Fire it up, fire it up... The Fireball spell.

I've been thinking about the Fireball spell, and how to apply its effect. It is quit deadly - for the user as well. Which of course is wonderful!

Let us read some of the descriptions to begin with.

OD&D/0 edition/3LBB
Fire Ball: A missile which springs from the finger of the Magic-User. It explodes with a burst radius of 2” (slightly larger than specified in CHAINMAIL). In a confined space the Fire Ball will generally conform to the shape of the space (elongate or whatever). The damage caused by the missile will be in proportion to the level of its user. A 6th-level Magic-User throws a 6-die missile, a 7th a 7-die missile, and so on. (Note that Fire Balls from Scrolls (see Vol. II) and Wand are 6-die missiles and those from Staves are 8-die missiles. Duration: 1 turn. Range: 24”

BASIC Moldvay (B/X)
Fire Ball
Range: 240'
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell creates a missile of fire that explodes into a ball of fire 40'diameter when it strikes a target. The fire ball will cause 1-6 (1d6) points of fire damage per level of the caster to all creatures within this area. If a victim of a fire ball saves vs. Spells, the spell will only do 1/2 damage. EXAMPLE: A fire ball cast by a 6th level magic-user will explode for 6-36 (6d6) points of damage.

BASIC Mentzer (BECMI)
Fire Ball Range: 240'
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: A spherical volume 40' across.
This spell creates a missile of fire which explodes into a ball of fire of 20' radius when it reaches the desired range or strikes a target. The Fire Ball inflicts 1-6 (1d6) points of fire damage for each level of the spell caster. Each victim within the area of effect takes full damage unless a Saving Throw vs. Spells is made. Even if the Saving Throw is successful, the victims take half the rolled damage. For example, a Fire Ball cast by a 6th level magic-user explodes for 6-36 (6d6) points of damage. If the total roll is 24, all within the area who make their Saving Throws take 12 points of fire damage.

LABYRINTH LORD
Fire Ball
Level: 3
Duration: Instant
Range: 240'
A fireball spell is an explosion of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level to every creature within a 20' radius. The caster points his finger and determines the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst. A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point. (An early impact results in an early detonation.) The fireball sets fire to combustibles and damages objects in the area. It can melt metals with low melting points, such as lead, gold, copper, silver, and bronze. If the damage caused to an interposing barrier causes it to shatter or break apart, the fireball may continue beyond the barrier if the area permits; otherwise it stops at the barrier just as any other spell effect does. All beings caught within the explosion are allowed a saving throw versus spells. A successful save reduces damage by half.

Right. As we see from the above (LABYRINTH LORD not being "canon" of course) the spell have a radius of 20 feet. As these spell effects were written with the dungeon in mind (likely exception BECMI version) we can determine the volume of the fire by calculating the area effect and then multiplying this by the height of the common rooms and corridors. The volume is not important unless the height of part of the effected area deviates from the norm, so let's start by finding the area effect in a "standard" dungeon.
I care not to do the math myself, today, even though I did somewhat when I thought about this post about a year and a half ago, as I will mess it up. So this online calculator gives me 1257 square feet which then would give me an effective area of 50 standard dungeon squares - based on the Haunted Keep from the Moldvay version of Basic, p. B57, which is 5x5' = 25 square feet.

To see how a fireball would behave in this dungeon level we will have to think about the effect of doors. I would rule that doors would delay the blast for 1 step of the expansion, as shown soon.

We will have our wizard fire from as far away as we can have him, placing him in the square marked "W" and have him fire with intend to detonate in the square marked "0" which will naturally need to have the door open. We assume the Thief make a smart little dingy doodah that make the door spring open after a short while (topic for a different blog entry) so the wizard can let go with no one prepared, and him as far from the blast center as possible given the dungeon layout.

We will now see how the blast expand, remembering the door that was opened is just that, and also keeping in mind that the pool in room #8 is 3' deep, should the fire reach there - we will then have to apply cubic feet, but let's see if that is needed.

If you do a count you will see that I don't have 50 squares, and this is do to the pools dept, and the trapdoor. I count those at 2 squares for the purpose of this exercise.

And I have made a minor mistake in the expansion above. The first hallway "7" should have been a 6, but as the second "7" would be "7" anyway it doesn't affect the final result.

I doubt the Wizard got to run far enough. Better roll low on damage, and make his save, eh?

I'm pretty sure that everyone in the tower here would succumb to the inferno, given the smoke, heat and lag of oxygen, not to mention that the fire will spread following the initial blast. And the wizard would be toast, even if he lived past his own spell, as he would then have to navigate the blazing corridor to get out, and we can assume he would not be thinking of the pit trap on the way. Oy!

Let's see the picture just with the inferno.

Damn...

There would be Dungeons where this spell would be useful, I'm sure, but let's look a bit on Franks version of the same *laughter diabolical*.

If we assume a corridor and room height of 10 feet - to make things simple, we get a volume of 12570 cubic feet for the pre-BECMI fireball. This is then 50 squares in the above example. But what about the BECMI Fireball, with the description "A spherical volume 40' across" we ask. Well, that gives us a volume of 33510 cubic feet according to this calculator. Divide that by 250 cubic feet of our dungeon square (5*5*10) and we end with an area of insane 134 squares! Try that in a dungeon, would you?

Oh well. Outside isn't much better given the risk of bush and forest fires, not to mention usage in a town. But as a battlefield and siege spell it's gold. And isn't that what it was originally? Right tool for the right job, children.

I'm burning the midnight oil here, and have work tomorrow, so leave this as is. Tear it apart, but put something better together.

Love and light,

good night.

~J