Fireball

Casting this spell causes a tiny glowing ember about the size of a pea to fly forth from the caster's pointing finger, by which the direction of flight is indicated. The ember flies as fast as an arrow and explodes into flames filling a 20' radius sphere when it reaches a distance chosen by the caster (up to its maximum range), or sooner if it impacts any solid or liquid surface. Those within the area of the flames suffer 1d6 points of damage per caster level, with a saving throw vs. Spells allowed for half damage. No roll is normally required when casting this spell, but if the caster wishes to project the ember through a slit or other small opening they must roll a missile attack (without range adjustments) to hit it; failure indicates the fireball hits an adjacent surface and detonates there. Combustible objects or substances within the area of effect will generally catch fire and possibly be destroyed (as determined by the GM). Metals with low melting points such as gold, silver, lead, copper, or bronze may be softened briefly and thus deformed, but the flames do not persist long enough to actually melt the metal items unless they are very small (such as a thin gold neck chain for example). While the fireball exerts little if any force or pressure when exploding, it may still destroy weak or flammable barriers; if such a thing happens (in the determination of the GM, of course), the fireball completes its expansion in the space beyond the destroyed barrier.