Is there an Illusionary Fireball setup for 4th edition?

[johnbragg]

On another forum, I just made a flat-out statement that "After 5 editions, we still don't have a reliable setup for 'I cast an illusionary fireball' that makes sense given power levels."

And a minute or two later I realized that, for all I know, there is one buried somewhere in 4th edition.

Is there?

[Dimers]

Nope. I mean, you can call most Illusion powers "fireball" if you want and have some justification for their mechanical effects. But the Fireball spell is basically unique in 4e for being an area burst 3 daily that only deals damage, and there's no illusion power that really comes close.

[MwaO]

There are a number of area burst illusion spells that deal 'psychic' damage on a hit that in non-4e terms means the target failed its saving throw against the attack. And it is possible to 'shadow magic' them by making them do fire damage instead in a variety of different ways.

[johnbragg]

There are a number of area burst illusion spells that deal 'psychic' damage on a hit that in non-4e terms means the target failed its saving throw against the attack. And it is possible to 'shadow magic' them by making them do fire damage instead in a variety of different ways.

That actually sounds vaguely close to what I'm looking for.

That sounds at least kind of like "a second level illusion spell that makes targets think they've been fireballed", so no damage if they make the save (the attack roll fails), damage scaled to the fireball if they fail the will save (or equivalent).

thanks, I'll start looking through the 4E PHB. Despite its flaws, nobody ever said 4E was bad at math

[MwaO]

That actually sounds vaguely close to what I'm looking for.

That sounds at least kind of like "a second level illusion spell that makes targets think they've been fireballed", so no damage if they make the save (the attack roll fails), damage scaled to the fireball if they fail the will save (or equivalent).

thanks, I'll start looking through the 4E PHB. Despite its flaws, nobody ever said 4E was bad at math

There weren't any such powers until Arcane Power. But Enemies Abound and Grasping Shadows have those basic concepts at hand as a couple examples.

[darkdragoon]

There's a wand that adds Fire damage to Winged Horde which is a pretty nice power on its own.