Originally Posted by
fmalfeas
Force is raw kinetic energy. Look at the core 3.5 materials. There's various battering ram spells, even 'make a ladder out of Force' spells, and Forcecage, and Wall of Force. It is indestructible kinetic force brought into existence by Evocation magic. Not only that, but it bridges the Ethereal and Prime Material planes. A Magic Missile or Wall of Force spell is just as real to an ethereal creature as it is to everyone else.
So it straddles the line between Physical and Magical. Generally (with a few exceptions) Force spells have lower damage dice than other attack spells, which somewhat compensates for their advantages. Example - following the comparative examples given in the books, you could have a Force version of Polar Ray. But unless you moved it up to level 9, it would either have less range, and do 1d6 per level, or the same range, and do 1d4 per level. Any other 'energy' type used in a copy of polar ray, however, would be more like a 'pallet swap', keeping the same statistics (though obviously possessing the traits of that type).
And DDO has gone very, very easy on us compared to 3.5 core rules. Attack spells that are direct-to-target, but not Conjuration are affected by SR in tabletop. (Everything but Conj makes magical versions of what is being used...Conj takes the real thing from somewhere, and uses that.) Mind you, you could get around SR by using Evocation to rip up a large slab of cave floor and hit them with the slab. SR wouldn't help there (and if it was a high enough level spell to get a LARGE portion of floor, you might even get to apply a penalty to their reflex save.) And there's that 'touch attack' rolls casters would be making in tabletop.
Generally, Force is what you use on hard-to-hit targets. Acid is used when you need persistant, non-spreading damage, or damage that can overcome moderate levels of hardness. Fire is 'I don't care, DIE'. Cold is for non-persistant, focused damage. Electric is like a hybrid..rarely doing persistant damage, but capable of many strange things, as well as being able to boost your to-hit roll on ranged touch if they're wearing metal armor. Sonic is used for attacking powerful outsiders, golems, or high-hardness objects. Even the gods don't tend to have Sonic resist.