There is a perception that Fireball is the “best” third level spell for a wizard to take, but if you ask me there are a variety of better alternatives that you should consider.
Resources mentioned in this video:
- D&D 5e Basic Rules
- Fireball
- Sending
- Slow
- Dispel Magic
- Tiny Hut
- Counterspell
- Fly
- Haste
- Hypnotic Pattern
- Major Image
Credits:
“Ancient Rite” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Transcript:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:17 Bennett Tomlin Welcome back to my Dungeons and Dragons Channel, where we take a look at the rules of Dungeons and Dragons to make powerful characters, pick useful spells, find items that make us more powerful, learn to homebrew, and generally appreciate the game. Today we're going to be talking about a persistent meme about how as soon as Wizards hit fifth level and get their third level spell slots, they take fireball and then become a fireball caster. 00:00:25:20 - 00:00:31:04 Bennett Tomlin I didn't ask how big the room was, I said. I cast Fireball. It's a classic meme. 00:00:31:04 - 00:00:48:07 Bennett Tomlin listen, I get it. I love Fireball. My first wizard was a firebug who loved Fireball. And if your DM is a war gamer who's regularly throwing large groups of enemies at you, we need to quickly clear them out. Then it may actually be the best choice for you. 00:00:48:07 - 00:01:00:08 Bennett Tomlin Being able to do 86 fire damage to everyone in a 20 foot radius who fails potentially leaves a massive gaping hole in the goblins chasing you through the tunnels into the lanes of the approaching armies. 00:01:00:15 - 00:01:03:11 Bennett Tomlin We're destroying hordes of skeletons, charging you. 00:01:03:11 - 00:01:23:29 Bennett Tomlin But 8d6 just isn't that much damage if it's only going to a single target and isn't even that much if it's going to two or three targets, especially if they save and make it effectively 4d6 and especially if it's an enemy who's resistant to fire damage, which is one of the most common resistances, then it's just 2d6. 00:01:23:29 - 00:01:32:07 Bennett Tomlin If you're trying to take out a whole battalion or damage the evil fey court as you all jump into combat, then fireball is the perfect spell. 00:01:32:07 - 00:01:46:02 Bennett Tomlin I just think that it's not as often as people think that their table actually looks like that. And there's several other third level spells that jump out as me is better choices for your wizard when they reach level five. 00:01:46:02 - 00:02:03:05 Bennett Tomlin So we're going to go over five spells straight out of the basic rules that I think you should take before Fireball. If you disagree with me, hop down in the comments and tell me how Fireball is the only spell you need or tell me how I'm missing out on the clearly better spell that you use at your table. 00:02:03:07 - 00:02:10:15 Bennett Tomlin The last two of these five will be my favorite two for this level. And there's a couple of honorable mentions after that we'll get into. 00:02:13:26 - 00:02:17:02 Bennett Tomlin The first one I want to talk about is sending. 00:02:17:02 - 00:02:23:14 Bennett Tomlin Sending is a third level evocation spell that lets you send a message of 25 words or less to another creature you know. 00:02:23:14 - 00:02:30:00 Bennett Tomlin This creature hears your message and is able to respond, works anywhere on the same plane and even on different planes 00:02:30:00 - 00:02:33:00 Bennett Tomlin it works 19 out of 20 times when you cast it. 00:02:33:00 - 00:02:55:08 Bennett Tomlin This one is obviously going to be a little bit campaign dependent if your group really works independently outside of the existing power structures, then you may find it less valuable. But in my experience, as soon as you've moved out of your first town, being able to reach allies and friends is hugely important in order for you to actually develop power in the world. 00:02:55:11 - 00:03:05:01 Bennett Tomlin Plus it has tons of other useful things. I imagine you found a library. Now with sending, you're able to reach out to someone there and commission a researcher with a new assignment. 00:03:05:01 - 00:03:15:09 Bennett Tomlin It'll take you still a few days to send your gold by courier or something else. But they will have already started on that research assignment. And you can continue checking in to see if they've made progress. 00:03:15:09 - 00:03:34:08 Bennett Tomlin Or imagine you need to hire a mercenary crew quickly to help you clear out a dungeon. So as you're a day outside of town, you send a message ahead to the mercenary leader, you know, letting them know how many you're going to need. You get a quote. They're able to start preparing to depart. And as soon as you get into town, your mercenaries are ready to travel with you. 00:03:34:08 - 00:03:55:12 Bennett Tomlin Or imagine you finally have the resources to commission a magic item you've been dreaming of. You start to travel to the crafter, but you send word as soon as you start traveling so that they can start working on it while you get there. Or imagine your party get separated deep in some dungeon. Having something like sending makes getting out of that pickle so much easier. 00:03:55:15 - 00:04:02:05 Bennett Tomlin The bigger your world gets, the more things you are potentially engaged in, the more valuable sending becomes. 00:04:05:16 - 00:04:07:22 Bennett Tomlin The second spell I want to talk about is Slow. 00:04:07:22 - 00:04:13:08 Bennett Tomlin Slow is a third level transmutation spell that allows you to target up to six creatures in a 40 foot cube 00:04:13:08 - 00:04:16:06 Bennett Tomlin for one minute or as long as you can maintain concentration. 00:04:16:13 - 00:04:19:11 Bennett Tomlin You have massively debuffed those six enemies. 00:04:19:11 - 00:04:20:18 Bennett Tomlin Their speed is halved, 00:04:20:18 - 00:04:22:17 Bennett Tomlin their AC takes at minus two penalty, 00:04:22:17 - 00:04:24:21 Bennett Tomlin and so does their dexterity saving throw. 00:04:24:21 - 00:04:29:04 Bennett Tomlin There's not a ton of things that hurt saving throws. I mean, you're looking at bane and 00:04:29:04 - 00:04:36:27 Bennett Tomlin mind sliver and a couple of other things, but being able to give them a minus two on dexterity, which is one of the most common saving throws. 00:04:36:29 - 00:04:40:19 Bennett Tomlin Well, it makes your fireball next round that much more effective. 00:04:40:19 - 00:05:00:22 Bennett Tomlin However, that's not what makes this the most valuable. 5e’s combat is really sensitive to the action economy, which is how many different things the player characters can do, how many different things the enemies can do. This spell makes six enemies far less able to contribute to their side of the action economy, especially if they are spell casters. 00:05:00:22 - 00:05:01:02 Bennett Tomlin Enemy 00:05:01:02 - 00:05:17:18 Bennett Tomlin spell casters now have a 50% chance of their spell taking two turns to cast, making them far less dangerous in combat. This spell also means if the enemy has actions and bonus actions, they can now do only one of those further limiting their options. 00:05:17:18 - 00:05:25:11 Bennett Tomlin Even better enemies with multi attack now only get a single attack. That huge pit fiend you're fighting with four attacks or whatever, 00:05:25:14 - 00:05:27:08 Bennett Tomlin now it only has one. 00:05:27:08 - 00:05:56:03 Bennett Tomlin Also, they can no longer do reactions. Spell casters cannot cast absorb elements or shield or Counterspell and other enemies no longer get their opportunity attacks. Allowing your team to run up, hack and slash and run away without provoking opportunity attacks. Plus as they run away since the enemy only has half movement speed, you can stay out of their easy reach, allowing you to chip away at strong enemies over the entire minute 00:05:56:03 - 00:05:57:05 Bennett Tomlin the spell exists. 00:05:57:05 - 00:06:12:05 Bennett Tomlin Slow is one of the most powerful debuffs in the game, making enemies less able to contribute, less able to damage, easier to damage, and makes it easier for you to just stay out of their reach and pick away at them. It is a hugely powerful spell. 00:06:15:16 - 00:06:18:04 Bennett Tomlin The third spell and want to talk about is Dispel Magic. 00:06:18:04 - 00:06:22:11 Bennett Tomlin Dispel Magic is a third level aberration spell with a range of 120 feet. 00:06:22:11 - 00:06:30:10 Bennett Tomlin Quite simply, it allows you to choose one thing a creature, an object, in effect, an attempt to end whatever is magical about it. 00:06:30:10 - 00:06:37:04 Bennett Tomlin if the magical effect comes from something the same level or less is what you're casting Dispel Magic at, it's just poof, gone. 00:06:37:11 - 00:06:54:23 Bennett Tomlin Mage Armor on the Necromancer gone, Arcane Lock gone, Fly gone. And if the ability is more powerful then you do, need to roll, but you get to add your spell casting ability to this ability check, which means you have a pretty decent chance of destroying even higher level spells. 00:06:54:23 - 00:07:04:07 Bennett Tomlin Dispel Magic is the spell that allows you to deal with magical traps, magical casters, magical locks, and any other magical impediment in your way. 00:07:04:09 - 00:07:07:10 Bennett Tomlin It is a must have, if it's on your spell list. 00:07:10:21 - 00:07:13:10 Bennett Tomlin The fourth spell I want to talk about is Tiny Hut 00:07:13:10 - 00:07:17:23 Bennett Tomlin and we are now up to my two favorite spells for wizards at this level. 00:07:17:23 - 00:07:22:12 Bennett Tomlin I think you should absolutely take tiny hut before you take fireball 00:07:22:12 - 00:07:25:05 Bennett Tomlin in. Some of you probably did not see that coming. 00:07:25:05 - 00:07:27:03 Bennett Tomlin Tiny Hut doesn't do any damage. 00:07:27:10 - 00:07:36:02 Bennett Tomlin It's a third level spell in the Evocation school, and all it does is create a ten foot radius, immobile dome of force that springs around you. 00:07:36:02 - 00:07:48:18 Bennett Tomlin Now, what makes it powerful is up to nine Medium creatures can fit inside the dome with you. And inside the dome you are safe, warm and dry. Spell effects can't come in, attacks can't come in, the weather can't come in. 00:07:48:20 - 00:07:57:28 Bennett Tomlin And it's a ritual spell. As soon as you have this in your spell book, you don't need to prepare it and you can ritual cast it without a spell slot as a wizard. 00:07:57:28 - 00:08:09:25 Bennett Tomlin This is incredible because it basically guarantees that if your party can get you a few minutes alone from the danger, you can basically guarantee that they can get a long rest. 00:08:09:28 - 00:08:13:23 Bennett Tomlin And long rests are crazy powerful. In base 5e, 00:08:13:23 - 00:08:31:18 Bennett Tomlin there's variant survival rules that make them more limited, but in the base rules, long rest give you all your HP back, all your spells slots back, half your hit dice back, you end most negative effects from monsters and you are ready to fight at full power as soon as you wake up. 00:08:31:18 - 00:08:42:03 Bennett Tomlin And so being able to take this long rest in conditions where you would otherwise get interrupted in a dungeon, in the lair, whatever is crazy powerful. 00:08:42:03 - 00:08:58:25 Bennett Tomlin it's not perfect. The enemies can spend those 8 hours surrounding your dome and preparing to attack you. But at least you'll be rested for it. The dome can also be dispelled. So if you're fighting a necromancer, they can send waves of skeletons at your dome and you'll be completely fine. 00:08:58:28 - 00:09:05:25 Bennett Tomlin But if she decides to come down from her lair, cast dispel magic, your dome will be popped and you are right in combat. 00:09:05:25 - 00:09:21:24 Bennett Tomlin But despite that, having this ability to get uninterrupted long rests is so powerful that I can almost guarantee you it's going to be a better choice for you than Fireball. Unless you are just purely focused on maximizing the amount of damage you can do. 00:09:25:05 - 00:09:31:09 Bennett Tomlin The final spell I want to talk about for the five I am insisting or better than fireball is Counterspell. 00:09:31:09 - 00:09:39:20 Bennett Tomlin Counterspell is my favorite third level spell in the game and is, in my opinion, the very first third level spell you should take once you have access to it. 00:09:39:20 - 00:09:50:00 Bennett Tomlin It's an abjuration spell that requires your reaction, but it allows you to effectively take other spell casters out of combat and prevents them from taking you out. 00:09:50:00 - 00:10:03:26 Bennett Tomlin If you see another spell caster casting a spell, you're able to quickly lash out with your own arcane interruption in order to try to stop them. Like dispel magic if their spell is the same level or lower than your Counterspell, it's just canceled. 00:10:03:26 - 00:10:09:27 Bennett Tomlin If it's higher, you have to roll just like Dispel Magic. But it is such a game changer. 00:10:10:00 - 00:10:25:16 Bennett Tomlin Imagine an enemy evocation wizard 50 feet in front of your group and you see them begin to cast sending the small red dot that you recognize as a fireball. You're able to quickly use your own Counterspell, ending this effect, saving your entire group from this fireball, detonating within the 00:10:25:16 - 00:10:25:28 Bennett Tomlin middle. 00:10:25:28 - 00:10:28:13 Bennett Tomlin Just an incredible feeling. When it works out. 00:10:28:13 - 00:10:40:02 Bennett Tomlin Your DM will probably let you get away with this once or twice, and then they'll start throwing spell casters at you who have their own Counterspell. And even when they start doing that, Counterspell is still an incredibly valuable spell. 00:10:40:02 - 00:10:51:15 Bennett Tomlin These casters will sometimes try to Counterspell you, but rules as written you actually have the ability to now Counterspell their Counterspell and still get your spell off no matter if they try to Counterspell it. 00:10:51:15 - 00:10:59:20 Bennett Tomlin Now hearing this, you're thinking, Well then my team will just Counterspell my counters. But when I try to Counterspell their mage and it will all be for naught. 00:10:59:20 - 00:11:08:00 Bennett Tomlin But you see that's actually really useful. And the enemy spell casters turn. They have to burn their spell slot to cast the spell. You try to Counterspell them. 00:11:08:00 - 00:11:25:02 Bennett Tomlin They now need to burn more of their limited resources to try to Counterspell your Counterspell. And perhaps even more important, you destroyed their reaction until the beginning of their next turn. When you're up in combat now, they will not be able to Counterspell you because they already use their reaction. 00:11:25:02 - 00:11:32:10 Bennett Tomlin Your melee friends can run in and out hacking and slashing at this mage without any fear of opportunity attacks. 00:11:32:12 - 00:11:38:18 Bennett Tomlin They cannot cache shield, they cannot cast absorb elements. They are way more vulnerable. 00:11:38:18 - 00:11:52:11 Bennett Tomlin Counterspell is definitely a tactical spell. It will depend a little bit on the flavor of your campaign and the amount of spell casting, but the design of spell casting and the action economy in 5e make Counterspell super powerful. 00:11:52:11 - 00:12:02:04 Bennett Tomlin Now having said that, Wizards of the Coast is currently nerfing this spell, but even with their nerfs, it's still super powerful and I still intend to take it going forward. 00:12:02:04 - 00:12:24:10 Bennett Tomlin Monsters of the Multiverse, one of their newer books which is transitioning their monster design to something closer to what they want to have in D&D One replaced spells for many monsters with magical abilities that cannot be Counterspelled. So I think for one example, like a pit fiend who used to have a list of spells they could cast now has a list of magical abilities that do many of the same things. 00:12:24:13 - 00:12:28:07 Bennett Tomlin But because they are not explicitly spells, cannot be Counterspelled. 00:12:28:07 - 00:12:41:24 Bennett Tomlin This absolutely makes Counterspell less useful against many monsters. And if you really are just kind of that type of dungeon crawling group, monster of the week group, it may be worth considering leaving Counterspell off. 00:12:41:24 - 00:13:00:08 Bennett Tomlin For me, it's still so useful against spell casters. And spell casters are such a common and powerful enemy type it still seems clearly worthwhile, especially since it helps you get your own spells off. If there's someone who could be Counterspelling you but judge for your own campaign based on what you're likely to encounter. 00:13:00:08 - 00:13:04:17 Bennett Tomlin Now my final pro-tip about Counterspell it stacks super well with metamagic: 00:13:04:17 - 00:13:23:20 Bennett Tomlin one metamagic point with the subtle spell metamagic lets you cast the spell without verbal or somatic components, which means because Counterspell requires you to see the other caster casting it, you've made it impossible to Counterspell. You can get this ability either with a three level dip into sorcerer or taking the meta magic adept feat. 00:13:23:20 - 00:13:27:01 Bennett Tomlin Being able to Counterspell a wizard and watch their faces as 00:13:27:01 - 00:13:35:07 Bennett Tomlin they realize they cannot Counterspell your Counterspell is a wonderful feeling that leaves your enemy feeling impotent in the middle of the board. 00:13:35:07 - 00:13:42:22 Bennett Tomlin All five of these spells are third level spells. I would take over Fireball almost every time, and they all come just straight out of the basic rules. 00:13:42:22 - 00:13:45:20 Bennett Tomlin There's even more spells that I would probably take over Fireball. 00:13:45:20 - 00:13:57:15 Bennett Tomlin But it depends a little bit on your table and your specific build. So just really quickly, when it go over, a couple honorable mentions. Again, if I don't mention your favorite spell, tell me about it in the comments 00:14:00:26 - 00:14:15:05 Bennett Tomlin Flay is a great spell. Gives you 10 minutes with the flying speed of 60 feet, letting you quickly escape, get out of reach of male enemies as you pelt them with firebolts or generally move quickly around the dungeon or battlefield, potentially flying over traps and other 00:14:15:05 - 00:14:30:29 Bennett Tomlin It's not a necessity in my mind, though, because there's a lot of ways to get flight in 5e. There's certain classes (races) like Aarakocra that basically get it for free. There's lots of parties that have druids that in a couple levels at eighth level will have the ability to fly you around 00:14:30:29 - 00:14:36:06 Bennett Tomlin when you get fourth level spells, you'll get polymorph and you'll be able to transform into flying creatures. 00:14:36:08 - 00:14:46:13 Bennett Tomlin Though those, of course, can't cast. Fly is 100% worth considering. But there are a variety of builds I can think of where I would take Fireball before I would take fly. 00:14:46:13 - 00:14:57:08 Bennett Tomlin Haste is like the inverse of slow. Where slow’s a great debuff, this is a great buff, especially if you have someone who could really use one more attack to help lock down the field. 00:14:57:08 - 00:15:08:23 Bennett Tomlin It gives the targeted creature a plus two on AC, advantage on dexterity saving throws, and an extra action they can use for another attack to dash, disengage, hide or use an object. 00:15:08:25 - 00:15:34:04 Bennett Tomlin It's a nice survivability bonus that lets anyone get more done in a round of combat. But it's especially useful if you have a monk who's dropping stuns to take people out of combat. A paladin dropping huge smites to try to just increase their total damage per round. But one of my favorite types of people to cast it on is an armorer artificer because their thunder gantlets when they're in their guardian armor. 00:15:34:09 - 00:15:40:07 Bennett Tomlin Impose disadvantage on anyone they hit. If they try to attack someone who's not the artificer. 00:15:40:07 - 00:15:56:17 Bennett Tomlin So if you have an artificer at this level who already has two attacks, you cast this on them to give them a third attack. They can now potentially run between up to three enemies imposing disadvantage on their attacks if they tried to attack anyone except that artificer. 00:15:56:20 - 00:16:11:08 Bennett Tomlin This combined with that plus two and the already high artificer AC means they're going to be really hard to hit and they're going to distract a large portion of the enemies. Again, this is situational, but when it helps, it can be huge. 00:16:11:08 - 00:16:15:05 Bennett Tomlin Now, if you cast it on yourself, it'll still be useful. It lets you move at twice 00:16:15:05 - 00:16:30:26 Bennett Tomlin your speed, gives you the extra survivability with the dex saves and the plus two to AC. But what it will also let you do is, for example, use your main action to cast a spell, your hasted action to then hide or take cover. And because of this you will be far less likely to get attacked. 00:16:30:26 - 00:16:44:03 Bennett Tomlin be forewarned though, if concentration is broken on haste or at the end of the minute, the person who is hasted spends an entire round where they cannot take actions or move a pretty huge debuff at the end of this. 00:16:44:03 - 00:16:48:16 Bennett Tomlin Two more honorable mentions. I want to get through really quick. First one is going to be hypnotic pattern. 00:16:48:16 - 00:16:55:23 Bennett Tomlin Hypnotic pattern is an illusion spell that potentially lets you walk through an encounter without drawing any blood. You cast it in a 30 foot cube. 00:16:55:26 - 00:17:03:29 Bennett Tomlin Every creature there has to make a saving throw and if they fail, they are charmed and incapacitated with a speed of zero. 00:17:03:29 - 00:17:12:25 Bennett Tomlin Imagine your group is sneaking through the underdark and you come across to Goblin War Camp with enough guards that sneaking fully across is going to be very challenging. 00:17:12:25 - 00:17:18:16 Bennett Tomlin The wizard quietly pulls out a crystal vial from their component pouch and starts carefully moving their hands. 00:17:18:18 - 00:17:30:01 Bennett Tomlin And suddenly the entire camp is basically incapacitated and your group is able to run through quickly a whole encounter bypassed with a single clever spell. 00:17:30:01 - 00:17:39:23 Bennett Tomlin Final one I want to talk about is major image. Major image is a very powerful illusion spell that lets you fill a 20 foot cube with whatever sensory images you want. 00:17:39:23 - 00:17:48:11 Bennett Tomlin This spell, like many illusion spells, is one that's going to be limited primarily by how clever you are and your group, and how much your DM is willing to play into it. 00:17:48:13 - 00:17:56:09 Bennett Tomlin But you can potentially cause a lot of confusion, problems and bypass entire encounters using spells like this. 00:17:56:09 - 00:18:03:20 Bennett Tomlin Little higher level, but my group has previously used hallucinatory terrain to take out some of the most powerful pirates in the world. 00:18:03:20 - 00:18:09:07 Bennett Tomlin We found a place overlooking a narrow part of a canyon the ship had to pass through, and we used hallucinatory 00:18:09:07 - 00:18:13:17 Bennett Tomlin terrain to make the opening look different than it really was. 00:18:13:20 - 00:18:34:11 Bennett Tomlin As soon as the ships ran aground, we were able to from above, bombard them with magic and move quickly. Well, they were effectively incapacitated. And since this is a video about wizards, I want to remind you that if you're a school of illusion wizard at level 14, you'll be able to start making parts of this illusion real. That becomes really powerful. 00:18:37:22 - 00:18:46:06 Bennett Tomlin My point in this video is broadly, that fireball is an incredibly fun spell. It's almost certainly overused. 00:18:46:06 - 00:18:55:19 Bennett Tomlin As a wizard, being able to provide buffs and debuffs and otherwise protect and enable your party is almost always going to be the best use of your very limited actions. 00:18:55:19 - 00:18:58:29 Bennett Tomlin most combats less, less than half a dozen rounds. 00:18:59:02 - 00:19:05:14 Bennett Tomlin You only get a chance to get a few spells off, and many of these would be far more useful than just fireball. 00:19:05:14 - 00:19:30:26 Bennett Tomlin The other thing to consider is many of the ones I mentioned are concentration spells. You use your first round getting them up. They start having this benefit throughout the combat and then if you have extra spells left, that's when you start using things like fireball to weaken parts of the battlefield to clear out a huge set of enemies after you've already set the things that are going to make your party more useful throughout, 00:19:30:26 - 00:19:36:15 Bennett Tomlin people underrate this type of thing because it's so much fun to reach into your bag, grab 8d6 and throw 00:19:36:15 - 00:19:37:22 Bennett Tomlin them down in your tray. 00:19:37:22 - 00:19:51:18 Bennett Tomlin But buffing and buffing changes the math more than that does. It's like how people don't realize how overpowered the first level spells of bless and bane are, but that's a whole other video where we get into just how good that is. 00:19:51:18 - 00:20:02:26 Bennett Tomlin you disagree with my take then sound off in the comments to let me know how I have misjudged Fireball or how your table is super war gaming inspired and being able to damage that many enemies is useful. 00:20:02:28 - 00:20:14:26 Bennett Tomlin Or perhaps you have other spells of third level that you would definitely take before Fireball that I didn't mention. Shout those out in the comments if you do, and I appreciate you all tuning in for this video. Thank you.
