Is Scorching Ray Too Good?

[Brisk-sg]

I thought we were assuming the Character would want to get into Arcane Trickster ASAP. And the soonest they could get Imp. Sneak Attack is at character level 13. Sure, if he went 11 levels as a Wizard, he could do more damage, but at level 11 you have a lot more better spells (save vs. die one for example) than to worry about maximizing your Scorching Ray Sneak Attack damage...

I was responding to your post saying:

By level Character Level 13 you could do all 3 rays for 10d6 (20d6 total) twice a day with Impromptu Sneak Attack.

Since you cannot do 10d6 dmg with scorching way at lvl 13 with most normal builds, I listed three builds to show the damage based on what class you took.

Wizard 11/Rogue 2 - 15d6 (3 5d6 rays), Base to Hit +6 (not including mods)

Wizard 11/Rogue 2 doesn't seem all that abusive. He gives up 2 lvls of spell progression for 3d6 dmg on scorching ray. Not very important.

Wizard 7/Rogue 6 - 14d6 (2 7d6 rays), Base to Hit +7

Wizard 7/Rogue 6 doesn't either. He is half Rogue, half wizard, not all that great, and alot less powerfull then a full version of either. Not a big deal really.

Wizard 5/Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 5 - 24d6 (3 8d6 rays) Base to Hit +6

Wow, look at that damage increase over the other two builds, a full 9d6 more the a wizard 11/rogue 2, and 10d6 over wizard 7/rogue 6.

Of course, only play will ever tell if this is in fact broken. Of course, it could be fine in one game and broken in the next. All I know is at level 18, I can make a character that can do the equivilent of 78d6 damage in one round (Memorize Empowered Quickened Scorching ray and Maximized Empowered Scorching Ray) using this. With no magic items. For a fighter or damage dealer class to do even half of that much he would need some very good gear and good stats, and he wouldn't be nearly as versitile as an Arcane Trickster. A wizard would have a very hard time coming close to this using the Core Books.

So in a game that is shelling out very high end equipment constantly it won't be as unbalanced as in a game with normal gear or not very good gear, as this ruling doesn't rely at all on magic items.