Fireball · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

A fireball is a ranged attack whose fire travels from the user and bursts at a chosen point or on first contact, damaging everything within a fixed radius. Launch, burst, and area together make the archetype. The name is often attached to other behaviour: a single-target fire projectile with no burst, a card that divides damage among chosen targets, and the fighting-game sense of any projectile special move are name collisions, described under Variations. Lines such as the lightning bolt, cones, and persistent fire zones are separate shapes. Fire as a resistible type belongs to damage types, and the reducing roll to saving throws.

Behaviour

The user calls a range (Chainmail), names a point (later Dungeons & Dragons), or fires at a target and detonates on contact (Diablo IV). The area is a template, radius, or set of adjacent squares: the catapult disc in Chainmail, a 2-inch burst in 1974, a 20-foot sphere in the fifth edition. In the tabletop forms the burst is indiscriminate, so allies inside it suffer too. Chainmail destroys figures outright; Dungeons & Dragons rolls dice, one per caster level in 1974 and a fixed 8d6 later. Counterplay is spreading out, saving rolls, and resistance to fire; the 1974 burst conforms to a confined space and the fifth-edition one spreads around corners.

Variations

Single-target fire bolt (Super Mario Bros., World of Warcraft, Diablo): one target, no burst; called Fireball in the first two and Firebolt in Diablo.
Divided damage (Magic: The Gathering): X damage split evenly among any number of targets, each extra target costing more mana; target choice replaces the spatial area.
Projectile special move (Street Fighter II): fighting-game jargon for any projectile attack, used in official English move names.
Bouncing burst (Diablo IV): an upgrade makes the ball bounce and explode at each ground impact.
Delayed or thrown burst (Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition): Delayed Blast Fireball holds the explosion, and the Necklace of Fireballs turns beads into thrown blasts.

Gating

In the wargame form the fire ball is a unit capability, limited only by range, called-range fire, and the Wizard’s exposure; Chainmail’s spell caps apply to a separate list. Dungeons & Dragons moved it into the spell list in 1974, where the per-level allotment makes it a scarce prepared resource, and added fixed-dice wands, staves, and scrolls; the fifth edition keeps all three and adds the action cost and higher-slot casting. The video examples use a shared mana pool, with Diablo adding charged staves and single-use scrolls. None of the examples gates the burst form with a cooldown.

History and provenance

Leonard Patt’s fantasy rules in The Courier are the earliest documented use: their printed pages, reproduced in Jon Peterson’s 2016 account, give a wizard a fire ball with a burst circle, and the issue ties them to a game shown at a convention in October 1970. Chainmail (1971) published the fire ball beside the lightning bolt and sized it by catapult fire, which points to wargame artillery rather than literature as the antecedent. Dungeons & Dragons (1974) made it a third-level spell with damage scaled to the caster, the form that, by a 2016 Game Developer history, spread to the game’s imitations and to SSI’s licensed computer games such as Pool of Radiance (1988). The same Game Developer history names Telengard and TSR’s Dungeon (both 1982) among early computer versions; earlier mainframe games remain unsurveyed. From the 1980s the name spread to single-target projectiles, Magic: The Gathering’s divided damage, and fighting-game moves.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Chainmail Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren	1971	Board & card	At will	A Wizard chooses the fire ball or the lightning bolt as his missile before play and throws it up to 24 inches, direct or indirect, calling the range before placing a circular hit area equal to the large catapult's. Figures under it are destroyed, except heroes, wraiths, and Balrogs, which save on two dice, and dragons, which are driven back.
Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)	1974	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots, Charges, Consumable	A third-level Magic-User spell. The missile springs from the caster's finger to a range of 24 inches and explodes with a 2-inch burst radius, conforming to a confined space, and rolls one damage die per caster level. Wands and staves throw fire balls of fixed dice (staves 8), and scrolls carry the spell.
Diablo Blizzard North	1996	Video	Mana, Charges, Consumable	A learned spell, raised in level by reading books, that spends mana; fan documentation gives a cost falling from 16 toward 10 as spell level rises and splash damage equal to the main hit on the squares adjacent to the target. Staves and scrolls cast spells without drawing on mana.
Path of Exile Grinding Gear Games	2013	Video	Mana, Ultimate charge	A fire spell projectile that deals area damage at its target; in patch 3.29.0 its base radius is 1 to 1.8 metres at gem levels 1 to 20, and at level 20 it deals 1883 to 2825 fire damage. Vaal Fireball spends 30 souls per use (3.3.0), gathered by killing enemies and damaging rare and unique ones.
Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition Wizards of the Coast	2014	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots, Action cost, Charges, Consumable	A 3rd-level evocation cast as an action at a point within 150 feet, where it explodes in a 20-foot-radius sphere that spreads around corners; each creature makes a Dexterity save, taking 8d6 fire damage or half on a success, plus 1d6 per slot level above 3rd. The Wand of Fireballs holds 7 charges, and the Necklace of Fireballs spends a bead per blast.
Diablo IV Latest Blizzard Entertainment	2023	Video	Mana	A Sorcerer Core skill that spends mana to hurl a ball of fire which explodes on contact and damages nearby enemies. Upgrade choices alter the projectile, one making it bounce and explode at each ground impact; mana costs have changed across seasonal patches.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Leonard Patt's fantasy wargame rules (1970), board & card. Confidence: medium. Leonard Patt's "Rules for Middle Earth", a two-page addendum to the New England Wargamers Association's ancient rules in its magazine The Courier (Vol. II No. 7, pp. 12-13), let a wizard cast a fire ball once every other turn at 24 inches, placed with a 6-inch grid and a 2½-inch burst circle; figures under it are killed, heroes and anti-heroes save on a 5 or 6, and a dragon hit is driven away for one turn. A facsimile of the two pages accompanies Jon Peterson's 2016 account. The issue's editorial note ties the rules to the association's game that took best of show at the Philadelphia convention "this past Oct.", and the MFCA's report of the 1970 Wargame Convention names that Lord of the Rings game, so the rules were in play by October 1970. Confidence is medium because the issue's own month is unconfirmed and other fanzine rules of 1970 remain unsurveyed. Chainmail (1971) is the earliest commercially published form cited, with a burst an inch larger than Patt's by Peterson's comparison; the Chainmail wording cited is from the 1972 second edition. The artillery hit template of miniatures wargames is an antecedent: Chainmail sizes the fire ball by the large catapult's hit disc and places it by the same called-range procedure.

Established form: Dungeons & Dragons (1974), tabletop rpg. 4 years after the earliest documented use. Confidence: high. Dungeons & Dragons turned Chainmail's catapult-sized fire ball into a spell that bursts at range with damage dice scaled to the caster. A 2016 Game Developer history traces the spell's spread from it to the many imitations and revisions of the game and to SSI's computer games, including the licensed Pool of Radiance (1988); the fifth edition keeps the burst at a chosen point.

Sources

Jon Peterson. (2016). A Precursor to the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement. Playing at the World (blog). Article Patt's wizard rules. Accessed 2026-10-24. Patt's 1970 fire ball (24-inch burst, hero saves, dragons driven off), its publication in The Courier Vol. II No. 7, and the burst-size comparison with Chainmail.
Leonard Patt. (c. 1970). Rules for Middle Earth. The Courier (New England Wargamers Association). Rulebook Vol. II No. 7, pp. 12-13, Wizards; editor's note. Accessed 2026-10-27. Facsimile of the printed pages, reproduced with the Courier's permission in Peterson's post. The fire ball once every other turn at 24 inches with a 2½-inch burst circle, hero and anti-hero saves on 5 or 6, and the dragon driven away; the editor's note places the game at the Philadelphia convention of "this past Oct."
Milton E. Miller, Jr. (1970). Wargame Convention 1970. MFCA Guidon (Miniature Figure Collectors of America). Article Accessed 2026-10-27. Contemporary convention report, reproduced in Peterson's post; the New England Wargamers' best-of-show demonstration was a Lord of the Rings game with fire-breathing dragons and walking trees.
Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. (1972). Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures, 2nd edition. Guidon Games. Rulebook Fantasy Supplement, Wizards, Missiles, p. 28; Catapult Fire, p. 9. Accessed 2026-10-24. The fire ball as a 24-inch called-range missile with the large catapult's hit area, and the save exceptions. The first edition (1971) wording is not quoted.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 1: Men & Magic. Tactical Studies Rules. Rulebook Fire Ball, p. 25; Spells & Levels table, p. 19. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 2-inch burst, 24-inch range, dice by caster level, the comparison with Chainmail, wand and staff versions, and the per-level spell allotment.
Game Developer staff. (2016). A brief history of the fireball in fantasy games. Game Developer. Article Accessed 2026-10-27. The lineage from Patt and Chainmail through Dungeons & Dragons to computer games, the spell's spread to imitations of Dungeons & Dragons and to SSI's games including Pool of Radiance, the wargame-artillery antecedent, and the absence of a specific literary source.
Wizards of the Coast. (2016). System Reference Document 5.1. Wizards of the Coast. Rulebook Fireball, p. 144; Fire Bolt, p. 144; Delayed Blast Fireball, p. 133; Wand of Fireballs, p. 248. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 5th-edition spell, its single-target neighbour, the delayed variant, and item gating.
Wizards of the Coast. (2025). System Reference Document 5.2. Wizards of the Coast. Rulebook Fireball, p. 131. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 2024-edition text, with the same numbers and without the line on spreading around corners.
Blizzard Entertainment. (1996). Diablo manual. Rulebook Mana; Books; spell descriptions (Firebolt). Accessed 2026-10-24. Mana as the spell resource, books, staves and scrolls casting without mana, and the single-target Firebolt.
PlanetDiablo, Diablo spells (level 3). Wiki Fan guide giving the Fireball mana cost by spell level and its splash damage in Diablo (1996).
Ben Reeves. (2019). Diablo IV Sorceress Skills And Abilities. Game Informer. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. Pre-release description of Fireball exploding on contact and damaging nearby enemies.
PureDiablo Diablo 4 wiki, Fireball. Wiki Mana cost and upgrade choices for the Diablo IV skill, including the bouncing upgrade.
BradyGames. (2006). World of Warcraft Master Guide, 2nd edition. BradyGames. Book Mage chapter, Fire spell table. Accessed 2026-10-24. The single-target Fireball, its mana cost, cast time, and absence of a cooldown.
Nintendo. (1985). Super Mario Bros. instruction booklet. Rulebook Controls (B button); power-ups; enemies. Accessed 2026-10-24. Fire Flower gating, loss of the ability on a hit, and enemies immune to fireballs.
Scryfall, Fireball (Limited Edition Alpha). Wiki The card's mana cost, sorcery type, and current Oracle text dividing X damage among targets.
Nintendo and Capcom. (1995). Street Fighter II instruction manual (Game Boy). Rulebook Special moves; Quick Reference Chart. Accessed 2026-10-24. "Fire Ball" and "Fireball (Kikoken)" as official English names for projectile special moves.
Grinding Gear Games. (2018). Path of Exile: Incursion (Content Update 3.3.0) Patch Notes. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Vaal skills' soul costs, among them Vaal Fireball's 30 souls, and souls gained from kills and from damaging rare and unique enemies.
Grinding Gear Games. (2026). Content Update 3.29.0 -- Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Fireball's base radius by gem level and its fire damage at gem level 20.

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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Fireball." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-27. http://localhost:4321/abilities/fireball

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