Druid fire spells; useless or only partly useless?

[(Un)Inspired]

So I've got a druid I've been playing and its been really fun. I'm only level 7 right now but I'm looking forward to higher level spells (who isn't?).

I'd love for my druid to be able to fight armies using each of the elements but at higher levels one of the elements doesn't seem to have any spells worth casting (Guess which element...).

Call Avalache and Frostfell totally rock for ice spell

Bombardment and Earthquake are righteous for earth spells

Control Wind is an amazing air spell

Flashflood is devastating for a water spell

and...

I got nothing that's comparable as far as fire spells go.

Firestorm is so incredibly underwhelming it makes me want to cry. It only does damage and not even a lot of that.

Raise volcano takes roughly 6 years to actually get any real effects going and has a tremendous XP cost.



Can you guys help me find some fire spells that are actually worth casting?

[Jeff the Green]

Produce flame at low levels, fire seeds is decent (8d8+8*CL in a 5'-radius), inferno is fun (6d6/round). At higher levels scalding mud and transmute rock to lava.

[(Un)Inspired]

How did I forget fire seeds? It my favorite method of bomb creation.

[eggynack]

I don't think there's all that much on the scale you're looking for, though there are some good druid spells that are fire themed. Scalding mud (Sand, 120) is like transmute rock to mud, which is awesome, except with bonus fire. On an even smaller scale, heart of fire (CM, 107) and mantle of the fiery spirit (Sand, 118) grant some nifty abilities. Fire seeds is also rather nice, though I'm not quite as enamored with it as some are. By the by, on the earth front, you should look into mudslide (Storm, 119) if you haven't already. It's like call avalanche, except one level higher, and with enough upgrades to potentially justify the increased cost.

[chaos_redefined]

I'm not gonna say that these are amazing, but they are at least passable...

First off, fire elementals from summon nature's ally are passable. Better than some of the things on those lists... Similarly, summoning a Fire elemental monolith is still good.

Fires of Purity deals a decent block of damage on all your attacks. Admittedly, fire damage, but still damage.

Flamestrike is one of the best druid blasting spells in core... but it's outclassed by Blast of Sand from spell compendium which is untyped damage and doesn't allow spell resistance. At least till level 11. Then, arc of lightning, from SpC, deals electric damage and has a much more versatile shape. (Arc is also conjuration, so works with that Spell Focus(Conjuration) that druids are pretty much required to pick up).

[Twilightwyrm]

So tell me, how much do you like Energy Substitution...?

[(Un)Inspired]

I don't think there's all that much on the scale you're looking for, though there are some good druid spells that are fire themed. Scalding mud (Sand, 120) is like transmute rock to mud, which is awesome, except with bonus fire. On an even smaller scale, heart of fire (CM, 107) and mantle of the fiery spirit (Sand, 118) grant some nifty abilities. Fire seeds is also rather nice, though I'm not quite as enamored with it as some are. By the by, on the earth front, you should look into mudslide (Storm, 119) if you haven't already. It's like call avalanche, except one level higher, and with enough upgrades to potentially justify the increased cost.

Mudslide is pretty cool I would definitely use it. As far as mantle of the fiery spirit goes, what's the benefit of having the fire subtype.

I'm already using heart of fire pretty regularly.

As far as earth spells go I think stone shape is my favorite. It's definitely one of my favorite spell in the entire game and I can't wait to have access to the greater version.


So tell me, how much do you like Energy Substitution...?

Hmmm energy substitution fire bombardment... Or even better fire substituted frostfell!

[CrazyYanmega]

Druids can RAISE VOLCANOS?! Where is this beautiful spell?!

It has already been said, but Fire Seeds, specifically the Holly Berry Bombs, are one of the best spells out there. If you could make a wand or ring or other reusable magic item of those...

[(Un)Inspired]

Druids can RAISE VOLCANOS?! Where is this beautiful spell?!

It has already been said, but Fire Seeds, specifically the Holly Berry Bombs, are one of the best spells out there. If you could make a wand or ring or other reusable magic item of those...

https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20031017a I warn you, it's not great.

I like fire seeds but I don't think it's that amazing. It's cool to make bombs out of it but again, it's just damage and frankly even 4 or. 5 castings of it don't do that much damage.

[squiggit]

Druids can RAISE VOLCANOS?! Where is this beautiful spell?!

https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20031017a

[eggynack]

Mudslide is pretty cool I would definitely use it. As far as mantle of the fiery spirit goes, what's the benefit of having the fire subtype.
Mostly fire immunity, or maybe entirely fire immunity, which may be the exact opposite of what you're seeking. It's also always on, come hell or high water. There's also a weakness to cold, but you just mitigate that with a separate spell, like energy immunity, and you effectively get two chunks of energy immunity for the price of one. Time was you could just use the cold counterpart, mantle of the icy soul, and simultaneously gain the cold subtype forever, but it was downgraded in the spell compendium to hours/level.


As far as earth spells go I think stone shape is my favorite. It's definitely one of my favorite spell in the entire game and I can't wait to have access to the greater version.

It's pretty great, though I don't know if greater stone shape does enough more to justify the increased cost. In terms of best stone stuff, I've always been a fan of oread summoning for spontaneous earthquakes out of 6th level slots.

[(Un)Inspired]

I need greater stone shape to build my Doom tower faster than just stone shape would allow.

[HammeredWharf]

Wreath of Flames can be really good if you've got lots of attacks from, say, Wildshape or Girallon's Blessing.

[(Un)Inspired]

Wreath of Flames can be really good if you've got lots of attacks from, say, Wildshape or Girallon's Blessing.

Even really minor fire resistance can make wreath of flames useless unfortunately.

[HammeredWharf]

Yes, it's situational, but a druid isn't a sorcerer. It's ok for the couple of levels between 5 and whatever level it is in your campaign when everyone starts having fire resistance.

[eggynack]

Yes, it's situational, but a druid isn't a sorcerer. It's ok for the couple of levels between 5 and whatever level it is in your campaign when everyone starts having fire resistance.
I guess, but it just doesn't seem good enough to be worthwhile despite being situational. If I'm prepping a situational spell, it's going to be something like wind wall, because that spell will absolutely destroy encounters in the right situation. Situational spells need to be really powerful to make up for that, and this isn't.

[HammeredWharf]

Oh, I certainly don't think it's an awesome spell. After all, it's basically a more balanced version of Venomfire. However, enemies with no fire resistance are common enough during lower levels to spend a third level slot of them. In one game, my animal companion could reliably hit with seven natural attacks every round on level five, so WoF dealt 8d6 damage per round for the entire encounter, when fighting against some orcs/ogres/undead/golems/etc. It's far from the best thing a druid can do, but I had some fun with it.

[Miss Disaster]

Since Pathfinder is more or less fairly balanced with comparative proprietary spells, there are a significant amount of interesting elemental-style spells (especially of the Conjuration/Creation and Transmutation variety) that are interesting, well-built and do more than just vanilla/boring DD [i.e. multi-threat spells].

It's worth researching them at a site like D20PFSRD and considering them for backport into 3.5

(Note: And this is coming from someone who isn't a big PF fan.)

[ScubaGoomba]

You could consider something like Elemental Spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats/elemental-spell-metamagic) from Pathfinder. Maybe add some pre-reqs that allow you to choose a few different energy types with one selection of the feat.

EDIT: Maybe propose an ACF to your DM where you can change any of the standard D&D Energy Types (Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Acid to represent Fire, Water, Air, and Earth) to another. It could either take the place of your Domain for the purposes of Nature Bond or you could maybe make an Elemental Domain that, rather than having a list of domain spells, you can, instead, prepare one spell per day as a different element. This would give you flexibility with preparing good Fire spells and would also let you be a bit more of a Swiss Army knife.