When I say "Spell go boom"...

[Quietus]

What spells does that make you think of? Namely, I'm looking for big, flashy, impressive stuff. Effective is nice as well, but takes a back seat to aesthetics. Fireball is an obvious one, and maybe Lightning Bolt, but I'm drawing a blank beyond that.

As an aside, spells level 4 and less are preferred, though the character I'm building can grow from there. Eighth and ninth level spells are unlikely to see use.

[Thespianus]

Scintillating Sphere must be the flash-(geddit)-iest spell there is? :)

Basically a fireball but with lightning strikes instead of fire. Like a Tesla-coil attack spell. So cool!

[The Glyphstone]

Apocalypse From The Sky is right out then.

Um.....Call Lightning? It's not very loud, but the point-and-clickzap interface can be fun.

[Moose Man]

Pyrotechnics?

[Kurald Galain]

Ghost Sound? :smalltongue:

[Shadowknight12]

Any area of effect spell that deals damage coupled with the Explosive Spell metamagic feat (from Complete Arcane). Doesn't get much boomer than that.

[Quietus]

Mm.. I'm liking a lot of these so far. I'm afraid Explosive Spell is a bit beyond a 7th level Sorcerer in terms of use, but it'll definitely be worth considering as he advances. Pyrotechnics I'd totally forgotten about, I love that, and Scintillating Sphere... well, I might just pick up Energy Substitution, we'll see. Thanks for the responses so far guys, I'm open to more if you've got'em!

[CTrees]

My first thought was EXPLOSIVE FIREBALL!

Second though was a thunderstone, which isn't technically a spell.

There's my word association game thoughts, anyway.

[Quietus]

My first thought was EXPLOSIVE FIREBALL!

Second though was a thunderstone, which isn't technically a spell.

There's my word association game thoughts, anyway.

Thunderstones! Forgot about those, I'm sure this party would have want for a bag or two of them. :smallbiggrin:

[dextercorvia]

I picture Wings of Flurry (RotD?) as having an audible effect. In a similar vein is Hammer of Righteousness (BoED). Something big with Born of the Three Thunders.

[Fuhrmaaj]

For some reason the first spell which came to mind was Explosive Runes. Maybe not the most practical spell though.

[Re'ozul]

For some reason the first spell which came to mind was Explosive Runes. Maybe not the most practical spell though.

Very much this.
I had some fanatic goons use it as a goodbye to my party.

[Urpriest]

What's that spell that Another Gaming Comic has Nuclear Dan use, Fireburst? It looks viable. Spell Compendium I think.

[Zaq]

Shout's a pretty good one, at least in terms of boomy mental images.

Fire Storm and Flame Strike make pretty neat images as well.

There's also Dinosaur Stampede, which is probably the spell with the coolest name ever. (Defenestrating Sphere is another contender.)

Also, Disintegrate.

[HalfDragonCube]

Locate City.

[Radar]

Whatever spell, that can be upgraded with Born of Three Thunders. :smallbiggrin:

[Thespianus]

What's that spell that Another Gaming Comic has Nuclear Dan use, Fireburst? It looks viable. Spell Compendium I think.

There's also Firebrand: 1 5ft burst / level, dealing 1D6/level fire damage (Max 10D6) out to medium range.

That's ALOT of boom.

[HalfDragonCube]

There's also Firebrand: 1 5ft burst / level, dealing 1D6/level fire damage (Max 10D6) out to medium range.

That's ALOT of boom.

Kind of like a meteor swarm except with more, smaller bursts and the possibly of not being awful?

[Quietus]

Cool, thank you very much guys - I've got this NPC statted out now, and while I can't give exactly what suggestions I've used, as my players frequent this forum, I've picked a few choice items off this list, and will choose more when I reach the appropriate level. Much appreciated!

[Qwertystop]

I want to hear how this goes. Explosions>no explosions.

[Deth Muncher]

Cool, thank you very much guys - I've got this NPC statted out now, and while I can't give exactly what suggestions I've used, as my players frequent this forum, I've picked a few choice items off this list, and will choose more when I reach the appropriate level. Much appreciated!

Is your NPC named Michael Bay?

[Quietus]

I want to hear how this goes. Explosions>no explosions.

I'm strongly considering doing a campaign journal if this works out well, but I'm limited by a couple of things there. First, this is an entirely new group, so a lot of what I'm doing is still feeling things out. Second, I'm returning to DMing after not doing so for... I want to say roughly two years. Haven't played much in that time, either. So I'm rusty. And third, I'm a pro-crastinator. So, we'll see how tonight's session goes. The NPC I'm building off of this is part of a very forceful, aggressive, in-your-face party, which I'm intending to be set up as potential rivals to the players, but we'll see how things actually turn out. Maybe they'll become drinking buddies, who knows.


Is your NPC named Michael Bay?

Nope. Maybe I should introduce a rich NPC that loves explosions by that name, though... just for laughs.

[FMArthur]

There's also Firebrand: 1 5ft burst / level, dealing 1D6/level fire damage (Max 10D6) out to medium range.

That's ALOT of boom.

Oh wow, I just looked this up. What an awesome 5th level spell. It does what you say it does and the following round it does 5d6 damage anyone hit in the first and anyone who enters the areas of the bursts. The unmentioned downside is that the damage from separate bursts does not overlap, but still... you would be able to tag pretty much every enemy within 200ft of you for 15d6 damage without scratching an ally. Cool stuff.

[Quietus]

Oh wow, I just looked this up. What an awesome 5th level spell. It does what you say it does and the following round it does 5d6 damage anyone hit in the first and anyone who enters the areas of the bursts. The unmentioned downside is that the damage from separate bursts does not overlap, but still... you would be able to tag pretty much every enemy within 200ft of you for 15d6 damage without scratching an ally. Cool stuff.

Yeah, I'm fond of it, it's neat. They can avoid the secondary with a reflex save, of course, but I can't remember if that involved taking an action like alchemist's fire does. Unfortunately it's capped at 10d6/5d6, so it'd be a bit limited in that, but still very cool.

[FMArthur]

Yeah, I'm fond of it, it's neat. They can avoid the secondary with a reflex save, of course, but I can't remember if that involved taking an action like alchemist's fire does. Unfortunately it's capped at 10d6/5d6, so it'd be a bit limited in that, but still very cool.

They can take a full-round action to make a DC 15 reflex save and prevent secondary damage. 5d6 damage is a much, much weaker effect than denying foes their turn, so unless they're going to die from it for sure, from a planning perspective it's best to assume they'll take the damage.

[Moose Man]

Prestidigitation. Write something embarrassing on the man with the biggest lungs in the next settlement you encounter. Later, tell him about the writing. Boom, noise with minimal prep.

[sonofzeal]

Explosive Forceful Great Thunderclap.

That's six saving throws, please. Each. :xykon:

[Forbiddenwar]

Literally: spell goes boom
Sound Lance.

[ericgrau]

Pyrotechnics?

Widened pyrotechinics. Castle guard go blind.

[Thespianus]

They can take a full-round action to make a DC 15 reflex save and prevent secondary damage. 5d6 damage is a much, much weaker effect than denying foes their turn, so unless they're going to die from it for sure, from a planning perspective it's best to assume they'll take the damage.

Yes, in mook-rich environments, it's a fantastic spell, especially if there are mooks standing next to eachother, allowing you to target more than one mook per burst

Spell goes boom aplenty. :-)

[Tancred]

Vortex of Teeth, from Spell Compendium.

There's no "boom", but the visuals are great; I can just imagine the caster laughing triumphantly and he stands in the middle of the maelstrom, watching everything within 40' of him being shredded by thousands of tearing teeth.