Talk:Ice Storm/@comment-81.104.204.181-20180109225938/@comment-94.242.246.47-20200117170549

In terms of spell level, yeah. It's not a very potent damage dealer, however. It only does 8-32 damage over four rounds. Unless you're trying to hit somebody using a Minor Globe of Invulnerability, your bard will probably be better off casting Fireball (which deals 10-60 fire damage in a comparable area all at once), or a Minor Sequencer with two magic missiles (20-50 automatic magic damage to one target, assuming you didn't save MS for your mage), or Melf's Minute Meteors (70-100 mixed fire/missile damage to a target if you hit with all of them - and a bard has slightly better odds than a mage).

Ice Storm has it uses, but I generally don't prepare it for the sake of pure firepower and never prioritize it if I've only got a single level-4 slot, not with spells like Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Greater Malision, and Confusion kicking around (also Minor Sequencer, but you can just cast the MS, swap it out, and rest again). Any of those are more likely to help your cause most of the time.