Fireball

3rd level Evocation

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 150 Feet

Duration: instantaneous

Components: V; S; M

Materials Required: A tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur

Class: Sorcerer; Wizard

Spell Description

A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within range and then blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 8d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

The fire spreads around corners. It ignites flammable objects in the area that aren’t being worn or carried.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
Damage Dice	8d6	9d6	10d6	11d6	12d6	13d6	14d6
Min Damage	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Average Damage	28	31.5	35	38.5	42	45.5	49
Max Damage	48	54	60	66	72	78	84

Lvl	Dice	Min	Avg	Max
1st
2nd
3rd	8d6	8	28	48
4th	9d6	9	31.5	54
5th	10d6	10	35	60
6th	11d6	11	38.5	66
7th	12d6	12	42	72
8th	13d6	13	45.5	78
9th	14d6	14	49	84

Is Fireball Good?

Overall Rating: Sky Blue. This means that fireball is an amazing spell. If you do not take this spell your character would not be optimized.

Overall Notes: The gold standard for damage spells in 5e. This spell was intentionally designed to be overpowered for a 3rd-level slot, making it the most optimal choice when looking to lay the hurt down.

Class Specific Ratings for Fireball

Eldritch Knight fighter: Your low INT modifier might make this a bit of a less attractive option, but with 8d6 damage and a large AoE, fireball is a solid use of a 3rd-level spell slot whenever you can target a group of enemies.

Arcane Trickster rogue: * If you're going for more of a ranged build and have invested in INT, fireball is too sweet not to pick up.