D&D Spell Focus: Fireball & Lightning Bolt

Today, we’re looking at the two evocation heavyweights of the 3rd-level spell slot. The iconic. The explosive. The friendship-ending… Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Which boom stick is right for you?

Now I’m not even going to pretend there is any answer to this query other than Fireball… it is always Fireball, but there has been a sneaky little change or two in the 2024 versions of the spells that may instead have your ponder "Did they just nerf my favourite nuke?" We’re going to compare the 2014 versions to their 2024 counterparts, then put them head-to-head to see which one earns a permanent spot in your spellbook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkw6pdxqbcQ

Let’s start with the obvious option. In 2014, Fireball was the gold standard and D&D meme staple for a reason. I mean, c’mon, how many mugs and t-shirts have you ever seen that say “I cast Lightning Bolt”? 8d6 fire damage in a 20-foot radius, and that is a lot of bang for buck for a 3^rd Level incantation. But there was one line in the 2014 text that made it truly terrifying: "The fire spreads around corners." This meant hiding behind a pillar or a half-wall didn't help you. If you were in the radius, you were getting cooked. No cover, no mercy – friend or foe unless.

Now, with the 2024 version, at first glance, it looks the same. 8d6 damage? Check. 150-foot range? Check. But if you look closely at the text… that "spreads around corners" line? It’s gone.

In the 2024 rules, Fireball now follows the standard rules for a Sphere Area of Effect. This means cover actually matters. If Blowinbogan—our favourite half-drunken Ranger—is standing behind a thick stone pillar when Seeps drops a Fireball on the other side, he will get a bonus to his Dexterity save from that cover, +2 for half or +5 for 3/4 (just like AC), or even be unaffected if he has Total Cover. It’s a subtle change, but it makes the environment much more important for surviving a blast. More on this later…

Cover now works with Fireball in the DnD 2024 Rules

Then we have Lightning Bolt. In 2014, it was the "cool" choice, and less cliché but often seen as the "worst" option because a 100-foot line is much harder to aim than a 20-foot sphere and usually, will hit fewer targets except if your DM loves a long corridor or gave you choke-point options in combat.

In 2024, Lightning Bolt remains largely the same: 8d6 lightning damage, Dexterity save for half. However, the 2024 update has tightened the wording on Lines. Under the new "Line" Area of Effect rules, a line is much easier to adjudicate on a grid.

If you’re not using my ZG AoE Templates—shameless plug—you’ll know that positioning a line can be tricky. But 2024 clarifies that if a Line originates from you, you can angle it to hit exactly who you need without the "diagonal-grid-headache" we used to have. It also no longer ignites flammable objects, so the tavern’s rum supply will thank you, as if for some odd reason you DON’T want to completely destroy a town made entirely of wooden structures, you now have a hard-hitting zap without the insurance claim.

Every. Single. Time.

Breaking them down mechanically, we see a few interesting quirks.

Round 1: Damage Type. Fire is the most resisted damage type in the Monster Manual. Lightning resistance is significantly less common.

Point: Lightning Bolt.

Round 2: Ease of Use. Even with the cover nerf, Fireball hits a massive area, 44x 5 foot grid square. You can drop it in the middle of a room and catch everyone. Lightning Bolt requires you to line up enemies like a row of kebabs, a rare event, and then it can cover 20 squares… or does it? This depends on whether you play Grid or Geometry. Because the rules in 2024 state that if half or more of a square is affected, it counts. This effectively doubles LB to cover 40 squares… but still doesn’t often matter as you slam into a wall after 30 ft and all that firepower (I mean bolt power) is lost anyway. OH! And we should remember that FB is a SPHERE, not 2d like a line, so technically it can hit about 176 5-foot cubes cast on the middle of a rope bridge if height is an issue, whereas LB is essentially ‘flat’!

Point: Fireball.

Of course, the best way to determine if something is in the blast zone and ignore all the maths and geometry debates is to simply use full-sized, printable scaled templates (available from Zalgariath.com), which clearly show you how many targets get hit and give you no excuse for…

Round 3: Friendly Fire. This is where Lightning Bolt shines. In 2014, ignoring Evokers who can choose to shield friends with “Sculpt Spell”, most casters will find it is much easier to avoid hitting their Barbarian with a line than it is with a giant 40-foot wide ball of fire. But again, in 2024, new tactics have been made available. The sorcerers' “Careful Spell” meta-magic option got a massive buff with the addition of the words “and take no damage if they would normally take half”, which were not there in 2014. In fact, it is even better than the Evoker, who in 2024 only gets this ability at Level 6 compared to the Level 2 for the sorcerer, AND Evokers can only sculpt their school of magic, whereas "Careful Spell" can be applied to any school. Take that, Fire nerds!

Point: Lightning Bolt.

Lightning all the angles easy now! If a square is half covered, it counts.

But here is the mechanical kicker for 2024: The Cover Factor. Because Fireball no longer "spreads around corners," it has lost one of its greatest tactical advantages. It is now just as susceptible to cover as Lightning Bolt is. Worse, depending on its exact placement, you now have to visualise if certain creatures are receiving half cover as the flames spread out from a single point meaning giving an unintentional “Meat-Shield” effect.

On the plus side, pending initiative, this does allow for some new tactical team-work options. If you KNOW the Wizard is going to drop a bomb, front-line fighters can use their movement to swing around their targets and position themselves so the foe becomes a firewall! Remember, if you don’t leave melee range, they don’t get an opportunity attack, you can reposition freely. Or, the player may decide that, with a nuke incoming, taking a chance at being swung at by a goblin or two is worth breaking and hiding around a wall to avoid the burn. I like this. Anything that makes combat more dynamic and encourages teamwork is great.

Let’s be honest, though, how many DMs remember for Lightning Bolt that RAW every creature in the line of the effect except the first is meant to have a +2 to its DEX Save? Zero? Pretty much. So the chances of DMs enforcing that new rule with FB are about the same as them saying, “You know what, that huge bolt of magical electricity that can fry a man instantly actually DIDN'T explode the rum barrels behind the barkeep. 

The Verdict? The vast majority of times, even with the slight cover nerf, playing in wide-open spaces or fighting hordes of low-HP minions, Fireball is still the King. The sheer volume of useful squares it covers is mathematically superior, and you can’t argue with 50 years of peer preference.

However, if you are a tactical player who cares about damage types and avoiding the party's Paladin, Lightning Bolt has closed the gap slightly in 2024 with no additional cover restrictions and the ability to be cast “Safely” in flammable environments. It will just never, I feel, be able to escape Fireball's smoky shadow… unless we go back to good old AD&D where it bounced off walls until hitting its limit, which usually involved electrocuting both you and your entire party and required a refresher on trigonometry every session…

But what do you think? Have you been "cover-nerfed" by a DM yet? Let me know in the comments! Don’t forget to head over to my Patreon to grab, for free, the printable spell cards and templates for both of these spells—they make tracking these AoEs a breeze and as always, complete spell card sets that contain these spell cards, along with its Condition Tokens and AoE Templates, can be found over at the ZG Store.