D&D 5E What benefit to Delayed Blast Fireball?

[Plane Sailing]

I'm struggling to see what the benefit of delayed blast fireball is now.

It does the same damage as a standard fireball put into a 7th level slot (12d6), requires concentration so you can't use it to build up a 'time on target' assault... what is the point of it as a 7th level spell?

 

[Piratecat]

It pairs well with Time Stop. Other than that, I've got nuthin'.

 

[Evenglare]

Well, gimme a few months when my group gets that high, I'm sure they will come up with 57834957348902 nonsensical ways of putting this to use as the central crux of their master plans.

 

[bording]

I think the part that makes it worth a 7th level spell slot is what happens to the base damage if you keep concentrating on it. The way I read that paragraph, the spell increases in damage by 1d6 for each round you maintain concentration, so if you concentrate for the full minute, you're looking at 22d6 damage.

I suppose you could also rule it differently and say the base damage only gets bumped once, to 13d6. If you do rule it that way, then I agree with you, it's definitely not worth a 7th level slot.

 

[Cannyjiggit]

The way I'm reading it, if you use any concentration, its minimum is 13d6 (base 12 plus 1 at the end of your turn) but it can increase further up to 22d6. If the DM allows you to cast and detonate immediately with no concentration then it is no different to a standard fireball using a 7th level slot which seems both reasonable and sensible to me.

 

[Celtavian]

Couldn't you build this up, then let a rogue or someone toss it for bigger damage?

 

[lkj]

The way I'm reading it, if you use any concentration, its minimum is 13d6 (base 12 plus 1 at the end of your turn) but it can increase further up to 22d6. If the DM allows you to cast and detonate immediately with no concentration then it is no different to a standard fireball using a 7th level slot which seems both reasonable and sensible to me.

I'm pretty sure this is correct. The damage keeps increasing until a minute passes or your concentration is broken. And then it goes off. There is nothing that indicates a cap so long as you keep concentrating.

AD

PS. And I love the flavor of a bomb that is increasing in strength and could go off if the wizard gets bumped too hard

 

[AmerginLiath]

Don't think of it in terms of combat encounters.

You leave the 'seed,' you keep concentration on it, and then it erupts into a massive fireball when the caster chooses: you've just cast "bomb" and can now wreck unholy havoc on throne rooms of enemy kings when the negotiations that you've just left have just gone less well than appreciated (Project Valkyrie, anyone?)...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think the part that makes it worth a 7th level spell slot is what happens to the base damage if you keep concentrating on it. The way I read that paragraph, the spell increases in damage by 1d6 for each round you maintain concentration, so if you concentrate for the full minute, you're looking at 22d6 damage.

Well, I completely missed the line that talks about that. I would have expected that this would have been a bigger part of the spell description.

So, in terms of damage it can get bigger. Although I'm not sure of the utility - given that the wizard could concentrate for 5 rounds and add 5d6 damage OR use those five rounds firing off cantrips for considerably more damage each round in all likelihood!

Not quite as useless as I originally thought, but still not terribly effective.

 

[Celtavian]

Well, I completely missed the line that talks about that. I would have expected that this would have been a bigger part of the spell description.

So, in terms of damage it can get bigger. Although I'm not sure of the utility - given that the wizard could concentrate for 5 rounds and add 5d6 damage OR use those five rounds firing off cantrips for considerably more damage each round in all likelihood!

Not quite as useless as I originally thought, but still not terribly effective.

You can fire off cantrips while concentrating or other spells that don't require concentration. So you could cast a Delayed Blast Fireball, keep on firing cantrips, then unleash a regular fireball and let the delayed one go off for pretty big damage.

Or you could build it up away from battle, then let a dex based class grab it up and throw it.