chill touch vs. fire bolt

[khachaturian]

chill touch has the nice rider effect of preventing hp restoration. fire bolt lets you set things on fire from a distance. do people think that chill touch's rider is worth the lower damage die?

i don't get the sense that movement speed is enough of an issue to put ray of frost into the discussion, and acid splash seems to be a whole other kettle of fish in targeting dex save instead of making an attack roll.

and without the monster manual out, it's not entirely clear what sort of resistances and immunities we should expect in the future. would love to hear people's thoughts on this

[Ferrin33]

chill touch has the nice rider effect of preventing hp restoration. fire bolt lets you set things on fire from a distance. do people think that chill touch's rider is worth the lower damage die?

i don't get the sense that movement speed is enough of an issue to put ray of frost into the discussion, and acid splash seems to be a whole other kettle of fish in targeting dex save instead of making an attack roll.

and without the monster manual out, it's not entirely clear what sort of resistances and immunities we should expect in the future. would love to hear people's thoughts on this

Both are viable options for different situations, Ray of Frost is overall more powerful than Chill Touch because of its more widespread use. (Movement speed always being useful for anyone, not being able to heal.. how many classes or monsters would heal mid-combat?)

I think they're all viable choices. For pure damage Fire Bolt wins of course.

[MustacheFart]

chill touch has the nice rider effect of preventing hp restoration. fire bolt lets you set things on fire from a distance. do people think that chill touch's rider is worth the lower damage die?

i don't get the sense that movement speed is enough of an issue to put ray of frost into the discussion, and acid splash seems to be a whole other kettle of fish in targeting dex save instead of making an attack roll.

and without the monster manual out, it's not entirely clear what sort of resistances and immunities we should expect in the future. would love to hear people's thoughts on this

Had this discussion with my wife last night. Chill touch seems to be too situational in my opinion. While Firebolt just does consistently more damage. Plus being able to ignite things from its long range is very useful outside combat. I personally give the edge to Firebolt.

Now, if I was playing in an undead heavy campaign then I would give Chill Touch the lead.

[MinaBee]

I was looking at both for my adventurer's league Wizard, and I ended up going with Chill Touch.

Because the difference between a d8 and a d10 isn't huge, and that rider effect is going to make all of the difference in a battle with enemy healers, or a boss fight.

It's even got a secondary effect that imposes disadvantage on attacks if the target is undead, which is great because I'm pretty sure undead resist Necrotic damage.

Hell, I think it'll even lockdown regeneration.

On the other hand, the fluff of Chill Touch doesn't fit well with every character concept. Fire Bolt is simple, useful, and classic. Things are catch on fire around adventurers. It's tradition.

[Yorrin]

Yeah... chill touch is probably the worst damage cantrip in the game, imo. Very situational rider with sub-par damage and damage type. Really its range is it's only saving grace. I'd only take it for the visual of force-choking someone :smalltongue:

[khachaturian]

or maybe another way of asking the question is, how many times have you run into enemies that have the capability of regaining HP, and what is the relative benefit of being able to shut this ability down.

from the pc perspective, i would imagine an enemy that is able to say nope to second wind and heals might get frustrating

[hymer]

From what I've seen so far, necrotic is less subject to monster resistance and immunities than fire. Undead are also a common foe, considerably affected. OTOH, Fire Bolt deals about 20% more damage in most cases.
I think both cantrips have something going for them. I wouldn't rate one as better than the other, but I probably would want one of them for an offensive cantrip, even if it was just for their decent range. So I'd probably go either with what fit my character or the campaign better.

[DrLemniscate]

Chill Touch is the situational cantrip for if you ever get in melee. The 1d8 is better than 1d10 with disadvantage.

They could have made a melee range cantrip with 1d10, so it was still a situational cantrip. However, maybe it got a cut to 1d8 to discourage casters getting in melee unless you have ways to do a reasonable amount of melee damage.

[hymer]

Chill Touch is the situational cantrip for if you ever get in melee. The 1d8 is better than 1d10 with disadvantage.

They could have made a melee range cantrip with 1d10, so it was still a situational cantrip. However, maybe it got a cut to 1d8 to discourage casters getting in melee unless you have ways to do a reasonable amount of melee damage.

Why would the Chill Touch attack not be with disadvantage in melee?

[DrLemniscate]

Why would the Chill Touch attack not be with disadvantage in melee?

Sorry, was thinking it had a range of touch. Don't have my PHB handy. I think the melee range cantrip has 'Touch' in the name...


Still, I suppose it is an option for a situational cantrip in combat, versus some other thing that isn't likely to help in combat.

[Daishain]

the difference in damage is minimal. At the same time, while there aren't many enemies that regularly heal in combat, those that do tend to be quite nasty. A means of shutting that down can be a huge tactical advantage.

There are plenty of damage dealers out there, let them do their job. In combat, yours is to tip the odds in the parties favor, and your best weapons for doing so rarely involve dealing direct damage. The only reason Chill Touch doesn't win by default in my opinion is that a cheap means of setting something on fire from a distance is likewise situationally useful, though there tends to be multiple substitutes for that. (mage hand + torch for instance)

[Dhavaer]

Sorry, was thinking it had a range of touch. Don't have my PHB handy. I think the melee range cantrip has 'Touch' in the name...

The melee cantrip is shocking grasp.