Fireball

Version 0.26: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Fireball
Level	5
School1	Conjuration
School2	Fire
Source(s)	Book of Fire Book of Flames Book of the Tempests
Casting noise	5
Spell noise	15

This spell hurls an exploding bolt of fire.

Spell Details
Damage Formula	3d(3.33+Power/6) fire
Max Damage	3d37
Max Power	200
Range	6
Targeting	Beam
To-hit
Special	Explosion

Fireball is a level 5 Conjurations/Fire Magic spell which launches an exploding gout of fire at the targeted tile, dealing unavoidable fire damage to everything caught in the ensuing 3×3 explosion. It is an excellent mid-game attack spell, allowing you to rapidly wipe out clusters of enemies.

Player-launched fireballs do

calc_dice(3, 10 + power / 2)

damage, which is less than Bolt of Fire but still respectable, and at a slightly lower MP cost.

Strategy

If you learn the quirks of monster movement, you can potentially hit 8 monsters at a time with a single fireball. If your defenses are up to scratch, you may even want to take a hit or two to maximize your damage output, or to avoid running out of MP midfight.

Its unavoidable nature and burst radius make it especially good for taking out annoying, hard-to-hit foes, such as bands of spriggans or opponents hiding in the back row. Firing it at melee range can be dangerous, however; unless you can aim at a tile behind the foe you're engaged with, you're likely to get caught in your own blast.

Monster Version

The monster version functions similarly to the player version.

The following enemies cast Fireball:

• R Azrael (3d20 damage)
• 2 Balrug (3d23 damage)
• e Deep elf elementalist (3d23 damage)
• q Draconian scorcher (3d26 damage)
• R Efreet (3d15 damage)
• O Erolcha (3d14 damage)
• C Fire giant (3d26 damage)
• h Hell hog (3d20 damage)
• @ Margery (3d33 damage)
• p Occultist (3d21 damage)
• * Orb of fire (3d43 damage)
• D Serpent of Hell (Gehenna) (3d27 damage)
• p Wizard (monster) (3d19 damage)

History

Prior to 0.20, Delayed Fireball could be learned for only two spell levels if you already learned Fireball; the spell had the same mechanics as regular Fireball, but could be saved for later use.