Firepower

Not all things are created equal, a tacit fact that is again and again reinforced by the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons. The fighter can never hope to keep up with the wizard as levels ramp up, and everything a monk can do a swordsage can do better. Even in less fundamental aspects of the game, this can creep in: just ask any melee character who has tried to use a sword and shield versus a two-handed weapon. Indeed, even something as seemingly flavourful as energy types suffer from this. Don't believe me? Compare how many monsters resist sonic damage versus those that resist fire.

At the top of this pyramid of supremacy, force damage is the way and the path. Essentially nothing resists or is immune to force damage, asides from the (very epic-level) force dragon. A few spells and items make a particular call-out for magic missile spells. Next there is the second-tier of energy types: unusual call-outs like holy damage (a la flame strike,) and desiccation damage (a la desiccate.) Very rarely are these going to be resisted or affected in any way: they're virtually "typeless" the way force damage often is. That said, they're also very uncommon. Third tier belongs to sonic damage, which is the most effective of the "core" energy types. Fourth tier holds acid and electricity, in that order, and the bottom tier holds cold damage and lastly fire.

This hierarchy is in no way official or rigid: it's just a vague guideline I've determined from observation. It simply means that putting aside the setting, environment or pre-established foes, if you prepare an acid spell instead of an otherwise-identical fire spell, you're less likely to run across a foe who will be resistant or immune to it. 3d6 acid damage isn't "better" than 3d6 fire damage, there have just been more creatures with fire resistance that have been printed. Demons, devils, dragons, celestials: all the major players shrug off the effects of fire.

So why the imbalance? Is this just another matter of "X is better than Y, get over it"? Well... sort of. The thing is, the greater reliability of the higher-tier energy types often comes with an arbitrary balancing factor. This is perhaps best demonstrated in the orb of X line of spells. Orb of fire deals 1d6 fire damage per level (maximum 15d6) and makes the target save against dazing. Each orb has a different riding effect, though, so the orbs with a slightly better damage have slightly worse effects. For instance, orb of cold forces a save against blinding (not as impressive) and orb of acid a save against being sickened (a comparatively minor hindrance indeed.) Then you get to orb of sound, which can deafen the target (ho-hum) and deals only 1d4 damage per level. The fact it's dealing sonic damage is reason enough to lower the damage dice. Then lastly, there's orb of force, which has no secondary effect and tops out at a maximum of 10d6 damage, rather than 15.

So there isn't really an inherent pros-and-cons debate introduced by using force damage over fire damage, say, it's just that in many cases spells and effects will likely be balanced to somewhat favour the "worse" energy types in case-by-case bases. In addition, there are far more feats, class features and items to improve your cold and fire spells (take even a casual glance at Frostburn) than for, say, sonic or desiccation damage. This is an imperfect science, of course, but at least the effort is there.

If we know what energy types are "best" and which are "worst" (yet have the best spells,) what do we do with this knowledge? Well, fire damage may be much-maligned in general for its generally underperforming against a variety of enemies, but its humble status as the lowliest energy type has earned it the most published support. If all of this support material exists mostly to balance it out against the other types, though, why bother? Well, it would suddenly get a lot more impressive (and hey, interesting for roleplaying) if those shortcomings could be easily undone, wouldn't it?

Enter Searing Spell.

This little gem from Sandstorm does something very unusual - it makes your fire spells so supernaturally hot that they ignore all fire resistance and even still do half damage to creatures with fire immunity. What do you want to bet that a fire elemental has never felt what it's like to be burned before? As a nice bonus, a searing spell also does double damage to creatures with the cold subtype - which is on top of the double damage they were already taking from a fire spell. This peace of mind comes at the acceptable cost of a spell slot one level higher.

So now you can fling fire spells around with little worry for targeting restrictions. Sure, Energy Substitution already existed and doesn't even raise the spell's level, but what if you want to stick to fire spells thematically? A pyromaniac shouldn't have to shoot "coldballs" just because he's facing an efreet. More importantly, it's generally the case that if a monster has resistance to one energy type, it does to most of them, especially with Outsiders and at higher levels. It's also the case that changing the energy types of your spells won't let you reliably capitalize on its original energy type - something that can be very handy, as we're about to see.

So removing the biggest downside of fire damage is a real coup, but pumping the cost of all of your spells by one level is a pretty hefty cost. Is there enough support for fire damage that can make it worthwhile? Unshockingly, the answer is... perhaps!


Chassis

Every build needs the right class(es) to work with, and while you might assume that's as simple as picking a class that gives you access to the spells you want and going from there, a more careful choice can start boosting you fire spells before you've even picked a single feat. From there, of course, prestige classes are the name of the game, unlocking power specific to your build.

(Cloistered) Cleric: Not my first choice, seeing as many of the best alternate class features and such in this category are on the arcane side of things. Try running the Fire and Magic domains, take the Spontaneous Domain Casting alternate class feature from PHB2 to let you cast Fire spells spontaneously, then gets wands and scrolls of choice wizard spells you can't otherwise cast.

Domain Wizard: From the ever-accommodating Unearthed Arcana, this variant of the wizard class is quite powerful if you go into it with a theme in mind. Essentially, instead of specializing, you pick one of the domains listed in the entry (not unlike a cleric) and you get to add the spells listed therein to your spell list for free as they become available (pretty unlike a cleric.) You do get a bonus spell of each level, but it has to be one of your domain spells, which you can otherwise still prepare in your regular spell slots. Additionally, you cast all spells from the list at +1 caster level and have no forbidden schools. This is basically all upside, perhaps even better than specializing if you pick a solid domain. In our case, we're interested in the Fire domain. It probably doesn't have the best of the best fire spells, but scorching ray, fireball and wall of fire are plenty good enough, and you even get a very unusual cone of cold that deals fire damage as your 5th level domain spell. So +1 caster level on some fire spells for virtually no cost? Sign me up!

Elemental Savant: This prestige class requires Energy Substitution and improves casting at all levels except 5th and 10th, so think carefully whether you'd want more than four levels. That said, you get some nice stuff along the way - all energy spells automatically become Fire spells, and you get a bonus to save DCs and to overcoming SR with your Fire spells. There's also a number of little defenses you pick up along the way, including immunity to fire, sleep, paralysis and poison, culminating with actually turning into an Elemental at 10th level.

Energy Affinity Evoker: Another piece from Unearthed Arcana, this comes from what is essentially a list of alternate class features for each school of specialist wizard. In order to take Energy Affinity, you have to specialize in Evocation - the very thought of which may cause the more powergame-y among you to shudder, but we're working to a theme here. In exchange for your familiar, you cast all evocation spells of a chosen energy type (i.e. fire) at +1 caster level. Compared to the domain wizard, this will affect all fire spells rather than just those from a short list, but at the cost of your familiar and access to two schools of magic. You technically shouldn't be allowed to take both (since you aren't a specialist if you're a domain wizard) but a kindly DM could take pity and grant you this alternate feature anyway, particularly in light of the fact you're playing as Jaya Ballard.

Incantatrix: If you're keen on playing with metamagic, the incantatrix is the path for you. Touted as one of the mightiest classes for an arcane caster, over the course of ten levels you get four bonus metamagic feats, the ability to cast some spells with free metamagic, and eventually a flat reduction of all metamagic feat costs by 1 (to a minimum of +1, calm down back there.) This is just raw power - essentially removing the drawbacks of metamagic while giving you more feats for free - on top of full casting. There are even very lax entry requirements. Run this if you're serious about making a mess while still sticking to your theme.

Jade Phoenix Mage: Pretty good despite not being a full casting class, the jade phoenix mage combines arcane casting with some Tome of Battle goodness, all with more than a token fire theme. Considering you'll probably need to take one level of an initiator class to qualify, taking six or more levels of JPM will put you three levels of casting behind, but your caster level need not suffer for it. Starting from level 2, you can enter a class-specific stance that increases your CL by +1, among other nice little bonuses. From level 6, though, you can enter another special stance that increases your CL for fire spells by +3, putting it... well, back on track. But it's not like the rest of the class is a write-off, far from it. Whether the hoops to jump through, and losses to other spells, is worth the added defenses and combat capability is worth it to you is a matter of build preference. We're here for theme, though! Have fun with it!

Paragnostic Apostle: A full-casting prestige class that's easy to qualify for and lets you pick your class features from a list every level. With even a one-level dip you can take Energy Supremacy (Fire) to increase your caster level for Fire spells by 1, so long as you have 5 ranks in Knowledge (The Planes.) Divine Understanding gives you another +1 CL on all spells from one domain of your choice: pick the Fire domain and that will include burning hands, wall of fire and fire seeds. Manifest Ethos converts half of the damage from energy-based spells to typeless damage against creatures of a certain alignment, giving you another workaround for resistance or immunity. Some other abilities, such as Accurate Retort and Backhanded Attack, will also be useful for a blaster-type mage.

Red Wizard: This prestige class requires you ban an extra school of magic, much like the incantatrix, but it is likewise also dangerously powerful. Full casting over ten levels, as well as a +1 CL to a school of your choice every two levels, to a total of +5 CL (!) at level ten. On top of this you even get a bonus metamagic feat, some flavourful little abilities and, oh yeah, access to circle magic. Circle magic basically means you get a bunch of spellcasting cronies to channel their power to you, giving you even more caster levels or one of a few metamagic feats for the next 24 hours. Hard to get excited when this can only get your caster level to a meager 40, though. Why bother, right?

Sanctified One: This one is going to be pretty splat-y, and you'll only want a one-level dip, which could annoy some DMs... especially considering the flavour. Basically you become a champion of a deity of your choice, and long story short you'd want to pick Kord. One of the abilities he grants at level 1 is that you can convert any and all fire spells to dealing pure divine energy damage rather than fire damage - providing a free way to bypass any resistances or immunities to fire! Not having to take Searing Spell means a freed up feat slot and not having to worry about increasing the levels of your spells, but the first level of sanctified one doesn't advance casting and has some bothersome roleplaying implications. Flavour-wise it may sound limited to divine casters, but nothing in the prerequisites bars an arcane sanctified one.

Silver Pyromancer: This prestige class is kind of clumsy, requiring both arcane casting and the ability to turn undead. Among its abilities, it gives you proficiency with longbows and shortbows... honestly the whole thing feels very 3.0 third-party material. Nonetheless, it's got several intriguing abilities to offer. This five-level class grants casting progression at all levels except 1st, but you can cast fire spells using your character level as your caster level. If you were already several levels behind - say, with the jade phoenix mage or elemental savant - this will catch you up immediately on your fire spells. In addition, all of your fire spells deal half sacred damage started from level 2, and entirely sacred damage at level 5, giving you another alternative to Searing Spell. From level 3, you can cast your fire spells as "smiting spells," which deal half again as much damage against evil creatures, give them a -2 penalty to their save and you a +4 bonus to overcoming SR. Finally, from level 4, any creature that fails a save against one of your fire spells takes another 1d6 points of damage the next round. Plus... it adds paladin spells to your spell list for some unknown but exciting reason. There's a bit of weirdness to deal with here, namely getting your hands on turning, but it covers a lot of things you'd want to consider with fire magic.

Sorcerer: Usually pushed to the wayside in favour of the more versatile wizard, the sorcerer doesn't really get any free +1 caster levels that I'm aware of, but as always they are well-suited to blasting. More spells per day, the ability to throw around metamagic on the fly, and some sorcerer-only goodies like arcane spellsurge can make for a great excuse to pump that Charisma and let the flames fly.

Spellgifted: If traits (yet again from Unearthed Arcana!) are permitted in your game - and that's a lot more likely than getting, say, flaws - this intriguing option gives you +1 CL to all spells from one school of magic at the cost of -1 CL to all other spells. If you're really going all-in with flame-flinging, then Spellgifted (Evocation) can essentially be another free caster level at character creation. Being able to put it on any character at all is pretty nifty, but that cost can be pretty nasty if you ever try to do anything else.

Warmage: This peculiar class is usually denigrated for being pure blasting, and... well, it pretty much is. But if that's what you're after, that's what you'll get. A warmage can mostly just cast damaging spells, but they're allowed to wear light armor and have d6 hit dice. Plus, you get to add your Intelligence bonus to damage dealt by your spells, which can be a nice boost at lower levels. I'd say the warmage is good for low-level excursions, but the one-dimension nature of their spellcasting could get to be a real drag at higher levels assuming you don't have a straightforward wizard in the party as well.


Hot Feat

There are a number of feats that help out fire spells in particular, multiple of which boost your caster level. Combine this with the free boosts made possible by a domain wizard or evoker with Energy Affinity and you can pump your spells to do huge damage even at very low levels. Included here are all the intriguing fire-themed feats, as well as some other, more general feats that will synergize nicely with what's otherwise available.

Arcane Thesis: Normally a big culprit in game-breaking spells, the relatively tame aims of our exercise should hopefully garner some DM mercy. You pick one spell to be your "thesis," which you cast at +2 CL and can apply metamagic feats to for one less level increase than normal - without a stated minimum! If you pick a metamagic-friendly spell, such as combust or scorching ray, you can regularly turn it into a powerhouse with little or no increase to its level. All those handy +1 level metamagics, such as Blistering Spell, Fiery Spell and yes, Searing Spell, can be thrown on for absolutely free. Depending on the kind of goofy shit your DM lets you get away with, you can even use +0 metamagics (like Invisible Spell) to count as -1 level, helping to reduce the cost of another expensive metamagic feat. Even if you don't push the envelope, this can help you not run out of powerful spells early in the day and allows your character to have a flavourful "signature spell."

Blistering Spell: Only applicable to fire spells, this metamagic feat adds +2 damage per die a spell deals in exchange for increasing the spell level by one. As a little bonus, any creature that fails a save against the spell takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls and checks until your next turn. It's debatable whether this is worth it, since it isn't just free damage the way many of the caster level-boosting feats are, but do note that the value of this spell goes up in conjunction with caster level boosts, since more dice of damage means more added from Blistering Spell!

Bloodline of Fire: As a regional feat, you have to be 1st level and human to take this, but it gives you a +4 bonus on saving throws against fire effects, and you cast fire spells at a staggering +2 caster level. A +2 bonus to CL is basically unheard of for the price of one feat!

Calishite Elementalist (Fire): You get +1 caster level when casting one of the following spells: flare, burning hands, pyrotechnics, fireball, wall of fire, dismissal, control weather, delayed blast fireball, incendiary cloud and meteor swarm. As a bonus, this even lets you exceed the regular damage cap on a spell, so you can do up to 11d6 damage with a fireball rather than 10d6, for instance. Wizards also get to add the spells for free to their spellbook once they can cast spells of the appropriate level. This feat is from 3.0 and pretty splat-y, but the benefits are nice enough that it's worth trying for!

Divine Spell Power: Not fire-themed and for divine casters only, Divine Spell Power probably won't fit into most builds, but plays nicely with the other feats if you want to run the dreaded Fire Cleric. Essentially, you can spend turn attempts to make a turning check, and use the resulting modifier as bonus to your caster level on the next spell you cast. Some lucky rolls can give you as much as a +4 CL boost, which is nuts, but do note that an unlucky roll (less than 10) can in fact lower your caster level!

Elemental Spellcasting: You pick either air, earth, fire or water, and cast spells of that type at +1 caster level. The prerequisites - 2 ranks of Knowledge (the planes) - you'll probably meet without even meaning to. Hard to say no to another easy +1.

Energy Substitution: Hold on, didn't I warn you away from this feat as part of the whole exercise? In the way you're thinking, yes, but think of it in the inverse sense - what if you were to use it to turn spells into fire spells? Shocking grasp, boreal wind, acid fog... all sorts of powerful and useful energy spells can benefit from your myriad caster level boosts once they're properly made into fire spells. You can also then take Energy Admixture if you're feeling a little saucy and getting another energy type on the side.

Fiery Burst: Fire's answer to the reserve feats, this lets you make a 5-foot radius burst of fire as a standard action so long as you have a fire spell of at least 2nd level that hasn't been cast yet. The burst deals 1d6 damage for each level of the highest-level fire spell you have uncast. Reserve feats get flak for being a poor use of a spellcaster's actions, but if you were planning to fling fire like nobody's business anyway, having an endless supply of the stuff can help allay any fears of conservation. Plus, Fiery Burst gives you a +1 competence bonus to CL when casting fire spells, so it's basically Elemental Spellcasting with a little upside ability thrown in for free.

Fiery Spell: Only applicable to fire spells, this metamagic feat adds +1 damage per die a spell deals, and takes a spell slot one level higher. This is just a flat-out worse Blistering Spell, but you can stick both to the same spell for +3 damage per die of damage.

Precocious Apprentice: As a 1st level character, you can take this feat to pick a 2nd level spell and get the ability to cast it once per day. You need to pass a DC 8 caster level check to cast it until you get actual 2nd level spell slots, in which case it just becomes a bonus spell slot otherwise like any other. This feat is great if you know your character is only ever going to be level 1 or 2, such as in a low-level one-shot, but it's not going to amount to much in an ongoing long-term build.

Reserves of Strength: A very powerful and contentious feat, Reserves of Strength lets you willingly increase the caster level of any spell you cast by as many as 3 - when you do, however, you are thereafter stunned for an equal number of rounds. Stunning yourself for even one round after casting a combat spell might sound like an awful idea, but if you're able to cast a fireball so big that it immediately ends the fight, you won't mind sitting around for 18 seconds so badly anymore.

Residual Magic: A tactical feat, Residual Magic gives you access to two different "maneuvers" you can perform by meeting certain criteria with your actions. The more interesting of the two, Lingering Metamagic, can essentially score you free metamagic. If you cast a spell with metamagic, then cast that same spell the next round, you get to apply one of the metamagic effects you applied last round, but without changing the spell slot level. It's a nice little economy for regular additions like Searing Spell, but the real value comes with high-cost feats like Chain spell. The other maneuver - Enduring Potency - isn't bad, either. If you cast a spell, then cast that same spell in the next round from a wand or scroll, you can use your own CL and save DC for that second casting. If you're piling as many CL boosts as possible, this can turn even minimum-level wands into a cheap source of high-powered magic.

Searing Spell: You know it, you love it. Lets fire spells ignore all resistance, and even deal half damage past immunity, for +1 spell level. Something of a necessity on anyone who really wants to play a fire-focused mage.

Spell Thematics: Very open-ended, and as it happens very cool. Basically you pick a theme (let's say, I dunno, fiyah?) and you can select one spell per spell level to be a "thematic spell," which you cast at +1 CL. The theme is purely cosmetic, in terms of functionality this is just +1 CL to one spell per level. This can get kind of funky, seeing as a fire-themed orb of cold will still deal cold damage, it will just look fiery. Still with me? If you're a domain wizard and largely relying on spell per level for your primary purpose anyway, this can be an easy fit.


The Goods

The main strength in focusing on one line of spellcasting seems to be the ease in which you can stack CL boosts, and in the case of fire, that hopefully results in blasting spells so big that they're just insta-kills. Many of the items here will play to that strength, as well as try to fit in with the fact that much of this spell boosting can be most effective and impressive at the lower levels, before your spells are hitting their CL caps.

Arcanist's Gloves: Nothing fire-specific, but it works nicely if you're already boosting your caster level. Twice per day, you can add 2 to the caster level of the next 1st level spell you cast. At a paltry 500 gp, this can be a easy way to help pump a low-level blasting spell like burning hands. It's easily worth it to buy multiples and just switch them out after every two uses throughout the day.

Burning Veil: Three times per day, you can deal an extra 1d6 fire damage to a creature that was damaged by one of your fire spells this round. It's a pretty minor effect, but for 1000 gp it's not unreasonable.

Dragon Ruby: This alternate spell component doubles the area of any spell with the Fire descriptor. At 175 gp apiece, I wouldn't want to use this for everyday casting, but it's probably good to have some on hand.

Empowered Spellshard: A spellshard is keyed to a single spell of up to 3rd level, and when you cast said spell, it empowers the spell for free up to three times per day. If you're tricking a low level spell out with scads of metamagic anyway, getting empower in there for free should be worth the price of admission. The shard takes up the much-vaunted throat slot, but it's so cheap that it would easily be worth it to pay the doubled pricetag to make one slotless.

Goggles of the Golden Sun: Three times per day, you can sacrifice a spell slot of 3rd level or higher to cast fireball using your own caster level - presumably getting any bonuses you'd be entitled to from feats and class features. Not having to prepare fireball but always having it on hand could be nice. Plus, you get constant immunity to blindness and dazzling, which is a nice freebie.

Gauntlets of Fortunate Striking: Once per day you can reroll an attack roll. Sounds pretty meager, but if you dump a ton of metamagic onto a spell and roll a 1 on the ranged touch attack, you'll be glad you dropped the 2000 gp on these.

Metamagic Rod [Empower, Maximize]: These will help you conserve your spell slots throughout the day, and if you're tricking out a low-level spell as it is, they won't be too prohibitively expensive.

Orange Ioun Stone: A flat +1 CL, and it takes up no slots. Might as well, right?

Ring of Arcane Might: +1 CL for all spells.

Robe of Arcane Might: Grants +1 CL to all spells from a certain school (i.e. evocation) and even provides a nifty +4 Armor bonus to AC.

Ring of Mystic Fire: All of your fire spells get +1 CL, and in addition, the ring has three charges per day. You can spend a charge to increase the damage of the next fire spell you cast by +2d6, two charges to increase it by +3d6, or all three charges for +4d6. I imagine these added dice would indeed result in more damage from Blistering Spell and/or Fiery Spell, which is a nice little kicker.

Wand of Raging Flame: Raging flame is a 1st level wizard spell that makes all magical fire deal +1 point of damage per die in a 30-foot radius spread at medium range for 1 minute. It's basically an item of Fiery Spell, taking an extra standard action instead of increasing the spell slot: whether you can make that work is to be seen, but if you have a round to buff this is an interesting way to do it.


If You Can Build It, You Can Burn It

So what happens when you try sticking all of this goodness together? As I touched on with the items section, your biggest dividends are probably at the lowest levels, when hit points haven't yet outpaced hit point damage, and every caster level boost matters since spells haven't hit their cap yet. Here then are a couple simple level 1 builds that can already rain fire like you've never seen.


Human Domain Wizard (Fire)
Spellgifted Trait (Evocation)
Feats: Bloodlines of Fire, Calishite Elementalist (Fire)

Here's where stacking caster level boosts gets you. This build doesn't just reach the damage cap on burning hands, it actually exceeds it for 6d4 damage in a 15 foot cone. At level one. If you're permitted flaws, you can take Iron Will and Reserves of Strength to get that damage up to 9d4, which at this point is just excessive but a good indicator of the kind of insane stuff you can pull off even at first level.


Human Sorcerer
Feats: Precocious Apprentice (combust), Fiery Burst

This one's a little different. Precocious Apprentice gives you a fire spell of 2nd level, which is the requirement for Fiery Burst. Sure, it might be a little hard for you to cast combust and the results wouldn't be that impressive anyway, but you aren't planning to cast it. So long as you have it sitting around, all day long you have access to a 5-foot burst of 2d6 fire damage. A lot more impressive than pulling out the crossbow at level 1, wouldn't you agree? Asides from that, you still have all of your regular 1st-level casting, so you're just a regular old spellcaster with an at-will ranged fire attack. These feats don't age particularly well, but they're just your first level, so it's easy to take off in a more stable direction from here.