is there a reason to use fireball over skull trap?

[Sichimus]

skull trap has no cap of damage scaling, you can place it in your line of sight but not where you can see your enemies to damage them without them even aggroing on you, obviously it's a trap so you can lure easy, and if need be its functionally the same in combat as a fireball as theres no arming time, just regular cast. is there a single reason to use fireball?

[wendigo211]

Not really... Well Fireball does have a slightly larger radius and can kill Trolls, but apart from those differences, Skull Trap tends to be the superior spell. D&D's never been very good at balancing spells within the same tier.

[voehringer_nitron]

Another thing in Skull Trap's favor is that it does "magic energy" damage, and resistance to that is less common than resistance to fire. Between the two, I take Skull Trap.

[red255]

1, Fireball is fire damage, so if you have over 100 fire resist on your tank you can send your tank forward and bombard him with fire ball to clear out an area that swarms your tank.

2. Fireball is casted from wands and arrows of detonation.

3. fireball has greater radius. which means if you cast it at the edge of your vision you can hit enemies you haven't activated yet. drawing their attention. maybe causing them to run over your traps and skull traps.

4. Skull traps stick around. if they don't detonate when the enemy walks near them, they detonate when your guys walk near them, and they hurt.

[Redwood]

Originally posted by red255:

1, Fireball is fire damage, so if you have over 100 fire resist on your tank you can send your tank forward and bombard him with fire ball to clear out an area that swarms your tank.

2. Fireball is casted from wands and arrows of detonation.

3. fireball has greater radius. which means if you cast it at the edge of your vision you can hit enemies you haven't activated yet. drawing their attention. maybe causing them to run over your traps and skull traps.

4. Skull traps stick around. if they don't detonate when the enemy walks near them, they detonate when your guys walk near them, and they hurt.

:)

[AlexMBrennan]

4. Skull traps stick around. if they don't detonate when the enemy walks near them, they detonate when your guys walk near them, and they hurt.

Or you could just defuse any left over skull traps by summoning some disposable cannonfodder. Or use a wizard with a minor globe of invincibility.

3. fireball has greater radius. which means if you cast it at the edge of your vision you can hit enemies you haven't activated yet. drawing their attention

If you have a group of enemies you can hit without activating them then the last thing you want to do is activate them - just keep hitting them until they die. Why would you want the enemy to start fighting back?

However, you'll probably want to use cloudkill for this.

[PCR_Anibal]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Or you could just defuse any left over skull traps by summoning some disposable cannonfodder. Or use a wizard with a minor globe of invincibility.

And now you're using more spell slots. It's a tradeoff

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

If you have a group of enemies you can hit without activating them then the last thing you want to do is activate them - just keep hitting them until they die. Why would you want the enemy to start fighting back?

However, you'll probably want to use cloudkill for this.

The same reason someone would use SCS "call for help"* option, Immersion.

[eckister]

Or you could just defuse any left over skull traps by summoning some disposable cannonfodder. Or use a wizard with a minor globe of invincibility.

Or just leave it there and get on with your life, if you can. :-) also I find that a simple mirror image and/or a high magic resistance will do. Alternately you can send someone you keep in the back to begin with to take the damage and heal them later, when all is done. Or just give them a potion of regeneration, I have my chars buy all of those whenever they come across some. Useful thing to have.

Last option - if your main has a CON of 18 and the Draw Upon Holy Might spell, you can have them take the damage, cast DUHM before leaving the area and go on your merry way. A CON of 20+ gives passive regeneration, a four hour walk can fully heal a char with like 90 HP. Doesnt matter whether the score is permanent or temporary.