Fireball


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Fireball has a radius of 20ft. Does that include height as well? Example: Character casts a fireball in an area where the wooden ceiling is 20 ft high. Does it ignite the ceiling on fire or is the radius only from side to side? It has to have some kind of height to it.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Yes, it extends 20ft. up from the center point.


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It's a fireball. Last time I checked, a 2D "ball" was called a "disc."


A fireball definitely sets things on fire. It says in the spell description that anything caught in the blast catches fire. Wood is combustible, therefore, it would instantly go up in flames. A fireball (per the description) will also melt things such as gold, silver, copper, etc upon impact.

Silver Crusade

Like any sphere, it also extends 20 feet down. I've seen this matter.


Thank you for the responses


Yes, unless your dm is afraid of our dimension. I have had a dm who is.


New spell, fire disk!


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3.5 Loyalist wrote:
New spell, fire disk!

Reflex DC: 8 (10 [base] + 4 [int] + 4 [lvl] - 10 [2d])

"Oh, it's a fire disc, lean out of the way!"


Kybryn wrote:
3.5 Loyalist wrote:
New spell, fire disk!

Reflex DC: 8 (10 [base] + 4 [int] + 4 [lvl] - 10 [2d])

"Oh, it's a fire disc, lean out of the way!"

Does dropping prone or jumping give a bonus?


Marthian wrote:
Kybryn wrote:
3.5 Loyalist wrote:
New spell, fire disk!

Reflex DC: 8 (10 [base] + 4 [int] + 4 [lvl] - 10 [2d])

"Oh, it's a fire disc, lean out of the way!"

Does dropping prone or jumping give a bonus?

Only if you bend to dodge it like Neo.


Borthos Brewhammer wrote:
Marthian wrote:
Kybryn wrote:
3.5 Loyalist wrote:
New spell, fire disk!

Reflex DC: 8 (10 [base] + 4 [int] + 4 [lvl] - 10 [2d])

"Oh, it's a fire disc, lean out of the way!"

Does dropping prone or jumping give a bonus?
Only if you bend to dodge it like Neo.

And if I bend the flaming disc like Bekham?


do i get a bonus if i have profession: limboer?


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Guys, my players are fighting wizards next game, the fire disk will be coming out.


Technically the fireball will conform to the space available. So if you fire off a fireball to detonate three feet off the ground, the fireball will need expand in some direction to fill up the space that is cut off by the floor and potentially any walls.

Exactly how that expands is left to the GM. I've seen fireballs back up the hallway and hit the caster who didn't take into account the necessary volume to hold the fireball.


I don't think Fireballs are volumetric anymore... they were in 1st and 2nd edition, I recall, but I don't believe they have been from 3rd edition on.

Note: I have no idea on 4th edition at all.


I never played before 3.5e, but my first DM, who did, did tell me that fireballs no longer act that way, AD. I've also never seen anything say it does in 3.5/PF.


Agreed. That's a 1E/2E thing. In 3E/PF, if it can't expand the full amount in one direction, it doesn't "make up for it" in the other directions. It will do damage to and possibly destroy any such barrier preventing it from expanding the full amount in a particular direction, though.

Sovereign Court

Adamantine Dragon wrote:

Technically the fireball will conform to the space available. So if you fire off a fireball to detonate three feet off the ground, the fireball will need expand in some direction to fill up the space that is cut off by the floor and potentially any walls.

Exactly how that expands is left to the GM. I've seen fireballs back up the hallway and hit the caster who didn't take into account the necessary volume to hold the fireball.

Technically, they don't. It is a pretty dick move to implement physics for one spell and not all others.


Nebelwerfer41 wrote:
Adamantine Dragon wrote:

Technically the fireball will conform to the space available. So if you fire off a fireball to detonate three feet off the ground, the fireball will need expand in some direction to fill up the space that is cut off by the floor and potentially any walls.

Exactly how that expands is left to the GM. I've seen fireballs back up the hallway and hit the caster who didn't take into account the necessary volume to hold the fireball.

Technically, they don't. It is a pretty dick move to implement physics for one spell and not all others.

Hmmm... so I went and read the spell description and it appears that fireball no longer conforms to the volume available.

Wow, my entire group has never noticed that went away. That's going to make our sorcerer quite happy.

Nebel, "dick move" or not, it used to be RAW. Yes, we missed when it changed, but that doesn't make it a "dick move" to continue to mistakenly apply what used to be RAW.

Sovereign Court

Adamantine Dragon wrote:
Nebelwerfer41 wrote:
Adamantine Dragon wrote:

Technically the fireball will conform to the space available. So if you fire off a fireball to detonate three feet off the ground, the fireball will need expand in some direction to fill up the space that is cut off by the floor and potentially any walls.

Exactly how that expands is left to the GM. I've seen fireballs back up the hallway and hit the caster who didn't take into account the necessary volume to hold the fireball.

Technically, they don't. It is a pretty dick move to implement physics for one spell and not all others.

Hmmm... so I went and read the spell description and it appears that fireball no longer conforms to the volume available.

Wow, my entire group has never noticed that went away. That's going to make our sorcerer quite happy.

Nebel, "dick move" or not, it used to be RAW. Yes, we missed when it changed, but that doesn't make it a "dick move" to continue to mistakenly apply what used to be RAW.

It wasn't meant as a direct comment to your situation. There are some GMs that still hold to that even after the change has been pointed out. For those same GMs, it usually happens that the volume works out "just right" to screw over the caster. *Grumble*


It's all good. We've spent way too many hours calculating volume for fireball expansion. Wasted time it seems. Sigh.

Anyway, as I said our sorcerer is going to be very happy.


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In a 10' wide, 20' tall hallway, the 1E Fireball would expand to fill 33'n'a-half 10 foot squares of hallway...

Liberty's Edge

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One of the typical way I've seen the 3d aspect of fire ball used is to air burst it so that the radius at ground level is smaller so as to reduce collateral damage on friendlies or non-combatants.


Howie23 wrote:
One of the typical way I've seen the 3d aspect of fire ball used is to air burst it so that the radius at ground level is smaller so as to reduce collateral damage on friendlies or non-combatants.

My group does this alot. So much so,once, the wizard forgot that there were 'friendlies' fluttering about, and hit more of them than the original blast would have in the first place.


Fireballs working that way were almost as much of a pain as calculating how many times a lightning bolt would rebound if shot at an angle in a 10' wide hallway...

As for 3.5 Loyalist's fire disk, here's a question: can the disk be set to detonate on a vertical rather than horizontal plane?


Of course man, a circular line horizontal or vertical.


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Shadowborn wrote:

Fireballs working that way were almost as much of a pain as calculating how many times a lightning bolt would rebound if shot at an angle in a 10' wide hallway...

As for 3.5 Loyalist's fire disk, here's a question: can the disk be set to detonate on a vertical rather than horizontal plane?

:) We loved the bouncing Lightning Bolt way back when

...angle of reflection is = to angle of incidence...

Good Fun!


Lightning ball in Baldur's Gate, oh yeah. Fear my calculations.


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3.5 Loyalist wrote:
Of course man, a circular line horizontal or vertical.

That's the beauty of the burning disc of fire, the possibilities of angles are only limited by your imagination


It's actually a 1 dimensional fire point per RAW...so.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I started with Pathfinder. I was under the impression that fireball would fill its standard volume regardless of shape.

So I went to the PRD to point out the exact definition of a "spread" AoE...

...and discovered that spreads do go around corners, but don't exceed their stated radius. That's quite a distinction to make. I didn't catch it my first time through even as a "fresh" player, so no wonder the multi-edition veterans didn't catch it!


Yep, it has almost no pressure, but it will go around.


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TriOmegaZero wrote:
Yes, it extends 20ft. up from the center point.

grumblemuttermutter should be 33,000 cubic feet grumblemutter wussy revised spells muttergrumblegrumble nerfed muttergrumblemutter...


Yes , no more bouncing lighting bolts off walls too . I miss 1e and 2e sometimes . Lol

Liberty's Edge

1e/2e with a dm who could do accurate volumetric calculations for fireball was scary sometimes...


I remember reading a 2e book where a wizard set off a delayed blast fireball inside a 10 foot sphereical wall of force, crispy critter...


Yeah, 3.0 changed how fireballs worked. Burst vs Spread. 2nd edition fireball would be a spread in the current system. 3.X fireball is a burst.

- Gauss


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

3.X fireball is a spread, not a burst.


Bah, you are absolutely correct. Sometimes I make errors of memory. Oh well. *hauls off and shoots himself for having made an error*

- Gauss

Spoiler:
J/K


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

It was easy. 33,000 cubic feet is 264 5x5x5 cubes, so in a 10' high room, fireball filled 132 5' squares. Great for clearing corridors.

It got trickier in open space, when the fireball was burst at ground level, since the half that should have been below ground instead expanded the above-ground portion. It worked out at 25 foot radius.

Dark Archive

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The old trick was to carry some sort of large tower shield. Reinforced steel and asbestos, that sort of thing. Then have the wizard drop the fireball into the kobold tunnel and have the fighter press the shield tight against the hole and hope for the best. On a good day, that fireball would squeeze right through the tiny tunnels and incinerate the little trap-laying bastards. On a bad day, the fireball would whip right back out around the shield or up through some crack in the wall and everyone would catch a whiff of it. Lost a lot of hirelings to bad dungeon architecture. Lost a few fighters too.

We had to. They were Tucker's kobolds. We would burn the whole dungeon, then redoubled our efforts, but they'd still be in the walls, man. You don't know! You weren't there!


Erg..... Tucker's kobolds.... run!!!!!!

I had my own version of Tucker's kobolds that I put a party through. That was six years ago. They still talk about it today...


How you work this out depends on the DM a few of our group me inc are old gamers and had not noticed they change how the spell works. I have just talked to our DM who does not really agree with what they have done to lightning bolt and fireball also similar spells and I then reminded him that it is his world so up to him what the rules are for this world.


Here's something I'd like to know: is Fireball an actual explosion, with the concussive force and pressure wave, or simply fire swirling into a ball, once the bead expands?


2d Grids and Planes or 3d Cubes and Spheres?

Are spell and other area of effects 2d (as in, they affect a flat grid only) or are they 3d (as in, they affect cubes and spheres)?

Just because things are normally expressed on a flat grid doesn't mean they're actually flat. Any effect with a radius affects a sphere, not a circle. A cone is a 3d area. A line is a line, not a plane.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
JiCi wrote:
Here's something I'd like to know: is Fireball an actual explosion, with the concussive force and pressure wave, or simply fire swirling into a ball, once the bead expands?

Seeing as it has almost no pressure, I'm pretty sure it's just fire and heat filling the space.


Great Balls of Fire! sorry someone had to.

It does go up.


Didn't 3rd edition lightning bolt have the option of being 5 or 10 ft wide?

Sovereign Court

There's this scene in the Dresden Files. Dresden is an actual wizard, playing a D&D-like game with his werewolf friends, and he's playing a barbarian.

So the party wizard (played by a werewolf) casts a fireball, and it doesn't go beyond the spreak area. Dresden is all angry about that, because that's not realistic. He's tossed fireballs, he knows what he's talking about. He gets shouted down, because calculating the distribution of fire for a non-round area is a PITA.

Yeah, he's had issues with fire melting off most of his hand before.

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