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D&D 3.5's Complete Arcane introduced the Orb of Fire/Acid/Whatever line of spells. They are conjuration spells (normally you might expect them to be evocation), they do a reasonably large pile of damage, ignore spell resistance, and even work through antimagic fields.

I have occasionally heard rumors from very different sources that one of the authors of Complete Arcane had a favorite character who was a conjurer with evocation banned, and snuck the Orbs in for advantage for that character.

See for example @HeyICanChan's first comment on his answer here, though I have also heard it from other forums and from offline friends who have no apparent connection to here or the other forums.

So: Where does this idea come from? Was there an interview where the author said or implied this was the case?

KRyan
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fectin
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    Of note, acid orb, lesser acid orb, etc, previously appeared in the 3.0 book Tome and Blood as evocation. Complete Arcane made them Conjuration. According to Product Spotlight: Complete Arcane, suggests that Mike Donais adapted the spells for the warmage class, but it's not clear why he would change the type to Conjuration. – Quadratic Wizard Mar 14 '23 at 03:24
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    Out of curiosity: Why is tracking down the rumor's source important? It seems like it'd be more interesting—albeit still, I think, ultimately irrelevant—to know if the rumor were true. (By irrelevant I mean that knowing if it were true still won't change the rules.) (Also, given that I've helped spread this rumor, and the question mentions me, I should make clear: I am sincerely not this rumor's origin!) – Hey I Can Chan Mar 14 '23 at 16:39
  • @HeyICanChan Evidence of truth would be a very clear source; I'm just unwilling to ask for anything less concrete (because I fear it would be bait for bad answers). I actually started thinking about this because of some assertion in meta that nothing like this happened in D&D, so it's for it's own sake, not for gameplay. I strongly suspected you were not the original source. – fectin Mar 15 '23 at 00:57
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    I strongly suspect this and the cat/wizard https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/185188/78357 Are actually: rumors started based on no facts but sound so plausible they grow to become facts I also remember hearing this around the time the book came out, but I think I learned about it via email. – James Risner Mar 19 '23 at 10:54
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    The 3.5 revision changed some spells' schools in the PHB, but these appear to have been generally for reasons of logic, rather than necessarily specialist wizard balance. In fact, ray of frost changed from Conjuration to Evocation in 3.5. However, there was a general move to balance specialist wizards in 3.5, and the conjurer certainly needed a 1st-level offensive spell. Perhaps ask Mike Donais on Twitter, since he is a likely candidate for the guy who made the change. – Quadratic Wizard Mar 24 '23 at 21:28

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