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Aside from the Wicked Witch of the West, what fictional wizards (pre-D&D, preferrably), threw fireballs?I wouldn't count Conan as a superhero, nor most of the basic characters. Magic is magic not superheoism and magic users in many works of fantasy fiction can throw to fireballs.
The Raven, 1963. Great movie and in my collection ;)
The Raven, 1963. Great movie and in my collection ;)Aside from the Wicked Witch of the West, what fictional wizards (pre-D&D, preferrably), threw fireballs?I wouldn't count Conan as a superhero, nor most of the basic characters. Magic is magic not superheoism and magic users in many works of fantasy fiction can throw to fireballs.
Not pre-D&D, but the wizards in the Discworld books have. Joel Rosenberg's Guardian of the Flames book had a wizard throw lightning and fire. Brust's wizards have gone past that and unleashed some nasty effects not the least of which was a big glob of pure chaos (or some such). Dresden?
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It's funny. Back before I even knew D&D was a thing, back in the early 80s, back when a wizard was a man with a long white beard, and a robe and conical hat covered in stars, I knew wizards threw fireballs.
Heck, I started with the D&D Basic book, which only covered character levels 1-3, and as a matter of course didn't have fireballs, and I ran around busy to make them.
Of course, mine weren't big explosions, but they were balls of flame held in my hand and tossed at enemies, as those pointy-hat wizards did.
Some dragons have mechanics that allow them to breathe on you after your in their mouth with no save. You can't tumble out if the way. It's like sticking your face in the sun.blackwaltz, so you are using the example of a fighter being very good at something to criticise a situation why it can't do something.
You need to have more imagination - the lucky Orc punches his fist through the creatures eye up to the arm and rips out its brain stem.
However unless the Orc has legs like a flea, gravity will stop him raising his feet an entire storey off the ground.
The fighter ducks and rolls from the blast of acid. HPs are an abstraction of taking the knocks and rolling with the punches as well as actual wounds. The point is that the fighter hasn't taken the breath weapon full on it scorched him but left him alive.
Just give the Orc magic boots and you can do your jumping. Or lure/force the wizard to 10'ft from the ground by taking cover or using a net/harpoon and then make the 5 ft jump into the air which is just as cool and heroic - but possible with a DC 20 check.
You see the Dragon's breath begin to build up in the back of it's throat. You, thinking quickly, grab the creature's tongue and roll beneath it, letting the majority of the fire go over you. You are scorched, but alright.
(Sorry man, you won't win the descriptive argument the way you are trying it.)
Sure, I guess you could say that for full breath attacks that you can't avoid, but it seems like the description is pretty weak to me. I would certainly raise an eyebrow at the table that happened at.
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Sure, I guess you could say that for full breath attacks that you can't avoid, but it seems like the description is pretty weak to me. I would certainly raise an eyebrow at the table that happened at.
It would raise eyebrows at my table as well. Not to mention it should draw a AOO as well. Sticking your hand in a dragons mouth really should never be done imo.
It's funny. Back before I even knew D&D was a thing, back in the early 80s, back when a wizard was a man with a long white beard, and a robe and conical hat covered in stars, I knew wizards threw fireballs.
Throwing fireballs was a stock trick that stage magicians did as far back as the 19th century.
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Like I mentioned up thread a little ways, The Raven pre-dates D&D and it probably inspired several spell concepts such as Levitate, Magic Missile, some variation of Mirror Image/Dodge possibly, Fireball, Call Lightning, Create Pit, Prestidigitation, Dominate Person, Polymorph Other.
There may be others I forgot, but hey, if some folks never saw the movie and you have some free time, I recommend a viewing as it's pretty cool to see something from the early 60's regarding the Mage duel thing.
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So it's bad form if the Wizard gets to be Dr. Strange while the Fighter the most it gets is Daredevil or Taskmaster and not Hulk or Hercules because "muh genre". All of this while the bestiary throws against you the likes of Thanos, Ultron and LokiActually that's exactly how I like to play. I' a Lord of the Rings game, I'd most certainly want to play one of the hobbits (except Frodo, most probably Sam). In an Avengers game, The only two persons I would even think about playing are Hawkeye and Black Widow.
The thing is, even in D&D, I have no intention to play an ridicully overpowered Super-Hero. Even when playing casters, I tend to play builds that would most probably get laughted at, when presented on these boards. And I don't care the least if someone else can do something better than me, as long I can still be reasonably successful with what I want to do.
But that's just me, and I understand if other players wouldn't want to play Hawkeye in a game where Thor is supposed to be the norm. But to call that bad form says that I 'm playing the game wrong. And I most certainly do not.
If you want to play an intentionally ineffectual (or simply less effectual) character while the rest of the players are ok with it, it is totally fine and can lead to interesting dynamics, but the game itself shouldn't force you to do so by default.
I say it's a bad form in game design, topped with the audacity that the game itself pretends that certain classes are of comparable power level while it's not true, but I wasn't talking about player preference, just the game itself.
I would say there is a fair chance that the effects of artillery and grenades were the primary inspiration for the fireball spell as used in D&D.
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