, if you wanna beat the bbeg in literally one round, just cast this at 9th level. Either he'll disintegrate into a pile of ash, or he'll lose so much health that he's no longer a large threat. You could alternatively cast this at like 5th level for all your spell slots, get all their legendary resistances out of the way, and then 9th level, because screw you DM, thought you could have a fun encounter at the climax of the game? Nah fam, taste 9th level abraca-f*ck-you! Alternatively, you could just cheese everything else that isn't the bbeg, take out all his drones with a few 3rd level spell slots, if he has any. In other words, this spell is the go-to for screwing the dm and his plans sideways, and because of its utility and all encompassing damage dealing, it nearly can't be beat; not to mention that it levels incredibly well, because it starts out at low level already, so having 14d6 ready and able to be cast at end-game is amazing.

You OBVIOUSLY haven't played ACTUAL D&D

Most BBEG bosses maintain no less than 10 powerful minions at any given time, meaning your plan will leave you with zero spell slots; especially after you unload everything you've got into a Fire Elemental, who gets to completely ignore you entirely; or how about the Shambling Mound with Resistance to Fire Damage; or anything with a Ring of Fire Resistance, or a Potion of Fire Resistance, or the energy Absorption Spell; your plan is flawed, and you should feel sad.

Furthermore, the Fireball Spell doesn't disintegrate the body; Fireball will BURN the body, and leave it looking like Darth Vader's Legs: Charred and disfigured, completely unidentifiable unless you collect a DNA sample from their bone marrow. There are other reasons a Body might disintegrate; examples might include: Dragon Bodies rapidly decompose, any Devils from Avernus disintegrate to ashes upon death too, and the Disintegrate Spell can additionally disintegrate creatures too.

• Fireball Spell will not cremate a body, living or dead.
• Fireball Spell will ignite a corpse, and the flames potentially might cremate the corpse, depending upon what else you burn with the corpse.

its a bomb you cast from your hogwarts stick. the dex save is for you to try and dodge out of the blast like a grenade or rpg

or cast something more damaging for a single target than a 9th level fireball, like a 6th level disintegrate (for a single target, like a BBEG), but in general, yes very powerful.

Fireball is a classic.

Change my mind.

bro I forgot I even made this comment, it was made in a completely joking manner and none of what I said was made to be serious, I was just goofing around and thought it was funny, which I still do. I originally thought you were joking until you went all physics major on me and tried to dissect the physical properties of a magical spell with no real-life counterpart to compare to.

"You OBVIOUSLY haven't played ACTUAL D&D"

Saying I haven't played actual DnD is like saying I haven't properly drank water, it's a complete oxymoron. The only way you could incorrectly play DnD is if you thought you were, and I certainly haven't so far. You're only in control of whether you're playing DnD correctly, and I'm sure as hell having a lot of fun joking around while you meaninglessly berate me on the theoretical properties of a f*cking magical spell.

"Most BBEG bosses maintain no less than 10 powerful minions at any given time, meaning your plan will leave you with zero spell slots"

Fireball is an AOE spell, which is literally made to clear anything in said AOE, and usually, if you kill the boss, the minions are short work after the fact; alternatively, you run the game in the way that I do, where getting to the boss is a matter of fighting through minions first in order to single said big guy out and defeat them, which is where the 9th level fireball you saved up would come in. 

"especially after you unload everything you've got into a Fire Elemental, who gets to completely ignore you entirely; or how about the Shambling Mound with Resistance to Fire Damage; or anything with a Ring of Fire Resistance, or a Potion of Fire Resistance, or the energy Absorption Spell; your plan is flawed, and you should feel sad."

Obviously, any two bosses will never be the same, which would immediately discount anything from being universally effective against them; this was a part of the joke and meant to be entirely satire. Additionally, saying I should feel sad about my supposedly flawed plan is just uncalled for and I don't get why you added it. Perhaps your comment is satire as well, and just at the expense of another person that was just trying to have fun, which entirely discredits your attempt at making a joke?

"Furthermore, the Fireball Spell doesn't disintegrate the body; Fireball will BURN the body, and leave it looking like Darth Vader's Legs: Charred and disfigured, completely unidentifiable unless you collect a DNA sample from their bone marrow. There are other reasons a Body might disintegrate; examples might include: Dragon Bodies rapidly decompose, any Devils from Avernus disintegrate to ashes upon death too, and the Disintegrate Spell can additionally disintegrate creatures too."

Fireball will never work the same in pretty much any two games when thought about in this way, and I've never even run a game where disintegration is allowed unless specifically called for because it doesn't mesh well with most restorative spells. I felt like this was the part where not even a single person would misinterpret it because obviously even allowing this to happen would be a massive misplay on the DM's part, excluding rule of cool, of course.

"Fireball Spell will not cremate a body, living or dead."

"Fireball Spell will ignite a corpse, and the flames potentially might cremate the corpse, depending upon what else you burn with the corpse."

based

Quote from xSevilx >>s

or cast something more damaging for a single target than a 9th level fireball, like a 6th level disintegrate (for a single target, like a BBEG), but in general, yes very powerful.

 true, I honestly was just joking lol

i don't care how big the room is i cast fireball

FOR FIREBALLL

Wanna know what would be crazy. If fireball could crit.

Quote from FireStarBC >>

Is blight essentially better than fireball? It does way more damage at higher spell slots (as 8d8 is better than 9d6), but as a wizard necromancer, would more damage and grim harvest be better than 120 feet more range, area damage, and ignition of flammable objects?

 Fireball does AoE though, it's balanced as if it hits 4 targets on average. 

You get the funny award.

I’m not sure what you mean by “huge damage EVERY round”.

Wolves have a low AC, only 11 hp, and they do an average of 7 hp each if they can hit. Surround my 6th level warlock with 8 wolves, give them initiative, let them ALL hit for average damage, and he will still kill them all in 2 rounds. On his turn, with 3 hit points left, he casts Thunderstep which kills every wolf that doesn’t make the DC 14 CON save, and seriously injures all the rest. On his second turn, he casts shatter on the wolves that spent their entire turn running 80 feet toward him. 

Those wolves would be even less effective against our cleric who like to cast Spirit Guardians. Many of them would be dead before they even got close enough to touch her.

On the other hand, a well placed fireball could have seriously injured all 6 members of my party, doing 14 damage to everyone and 28 damage to some of us. One failed saving throw would kill our Blade Singer Wizard. 

There are times when summoning wolves would absolutely be the best tactic. There are other times when a solid AoE spell is a much more efficient option. And there are often significant role playing/character reasons why one spell is a better it than another. 

Bat guano used to be “mined” as a source of nitrates, an important component of military explosives. This materials component is a reference to that fact.

cc

its just because that many creatures bog down combat

Quote from MrXenozilla >>

 

Quote from Getweird6 >>

Might be a dumb quest but do you use your components every time you cast this and then find new ones? or just have to have them on you and you can cast it.

 

As long as the caster has a component pouch or an arcane focus in use, they have any material components that are not accompanied by a specific cost.

 In addition, the components are not consumed by the spell, so even if you don't have a focus or component pouch, you can reuse the components.

Quote from FireStarBC >>

Is blight essentially better than fireball? It does way more damage at higher spell slots (as 8d8 is better than 9d6), but as a wizard necromancer, would more damage and grim harvest be better than 120 feet more range, area damage, and ignition of flammable objects?

Blight is single target damage; fireball is AOE.

In addition, casting a high level spell is often better than upcasting a low level one anyway. For example, meteor swarm deals 20d10 damage over a large area whereas fireball at 9th level deals 14d6 damage over a much smaller area. Another example is that blade of disaster makes two attacks for 4d12 damage each and crits on 18-20, whereas an upcast spiritual weapon deals only 4d8+spellcasting mod. Other examples include heal vs cure wounds and teleport vs teleport circle.

Quote from DDawesome >>

it should be 8+proficiency bonus +casting modifier

 ...that's the DC. It's equal to your spellcasting DC.