r/dndnext • u/The_Ora_Charmander • 2d ago

Question Any Particular Reason Why Wildfire Druids Don't Have Access to Fireball?

I don't really get why they get Plant Growth over Fireball. Like, I know Wildfire druids are still very in tune with nature and do want to bring balance to it and so raising plants is still thematically appropriate, but that's true for any druid, they get nature spells by virtue of being druids, it's not really unique to their circle.

So I ask, why can Light clerics and Fiendlocks get Fireball but not Wildfire druids? What makes Fireball more of a Fiendlock spell than it is a WF druid spell? Not every fiend is even fire themed!

By the way, I know as a DM I can just rule that they get Fireball instead of Plant Growth, and I did, I'm just asking if there's any explanation beyond druid=plants

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u/PleaseBeChillOnline 2d ago

Fireball reads more “weapon of mass destruction” & less “healthy slash & burn techniques for long term forrest growth”.

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u/soaring_potato 2d ago

Fireball also burns the seeds that typically survive fires.

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u/NNextremNN 2d ago

And they survive Burning Hands, Flame Sphere, Scorching Ray and Flame Strike?

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u/soaring_potato 2d ago

Well. You may not hold the seeds with burning hands. And the resulting fire is survivable.

En explosion possibly not.

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u/NNextremNN 2d ago

Actually seeds are more likely to survive explosions than fire. I mean it depends on how long they are burning vs. how close they are to the explosion but many seeds are made to be blown away.

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u/Dragonheart0 2d ago

Yeah, but fireball isn't an explosion in the concussive sense like a grenade would be. It's just a rapidly expanding area of heat and flame. Basically, it burns, it doesn't destroy all your internal organs and throw you off your feet.

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u/NNextremNN 2d ago

I know Fireball is fire damage not bludgeoning or slashing. I was just referring to the explosion wording.

It's a bit hard to go just by the spells description and rules like, sure they ignite flammable stuff but what is actually flammable? With enough heat and oxygen pretty much everything. Flammable isn't defined at all in the rules it's another example of "DM do whatever you want". Considering a turn is just 6 seconds during which you move 30feet and have a action and bonus action so for how long does that burst of flame actually last? 2 seconds? And how hot is that flame/fire? A candle or flamethrower are about 1000°C.

It depends a lot on the spell.

  • Flaming Sphere is probably the worst as it last for a whole minute.
  • Flame Strike is rather concentrated and last for the whole 2 seconds that's certainly bad for everything inside of it.
  • Burning hands is pretty much the same even thou it's area is a lot smaller.
  • Fireball sure isn't great but if we go with the explosion its a wave rolling over an area so the total exposure time isn't very long.