The tactical applications are very substantial. It can always shoot, it can attack whoever you want, it can effectively disengage you or an ally from an enemy. It's not widely praised by many, but I've found it remarkably effective for my artillerist. Once you reach 5th level you can combine them with web and drop create bonfire for acid splash.ĭon't be afraid to use the force ballista.
In the early levels you can combine these with create bonfire and grease for control and damage. Force ballista, thorn whip, repelling shield, thunderwave. They're very strong and virtually always worth a first level spell.Ī slightly different optimization is utilizing your repositioning effects. Same goes for other AoE spells, but not for multi-hit spells like scorching ray. The d8 your level 5 feature adds to your spell's damage is particularly effective for these spells because it adds to all targets you hit with them. Use acid splash, and potentially thunderclap. But, again, has a big chance of only having one target so I'm not trying to say it's always better or even a better choice. Since dex saves generally scale more slowly than AC, acid splash is going to do even better against higher cr enemies. This also uses goblins and orcs, two very weak enemies for a level 5 pc. So you can see that acid splash, assuming it can target two enemies which is not always true, is doing higher average damage.
For firebolt I will simply add 5% to the hit chance to account for crits because it's mathematically the same for attacks with only dice and no static modifiers for a 65% hit chance 0.6(damage) + 0.05(2)(damage) = 0.7(damage)įor goblins (small note, acid splash has only a 0.6 hit chance not 0.65 because of their +2 dex save but this correction only hurts the acid splash case)įirebolt: 0.7 (5.5 + 5.5 + 4.5) = 10.85 DPRĪcid Splash: 0.60 (3.5 + 3.5 + 4.5) + 0.60 (3.5 + 3.5 + 4.5) = 13.8 DPRĪcid Splash: 0.65 (3.5 + 3.5 + 4.5) + 0.65 (3.5 + 3.5 + 4.5) = 14.95 Let's do a 5th level artillerist instead because it's what we're talking about, with the same mod and same targets. That increased 12.75% chance of hitting is far outweighed by the Fire Bolt damage increase. Against these orcs, she’d have an 87.75% chance of hitting at least one of them with Acid Splash, but over half of the time it would only be for 2-12 damage. So if I’m doing the math right, while it’s true you will overall hit more enemies, you’re still going to whiff on a lot of targets and overall do less damage if they have good Dex saves compared to armor.ĮDIT: Did a little more math. That means there’s only a 42.25% chance of full damage. Fire Bolt has a 75% chance of hitting for full damage, whereas Acid Splash has only a 65% chance of hitting the first one for half of the spell’s damage, with the second one getting to then roll with those same odds. Against orcs, for example, the attack roll has a much better chance to hit than the saving throw does to be failed, so having two rolls for them to reduce the damage is painful. Both goblins have to fail for me to get the full 4d6, which isn’t a lot more damage than 2d10 even if they both do.Īnd that’s just for goblins. That means even with that first “good enough” roll the damage for my attack could still easily be reduced to 2d6. But on Acid Splash, even after the first goblin fails it with a comparable roll, the second goblin rolls to see if it hits them.
However, if she casts Fire Bolt and the first roll is a successful attack, she does straight up 2d10 damage. With her +7 to spell attack and 15 spell save up against their 15 AC and +2 Dex save, each is exactly as likely to hit on one roll. Say my level 5 Wizard sees two goblins together. It’s not just about how often your entire turn is wasted, it’s also about how often the spell only hits one of them. The issue with Acid Splash is its small damage die with no added benefits, targeting a save many creatures do well in, and the save is rolled by both creatures- with each successful save removing half of the total spell damage.
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