This is the list for all the gamers who want to know about chromatic orb 5e and how to use it, it, and its damage output.
There are lots of different ways to damage enemies in 5e D&D, and not all of them are created equally. For example, you might be able to hit a bandit with a sword and cut him in half, but a skeleton will be able to resist the blow.
You can throw cold water on a fire elemental and slow it down, but throwing cold water on an ice giant is going to do nothing. It can be difficult to keep track of all the magic and damage types that your enemies are resistant to and vulnerable to.
What if you didn’t have to keep track of what weapons and spells your enemies are resistant to? Instead, you could do damage with a spell that can use all different types of energy.
Well, with the Chromatic Orb, you can do just that! But why would you use the chromatic orb, and how do you make sure you can use it effectively? Here’s our Chromatic Orb 5e guide to this spell, and all your questions will be answered!
Contents
What is the Chromatic Orb Spell?
Here are the stats for the chromatic orb spell, according to the Player’s Handbook:
- 1st-level evocation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 90 feet
- Spell Lists. Sorcerer, Wizard
- Components: V, S, M (a diamond worth at least 50 GP)
- Duration: Instantaneous
You throw an energy sphere with a diameter of 4 inches towards a creature within range. For the sort of orb you generate, you can pick from acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder and launch a ranged spell attack against the target. The monster gets 3d8 damage of the kind you choose if the attack strikes.
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or above, the damage rises by 1d8 for every slot level above 1st.
Let’s break this spell down. First, Chromatic Orb is a first-level evocation spell that takes one action to cast and has a range of 90 feet.
A sorcerer and a wizard can cast the spell, and it requires a verbal, somatic, and material component, with the material component being a diamond that is worth 50 GP. It is also cast instantly once the spell is cast.
After casting the spell, you throw a 4-inch-diameter sphere of energy at a creature. As you create the sphere, you can infuse it with either acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage.
Then you throw the orb as a ranged spell attack towards the target. If the attack hits, then the orb does 3d8 worth of damage of the type you chose. The damage increases by 1d8 for every extra spell slot if you want to choose to upcast the spell.
This spell is pretty useful, as the 3d8 base damage is pretty serious for a first-level spell. The customization of the spell is also very helpful. As you can easily tailor one of the six damage types towards the enemy you are fighting. You can throw the orb up to 90 feet, which is a pretty strong range for a 1st level spell.
You’ll be able to cast the spell from a vast distance and throw the orb at your opponent. The monster will receive the damage if you hit it.
It’s a very flexible spell that can be customized for a while variety of enemies. We need to know how resistance and immunity work to figure out why this is so beneficial.
Damage in Dungeons and Dragons
Damage is pretty simple to calculate in D&D. First, and you hit the ogre for 14 damage with your sword, then those 14 points of damage are reduced from the ogre’s HP pool. You do enough damage to drain the ogre’s HP pool, and the ogre dies.
However, some enemies have resistance to damage. For example, skeletons are very resistant to slashing damage but weak to bludgeoning damage. For example, if you hit a skeleton with a sword for the same 14 damage, they will take half damage for 7 damage.
However, if you hit them with a mace or club for 14 damage, they will take double the damage, so that’s 28 damage total, often more than enough to shatter a skeleton in one hit! Creatures have their damage resistances, vulnerabilities, and immunities listed on their character sheet and any special effects that damage can do to them.
For example, fire elementals have an ability called “Water Susceptibility’ which is as follows: Water Susceptibility: For every 5 ft., the elemental moves in water, or for every gallon of water splashed on it, it takes 1 cold damage. They aren’t vulnerable to water damage, but the effect does damage them if gallons of water are splashed on them.
Basically, the damage is simple math, with resistances halving the damage and vulnerabilities doubling it. Immunities mean no damage of that type is done at all to the creature.
How Do I Know My Damage Type?
Most of the damage you do is in the name of the spell, with a fireball doing fire damage and an ice knife doing ice damage. If you have a weapon, magical or otherwise, the weapon itself will say the type of damage it deals. For example, a magical sword will say it deals 1d8 slashing damage in the description.
Why Chromatic Orb is so Powerful
If you want to either metagame and give your characters a better chance at survival or just roleplay more effectively with your characters.
You can think back on your knowledge of your characters and see if they know what a monster or NPC is vulnerable to.
Then you can prepare accordingly to fight the next battle. Now, the chromatic orb allows you to have six types of damage on tap with one spell, and if you target the enemy with a damage type they are vulnerable to, then they take double damage from the 3d8 damage!
That is pretty powerful for a spell, especially if you can use vulnerabilities against your foes. Especially with the long-range, it will take a few turns for any enemy to get close to you to retaliate, and you can keep hammering them with this spell.
This is easily the best spell for wizards and sorcerers to use against very tough enemies and bosses with large hp pools. You can throw a few chromatic orbs at your enemies and watch their HP pool go down.
How Do I Find a Diamond For the Spell?
Thankfully, the diamond worth 50 GP isn’t consumed whenever you cast the spell, so you only need to find one. If you don’t have a component pouch, you can find diamonds in most magic shops and at jewelers in large cities.
You probably won’t find diamonds like this in smaller cities, or if you do, you will probably need to perform a quest to get them.
Also, 50 GP is not a lot of gold, so you won’t need to worry about breaking the bank when it comes to buying the diamond. The 50 GP for the diamond can often be bought with the loot from your first adventure. Then you will have the diamond and will be able to cast the spell without any extra trouble.
Dealing With the Ability to Miss
The biggest problem for the Chromatic Orb is the fact that it requires a ranged spell attack to hit the target with the spell. If you miss the target with the attack, you have burned a 1st level spell slot and potential damage for one turn. But, of course, as you get a higher level, you will have more 1st level spells to burn, so extra attacks can still happen and will help you deal damage to your enemies.
The requirement of the ranged spell attack is the only downside of this otherwise very powerful attack, but even then, misses make D&D even more fun during combat.
Describing the Chromatic Orb
The flexibility of the Chromatic Orb also means that you can have fun describing the spell. For example, the orb might glow with its elemental power, or maybe your character speaks different words of power or casts different hand movements around the diamond to channel a different type of elemental power into the orb.
Chromatic orb’s greatest strength
Maybe your wizard or sorcerer channels the elements around them to play on the enemy’s vulnerability. For example, if they are battling a gray ooze in a thunderstorm, maybe they grab lightning from the air and draw it into the orb, adding more power to the attack and shocking the ooze’s system for that double damage.
As always, you should have some fun with the spell, and you’ll really start to enjoy it every time you get to cast it!
Ranged spell attack
In the melee, ranged attack rolls suffer a disadvantage. That means that, in order to gain a disadvantage, it must first be an assault rather than a spell, and it must also be ranged. But there’s a problem.
What does it mean when a spell is “ranged”? Things like burning hands, for example, have an aoe that extends beyond 5 feet but not far because the maximum range is 15 feet.
So, in order to minimize the disadvantage, do you need to cast it between 5 and 15 feet? To me, it appears to be a bit ridiculous. What about things like terrible rebuke as a reaction? If someone attacks you, you can utilize it. This is something that will most likely happen at the melee range.
Spell slot
A caster can only cast a certain amount of Spells before resting, regardless of how many Spells they know or prepare. Manipulation of magic’s fabric and channeling its energy into even a simple spell is physically and mentally taxing, and higher-level Spells are far more so.
As a result, every Spellcasting class (save the warlock) includes a table that displays how many Spell Slots of each Spell Level a character may use at each level. For example, Umara, a 3rd-level Wizard, has four first-level Spell Slots and two second-level Spell Slots.
A character expends a slot equal to or higher than the spell’s level while casting a spell, thereby “filling” a slot with the spell. A spell slot is a tiny groove for first-level spells and a larger groove for higher-level spells.
A 1st-level spell can be cast in any slot, while a 9th-level spell can only be cast in a 9th-level slot. As a result, when Umara casts Magic Missile, a first-level spell, she uses one of her four first-level slots, leaving three open.
Characters and monsters may cast Spells with Special Abilities without the need for Spell Slots. For example, a monk who follows the Way of the Four Elements, a Warlock who uses particular Eldritch Invocations, and a Pit Fiend from The Nine Hells can all cast Spells in this way.
ACid, cold fire lightning
Acid
Description: Not the good sort, mind you. Simply put, a solution with an overabundance of H+ ions. This produces severe burning and stinging, and if powerful enough, it may corrode some materials.
Example: Acid injury is caused by a flask of acid and a black pudding.
Fire
Description: Fire bad. Hot. Hurt. Fire damage should be fairly self-explanatory. However, feel free to hold your hands near a flame if you are truly unsure.
Example: The spells Burning Hands, Fire Bolt, and Fireball all deal fire damage.
Cold
Description: Temperatures nearing zero Kelvin induce numbness and a tingling sensation.
Example: Cold-type damage is dealt by spells like Ray of Frost, Armor of Agathys, and Cone of Cold.
Lightning
Description: A high voltage of electricity causes lightning damage (approx. 1.21 jiggawatts).
Example: Lightning Bolt and Shocking Grasp inflict lightning damage.
FAQS
There are very different types of editions of Dungeon and dragon orb 5e, but the first one was in 2009.
The fire element is the most powerful.
