Will never forget the day my sorcerer walked 30 feet away from the group when a pack of wolves attacked us in the middle of the night. “I’m gonna cast Hypnotic Pattern, some of you will probably fail the save but most of the wolves definitely will”

I didn’t mean to lie. I really was going to use Hypnotic Pattern. But all 8 wolves and all 3 allies were in such a nice little area, that could easily fit within a 20 foot radius sphere…

As soon as they see my character glowing red, there was no panic, no anger, just a quiet, disappointed “dammit, Nora…” before they all nearly died

Just remember that each square is 5 feet. Fireball, IIRC, is a 30ft radius. That’s 6 squares across. That’s a lot of squares for most encounter rooms I’ve seen in official modules.

Then again, 5E has Shape Spell which makes FF a thing of the past.

That’s what evasion is for.