Does anyone else think that the spell Acid Ball in this book is WAY overpowered for a 4th level spell?
You mean "Orb of Acid"? Yeah, somewhat, I'd say. But not overly so.
Technically, it is within the damage caps for spells, set down in the DMG. The fact that it doesn't alow for a save for half, kind of bothers me a bit. Yeah, it requires a "to hit" roll... but it's against touch AC. Which, generally, is pretty easy to hit. I think, that if it allowed for a save for half damage, it would work as a 4th level spell. To maintain it as is, I think listing it (and the other Orb spells) as 5th level would be more appropriate.
Where the rub comes in for me, is how this line of spells has impinged upon the area ruled by the Evoker specialists. We now have Conjurer's being able to dish out big wads of damage in a single pop, and the mobs can't even fall back on their SR for protection.
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I really don't think it's that overpowered. Yes, it has a maximum damage that is equal to the damage cap provided by the DMG for 4th level arcane spells. It also has a secondary effect that can be saved against to lessen the effect. If these were the only things to distinguish from say a 15 die fireball, then yes it would be overpowered. But remember, this is a ranged touch attack spell with a short range. In other words, if they miss, they just wasted a precious 4th level spell slot. And it only affects one target! And starting off a sorcerer is only going to get 45 feet of range off of this. Honestly, the original version of this that appeared in the 3.0 supplement on a similar topic was quite possibly more dangerous, in that it created multiple orbs to go throwing around.
And if you really think the spell is overpowered there are two things that you can do as a DM. You can either ban the spell or rule that if the caster misses, it either is subject to the splash table (roll 1d8 to determine which square it landed in) or it keeps on going to the spell's max range. Me, I use the second option, it makes the party mobile artillery platform a hazard to everyone around him, not just the bad guys
-Malkari
Does anyone else think that the spell Acid Ball in this book is WAY overpowered for a 4th level spell?
No.
First, it compares poorly to its 2nd level cousin, Scorching Ray. By the time you can cast Orb of Acid (the spell I assume you are talking about), Scorching Ray is doing as much damage at two full spell levels less with the almost same mechanics (around 8d6 damage, no save for half, and both are ranged touch attacks, single/few targets). Sickening is a feeble status condition that you can do with the Orb, and it only lasts a round, so thats a non-ability if I ever heard of one.
At 11th level, Scorching Ray is doing 12d6 damage vs the Orb's 11d6. At some levels, the Orb is doing slightly more damage, but the Scorching Ray is doing its damage more consistantly since its three rays still do some damage on a single miss vs the all or nothing single attack on the Orb.
If you Empower your Scorching Ray to 4th level, then you are shaming the Orb of Acid with the sheer damage output of your Ray(12d6 at 7th level, 18d6 at 11th).
Basically, the only thing the Orb of Acid has going for it is that its "no SR", a Conjuration spell (for those Conjurors who are secretly trying to be blaster-mages like Evokers), and that its Acid (which is sligtly better than fire damage in certain circumstances like attacking objects and being an uncommon energy type for resistance). Since every fool who casts energy-typed spells uses Energy Substitution of some form, being acid-subtype is not a big deal.
I'm far more impressed with spells Orb of Fire and Orb of Cold, as they inflict decent status conditions and one could imagine hitting an enemy over and over each round with them, essentially being a marriage of decent amounts of damage and the chance of incapaciting the enemy during combat in exchange for blowing lots of slots. The 1st level Lesser versions of all the Orbs are also quite nice for their sheer damage output for such low level spells.
Thanks for all the feedabck on the "Orb of Acid", I'm going to use a couple of your tips in my game.