Oh, my point is simple. Let me spell it out for you.
COUNTERSPELL.
Me: fireball isn’t the answer to everything
My son: No?
Me: No. Fireball is the question.
Son: Fireball is the question?
Me: Fireball is the question and the answer is yes
Nothing quite as satisfying! Especially as a 5th edition Evocation wizard so you can safely explode your allies too
In 3.5 it’s Haste.
It still didn’t let me cast two spells per round, so I rarely cast haste, at least on myself. The fighter, monk, and rogue got hastes courtesy of the bard. I needed to be casting fly and fireball/lightning bolt. Occasionally we hit the cleric with a haste, but she had reachspell so it wasn’t needed.
The true reason barbarians are still useful in a party with a wizard; so the wizard has someone to drop their second twincast haste on :P
In a 5e campaign where I played a halfling Warlock, and found that Fireball isn’t on the basic Warlock spell list, I convinced my DM to allow me to create a Fireball-like spell, since at that point I didn’t have a lot of choices for AoE attack spells, and my party-mates could all do more single-target damage than I could.
Since the 5e go-to attack cantrip for Warlocks is Eldritch Blast, I figured I might as well learn into it and called it Eldritch Boom. The effect is similar to a sonic boom. Instead of catching fire, creatures and objects in the AoE that fail their save are knocked over (creatures are knocked prone). For the damage, I conceded that I couldn’t just copy Fireball, so instead of 8d6, I went for 6d8, but higher level slots add 1d8 per level.
The DM allowed it mainly because I was the main spellcaster. But later on, our party got a new addition: a pyromaniac sorcerer. Around that time, I switched to Blight as my go-to attack (when I didn’t just use Eldritch Blast).
For aoe damage? Yeah it was designed that way. Same for lightning bolt but a fireball will hit more in average than a line spell. But the line has more range. But 3rd is when great utility comes into play as well.
I have spent the last few combat encounters trying to line up enemies for a good lightning bolt. Much harder than just plopping a fireball in their general vicinity.
Skull trap ftw
Well, in that picture, I’d go with Lightning Bolt instead.
Counterspell
Need a wizard with a gun going Counterspell This you filthy casual
If he picked Lightning Bolt he could hit everyone in that entire line with minimal collateral damage
