ring of wizardry

[prodawg]

According to the DMG under ring of wizardry, "the wearer's arcane spells per day are doubled for one specific spell level." It also goes onto say, "bonus spells from high ability scores or school specialization are not doubled."
One of my players take this to believe that spell effects are doubled. So a 15 level sorcerer cast level 3 fireball does 20d6 damage.
I on the other hand take this to mean that he gets more spells per day. Let's say that he has a ring of wizardry III and that he is a level 15 sorcerer. He would get 12+ bonus spells level 3 spells vs his usual 6+ bonus.
Just looking for some other opinions. Thanks ahead of time. So which one is it?

 

[Caliban]

He's on crack. Your correct.

 

[Zhure]

I'll second that crack. You're correct.

 

[Shaele]

From the SRD:
The wearer’s arcane spells per day are doubled for one specific spell level. <...> Bonus spells from high ability scores or school specialization are not doubled.

This is pretty clear. The ring increases the number of spells that you can cast in a day. In other words, you're correct, and your player is completely wrong. No debate or opinion required =)

 

[prodawg]

He said he wanted a second opinion. . .

 

[kengar]

One good indicator of which interpretation of an item's effects is correct is to look in the DMG and check the item's Market Value. For something that does what the player describes, the GP value better be at least 15-20K (imho)! Lower value items mean lower power items.

 

[Ferox4]

Ditto: crack. Besides, a fireball has a max of 10d6 anyway.

 

[Archer]

Yeah, your player is clearly confusing the ring for a rod of empowering or maximization. Items exist that have that effect but ring of wizardry isn't one of them.

 

[Henry]

He said he wanted a second opinion. . .

I'll do better than that: I'll give him a ninth opinion!

Wizardry ring only doubles the spells per day (which happens to be the name of a table in Chapter 3 of the PHB.) Just look on the spells per day chart for his class - that's the number that is doubled.

 

[coyote6]

Add one more to the tally.

Check out one of the character writeups of someone with a ring of wizardry -- you'll notice they have a rather large number of spells per day of the appropriate level, but no notes about doing 20d6 fireballs, 10d4+10 magic missile barrages, or the like.

(Example: The Mialee writeup in Lord of the Iron Fortress.)