The fireball spell has long been the go-to spell for casters wanting to inflict a large amount of damage to multiple targets. How many times have you heard the archetypal and unimaginative “My character casts fireball!” description from your players? If you’d like to add some flare to your game, give each caster their own signature version of the spell. The list below should spark your imagination…

1. Rather than originating from the caster’s location, a large glowing ember quickly drifts down from above, increasing in intensity as it descends to the point of impact and bursts into a fiery ball of flame.
2. The fireball splits into multiple smaller fireballs that strike living targets within the area of effect, separately but simultaneously. If there are no living targets in the area of effect, the fireball appears as normal.
3. Small motes of flame appear floating in the air a short distance from the target. They quickly converge and coalesce into a small, rapidly spinning ball of fire before violently exploding. The area of effect is subsequently littered with cinders.
4. The caster is briefly surrounded by an aura of roaring flames. They are almost instantly pulled from the caster and drawn into a single ball of fire that hurtles to the target location and fully engulfs it.
5. The fireball streaks towards its target and rapidly weaves an erratic path back and forth across the area of effect before finally reaching its center and exploding in a thunderous roar.
6. Slender filaments of orange and yellow plasma give everyone and everything within ten feet of its path to the target a brief shock, as if the fireball were somehow electrified as well. Its destruction scatters sticky, fiery globules of fire everywhere in the area of effect.
7. The fireball leaves a thick trail of smoke behind along its path and temporarily creates an obscuring haze before slowly dissipating. The overpowering stench of sulfur lingers long afterwards.
8. The ground within the fireball’s intended area of effect briefly appears fractured and cracked, glowing a hellish red color. Lines of flame streak along the larger cracks towards its center where they converge in a ball of fire that springs up from the ground and pulls roaring flames up from the fractured ground as it explodes.
9. A narrow wall of flames follows the path of the fireball to its target but quickly recedes as it bursts in a fiery explosion, leaving the ground charred and blackened along its path and within the area of effect.
10. For several minutes after the fireball has been cast the area of effect is filled with floating, glowing tendrils of flame originating at the point of impact, along with faint and disparate arcane runes.
11. A fiery imp appears next to the caster and speeds towards the target. As it nears the point of impact it springs into the air, morphing into a blazing ball of fire and exploding. A maniacal cackle can be heard fading with the dying flames.
12. As the fireball nears the point of impact it veers straight up and comes back down on the target from directly above it. The impact results in a fiery explosion along with a shock wave of intense heat and debris.