Make my Scorching Ray even stronger

[Sharkon]

Here is my combo : Choosing the feats, Fiery Spell (sandstorm) ,Empower Spell and Arcane Thesis Scorching Ray , i can have a level 3 spell which deals (12d6 + 12) * 3/2 damage. I have also found an item which improves the spell by 1d6.
I am interested in hearing anything you can do to make this damage even greater. (if you can)

 

[JiCi]

How about Energy Substitution (Fire), in order to get Energy Admixture (Fire) ? That would double each ray regular fire damage. Twin Spell also lets you shoot 6 rays instead of 3, and Split Ray gives you one additional ray. So if you apply Split Ray BEFORE Twin Spell, you'll end up with 8 rays per casting.

I have another idea: in Complete Mage, there's the Rods of Many Wands, with lets you activate up to 3 wands at once by expending additional charges. You could make, or buy, 3 wands of Split Scorching Ray (spell level 4; still eligible for wands), plug them into the rod and then fire not 3, 4 but 12 rays at once. Now if there's a way to use the Double Wand Wielder feat from Complete Arcane, with 2 Rods each with 3 wands of Split Scorching Ray, that would be 24 rays per round, but the second rod would drain the required charges twice as fast.

 

[Thanee]

Lesser Metamagic Rod of Maximize.

Trade the 12d6 in for a flat 72 damage 3/day (you still have to roll them for the empowered part).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How about Energy Substitution (Fire), in order to get Energy Admixture (Fire) ? That would double each ray regular fire damage. Twin Spell also lets you shoot 6 rays instead of 3, and Split Ray gives you one additional ray. So if you apply Split Ray BEFORE Twin Spell, you'll end up with 8 rays per casting.

I understand what you're doing here, but I'd take another ES instead of Fire, just so I could have flexibility. You run into something that's fire resistant- or immune- you're just doubly screwed. Do what you suggested with ES (Acid) and EA (Acid) and you're going to be able to affect a lot more creatures.

In addition, you can add the following to the mix:

Blistering Spell
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Blistering_Spell,PH2

Piercing Evocation
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Piercing_Evocation,CM

Residual Magic
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Residual_Magic,CM

In addition, if you happen to be able to do a Sneak Attack...

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Also from Sandstorm is a metamagic feat for +1 level that basically causes your fire spell to overcome all resistances, and the immunities of anything without the fire subtype (or something to that effect). I beleive it was called Searing Spell. With arcane thesis, you're applying that for free. It also makes Piercing Evocation (a feat I find worthless anyway, since it only actually helps if your spell was going to do 0-10 damage after resists anyway, and that's pretty cold comfort) and Energy Substitution not really needed.

Split Ray is normally awesome, but for scorching ray, you only get +4d6 damage from it, not say...a second disintigration ray.

Also look into an Empowered Spellshard (neck slot, but cheap enough to pay x2 for non-body) from Magic Item Compendium. 3/day as part of the casting action, the level 1-3 spell the shard is keyed to is empowered for free.

Residual Magic I heartily second, with lots of metamagic feats and spamming the same spell, it's like having double your highest 3 levels of spell slots.

Another option, if you're taking Energy Sub (fire) for energy admixture anyway: Acid Sheath from Spell Compendium (level 5 buff spell). It sheaths you in acid fire that damages anyone that attacks you. More importantly, it adds +1 damage per die of any acid fire spell you cast. Over the course of a fight, all those +1's can really add up.

It won't help for damage, but if you happen to pick up Weapon Focus (ranged touch spells), there's a feat in Complete Mage that lets you 3/day reroll a missed ranged touch spell. I don't think it's worth the 2 feats, but just putting that out there.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another option, if you're taking Energy Sub (fire) for energy admixture anyway: Acid Sheath from Spell Compendium (level 5 buff spell). It sheaths you in acid fire that damages anyone that attacks you. More importantly, it adds +1 damage per die of any acid fire spell you cast. Over the course of a fight, all those +1's can really add up.

It won't help for damage, but if you happen to pick up Weapon Focus (ranged touch spells), there's a feat in Complete Mage that lets you 3/day reroll a missed ranged touch spell. I don't think it's worth the 2 feats, but just putting that out there.

See...I think that is gold.

Sure, its not mechanically optimized, but its the kind of thing that could turn a generic spellcaster into a PC you & your buddies talk about for years.

 

[Beyond Disbelief]

Here is my combo : Choosing the feats, Fiery Spell (sandstorm) ,Empower Spell and Arcane Thesis Scorching Ray , i can have a level 3 spell which deals (12d6 + 12) * 3/2 damage. I have also found an item which improves the spell by 1d6.
I am interested in hearing anything you can do to make this damage even greater. (if you can)

Sudden Maximize Twined Energy Admixed Split Fiery Scorching Ray, with Empower Rod.
(damage = (2^3)*[3*(4x6+4)] x 1.5 )

Static 1,008 damage, able to one shot any of your favorite 8-bit RPG heroes. You're welcome.

Feats required: 8
Arcane Thesis (Scorching Ray)
Energy Sub
Energy Admix

Split Ray, Fiery Spell
Maximize, Sudden Maximize, Twin Spell

P.S. You should probably save your level up stat points and Tome money on int/cha to invest into Dex instead.

 

[Nezkrul]

Thread Necromancy by a newby; /sigh and your math is wrong

Feats required: Arcane Thesis (Scorching Ray), Energy Sub (fire), Energy Admix (fire), Split Ray, Fiery Spell, Maximize Spell, Sudden Maximize, Twin Spell
Gear: Empower metamagic rod

Base Spell: 3 rays
Split: +1 ray
Twin: x2 rays (so 8 rays)
Energy Admixture: each ray does 8d6
Fiery: each ray deals 8d6+8
Maximize: each ray deals 56
Empower: each ray deals 56 + (.5 * (8d6+8))

Assuming each ray hits and does average damage (74), you're looking at a total of 592 damage, no where near 1k that you presume; but still pretty high. Just need to try to get Searing Spell in there to make it a worthy build, it makes the fire spell ignore all fire resistance, still deal half damage to targets immune to fire, and makes vulnerable targets take double damage instead of +50%.