Who has better AoE spells. (Cleric or Wizard)

[mrcarter11]

So as part of a larger build, I'm trying to decide which class has the better area of effect* spells. Personally I figured Wizard did, but as always I wanted the playgrounds opinion. So please weigh in with your opinion and which certain spells are the best.



*For the purpose of this discussion, I'm defining an Area of Effect spell, as any spell that has a listed range or Close, Medium, or Long.

[Othesemo]

I'd go for wizard, myself.

[Emmerask]

What kind of aoe spells?
Damage? Control? Debuff?

Control : Wizard
Debuff : Wizard
Damage : If we don´t count more obscure methods of damage dealing (like shrink item) I would actually go with cleric with dmm and some nice metamagics.

But overall its not by much so wizard is the way to go.

Oh and if we then add some prestige classes like the Cormyr warmage (I think thats what its called) it can cast aoe spells with even more width ^^

[Psyren]

At later levels Cleric gets a huge boost from the Word line. Pump CL, win D&D.

[mrcarter11]

The Word spells are an interesting point, I had only briefly thought about them. I'm still siding with the Wizard list though. It just offers so much.

[Khedrac]

I'd go with Wizard - the Word variants are great - but only if the rest of your party is the same alignment as you...

One of my favourites is Radiant Assault from the Spell Compendium - it's that rare thing, and direct damage Will Save spell - great for evasion types.
On the Cleric side Firestorm is pretty awesome if the enemies are not fire immune.

One opinion pretty common on these boards is that AoE damage spells is not optimum for a wizard, Save or Lose spells are bvetter. I personally dislike Save or Lose spells as they tend to be Save and Ignore - at least with save for half you have done some damage - and clerics seem to have more save negates than wizards as their primary offensive spells. (Exception - I do like Baelful Polymorph despite the save negating.)

[Yuki Akuma]

Cleric.

Because Cleric can take Anyspell...

:smallwink:

[Psyren]

Cleric.

Because Cleric can take Anyspell...

:smallwink:

Not to mention Miracle (ftw)

Come to think of it, Miracle has some pretty bloody amazing AoE effects. AoE Resurrection anyone? Let's see a Wizard do that.

(Yes, I know about Shadow Miracles, which should really not exist.)

[mrcarter11]

Should of said earlier that the build in question is dropping into a spellwarp sniper, so that may change your thoughts, but I honestly just trying to see which had the better spells to ray, and then likely hold and channel.

[Psyren]

Oh, why didn't you say so?

Have a look here (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9235.0)