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I've been looking at the ability versatile evocation and considering how many enemies are resistant to fire, looking at this made me go "You are never using fire again unless whoever you're fighting is specifically weak to it or something."
Few things resist electricity, even fewer things resist acid, and truefrost elixer renders any resistance to cold pointless.
Does fire have an application i'm not thinking of or is it really that pointless?
I would advise you not to assume a GM would allow you truefrost elixirs, since those are an AP specific item. It's not to say you wont be allowed to have some, but I wouldn't build around that expectation.
But to your point, in PF1 there is little reason to build around fire if you get an ability that lets you change the energy type. Excepting that there is a limit to how often you can use Versatile Evocation. And depending on build, there are more ways to enhance fire damage (that I'm aware of) than other energy types.
Not as an admixture wizard necessarily. But blaster focused characters will sometimes dip sorcerer and grab the bloodline that grants extra fire damage*.
I'm blanking on which one that is, I thought orc but it Orc works on any energy type.
I would advise you not to assume a GM would allow you truefrost elixirs, since those are an AP specific item. It's not to say you wont be allowed to have some, but I wouldn't build around that expectation.
It is PFS legal, so I'd expect it to be at more tables than not. But ultimately, you can't exactly assume anything other than the core book.
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I suppose it's as pointless as a 1H Str build. According to some any amount of Fire damage will automatically set some things on fire regardless of the rules, so that could be a plus. In practice however in a home game I'm running, Fire damage has been successful right up through APL 11 so far in dealing with combats resolved by energy damage. It's just that there are likely to be more foes resistant or immune to it than other energy types.
So basically have a backup plan ready by the time you hit level 11, right?
The whole point of things like versatile evocation is to be able to use whatever elemental damage type is appropriate for the situation. While there are a lot of things that are resistant or even immune to fire not all are. The other thing to look at is there are more spells that use fire damage than any other type of spell.
There are two main reasons not to always change the damage type. First and most important is as Claxon pointed out that versatile evocation is a limited resource. Why waste a limited resource if it gains you no advantage.
Second but still important is that if you do so your opponents will be able to counter your spells more efficiently. If it becomes known that your character never uses fire that means people don’t have to worry about protecting themselves from fire. Spells like Resist Energy need to specify the type of energy it works against. If your character is known for using or not using a specific element your enemies have an easier time preparing for you. By giving up fire you have increased the odds that your opponent will choose the right energy type to ward against. Since fire damage is probably the most common damage that is what a lot of protection spells default to. By using fire damage unless the opponent is resistant or immune you perpetuate this idea and make it more likely someone is going to choose fire damage to be protected from. Using all elemental damage including fire actually make versatile evocation more useful. Now instead of your cold ball being your signature spell it is a nasty surprise.
The Draconic, Orc and Solar bloodlines all increase the damage of fire spells. The divine fighting technique of Sarenrae allows you to do non-lethal damage with fire spell. Feats like burning amplification allow you to add effects to fire spells. By forgoing fire, you lose the ability to use these types of things.
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The whole point of things like versatile evocation is to be able to use whatever elemental damage type is appropriate for the situation. While there are a lot of things that are resistant or even immune to fire not all are. The other thing to look at is there are more spells that use fire damage than any other type of spell.
There are two main reasons not to always change the damage type. First and most important is as Claxon pointed out that versatile evocation is a limited resource. Why waste a limited resource if it gains you no advantage.
Second but still important is that if you do so your opponents will be able to counter your spells more efficiently. If it becomes known that your character never uses fire that means people don’t have to worry about protecting themselves from fire. Spells like Resist Energy need to specify the type of energy it works against. If your character is known for using or not using a specific element your enemies have an easier time preparing for you. By giving up fire you have increased the odds that your opponent will choose the right energy type to ward against. Since fire damage is probably the most common damage that is what a lot of protection spells default to. By using fire damage unless the opponent is resistant or immune you perpetuate this idea and make it more likely someone is going to choose fire damage to be protected from. Using all elemental damage including fire actually make versatile evocation more useful. Now instead of your cold ball being your signature spell it is a nasty surprise.
The Draconic, Orc and Solar bloodlines all increase the damage of fire spells. The divine fighting technique of Sarenrae allows you to do non-lethal damage with fire spell. Feats like burning amplification allow you to add effects to fire spells. By forgoing fire, you lose the ability to use these types of things.
Welp, you convinced me. With all my theory crafting it never occurred to me that people could be like "Wait, he never uses fire spells, what if we used that against him?"
I think the biggest reasons should be "why waste your limited resource of versatile evocation on an enemy that doesn't have fire/resistance immunity" coupled with knowing that some of the best spells are fire based. People love fireball.
Like sure, if you need to get around an energy type it makes sense but otherwise the default would be to not bother changing the energy type.
There's a reason why Fireball is arguably the most iconic and highly used spell in the game. You might as well rename it Give me ur Loot-ball.
Why to use fire?
Trolls.
Also, setting things on fire is fun. Ask goblins.
The Phoenix sorcerer bloodline arcana lets you deal half your fire damage as healing instead. If you encounter an immune creature you can always switch to party healer instead.
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Taking a quick look at the CR11 creatures, I see:Looking through CR 11 monsters on the SRD (that's right Derklord, I'm still using the SRD! *runs for cover*) I see 82 monsters that are Paizo specific, not 3pp creations. 22 of these have either Resist Fire 10, Resist Fire 20 or Immune: Fire. This means roughly 1 in 4 monsters the PCs face would need another energy type from a blaster caster to deal with them.
Yes, that IS a lot of monsters to build contingencies for, but that still leaves 3 out of every 4 monsters vulnerable. In fights when your Fire spells aren't as effective you could
1. Still deal SOME Fire damage unless the monster is immune
2. Use admixture or some other similar ability/feat/metamagic item
3. Buff your allies or debuff the foe(s) in some wayI haven't run a comparison to other energy types but others before me on these threads have mentioned that Fire is the most resisted energy type. This glance at CR11 monsters though gives us an idea that being fire based doesn't INVALIDATE your entire PC beyond this point, it merely puts a wrinkle in your attack plans.
- 12 types of dragons, each of which is likely to be immune to something,
- 8 types of elementals, each of which is going to be immune to something,
- at least 4 'classic evil outsiders', each of which is going to be immune or resistant to a lot of stuff*, and
- both the 'Cyro-' and 'Pyro-' Hydra variations, which swap immunity/vulnerablity types between them.
*From personal experience, getting Chain Lightning as an Oracle Mystery spell is kinda annoying when you are playing Wrath of the Righteous: Only used it once, against a bunch of giants who turned out to be resistant anyway...
In short, Fire does tend to be the most resisted energy type, but the other types typically aren't that far behind.
Wrath is particularly bad for lightning, because of all the demons. And for some unknown reason, demons are immune to electricity
Demons are immune to electricity because devils are immune to fire. With the exception of demons electricity is probably the best element to attack evil outsiders with. Both Demondands and devils have no resistance to electricity by default. Divs get only 10 points of electricity resistance. Being immune to electricity gives demons something to different them from other evil outsiders.
Blazing Robe gives all your Fire based spells +1 Caster level, this would apply to another element switched to Fire using versatile evocation