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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 2879654" data-attributes="member: 31465">Ok, i've spent the morning rolling up a character and making a spell: Scorching Ray, as per the example on page 67. Initial thoughts:  I am sorta displeased. I'll tell you what i did and maybe i did something wrong.3rd level character. Stats: 10/10/10/16/10/16BAB +1, 42 Skill PointsI divived up skill points into the new skills, which put a hurt on basics, like Spot and Search and Listen. That was my choice though, fine. I do like having Detect Magic and Ghost sound as skills though. Moving on...I started with 2 starting feats: Combat Casting and i took Talent: Beast Lore, a spell.Bonus 1st: Spell Energy Reservoir. I also have Student of Magic which grants +1 spell energyI also picked another Talent: Light Lore. 3rd level: Skill Focus (spellcraft) +3, my third Talent (spell) which was Light Lore. So i can now cast 3 spells: Beast, Light and Force and all the variations beneath. As my normal 3rd level feat i took Toughness (using my houserule of level +3 for 6 hitpoints)So, at 3rd level i have 2 Spell Points (Student of Magic +1 and Energy Reservoir +1), 18 hitpoints. (6 + 3 + 3 +6 toughness)So, i wanted to see what kind of use i would be in a combat situation. Scorching Ray is almost exactly like the one on page 67, but i bumped down the Range to 30', so the DC to cast it is 42. The DC to resist for half damage is Fort 14. The spell inflicts 3d6 fire damage.I maxed out spellcraft, 6 ranks, +3 Int, + 2 Student of Magic, + 3 skill focus, +2 synergy for 5 ranks in Prestidigation when casting Light spells = +16The DC for Scorching Ray is 42, minus +16 (I'm calcuating the casting time here, assuming the spell is not prepared ahead of time, i can prepare 3 spells) for 26. According to Table 2-3, prior to errata, this spell will take 10 Actions to cast. The non-lethal damage for casting this spell is base 1d8 plus the DC 42 divided by 5 = 8, so 1d8 + 8. This is slightly buffered by my 2 spell points, so effectively 1d8 +6. So hit or miss, i take at least 7 subdual damage, max 14 (of 18 hitpoints)Options: to hit the DC, i can burn a spell point to add +10 to my Spell Craft, so it would be +26 plus 1d20 to hit DC 42. I would also take 2d8 + 7 (minus the one spell point left) of non-lethal damage. It is still a ranged touched attack, +1 bonus (no Dex bonus for me). So, while this system DOES work..........i'm thinking right now that it takes A LOT of thought, maybe more than i'm prepared to invest, much less explain to a busy DM, and the chances of hitting that DC aren't too good, and i could damn well get knocked unconscious, or close to it. This is assuming that I'm at full health. I even used a house rule for Toughness that gave me bonus hit points. Now, the character was not min-maxed. I picked average physical scores and boosted scores that would aid spellcasting. Of course, every score comes in useful pretty much, depending on what you're doing.Comparitively, here's Scorching Ray from the SRD:Note that there is no Saving Throw, whereas the other is a DC to cast, a Ranged Touch, and a Save. And less damage. Now, i do recall that the precise focus of this book is subtely over power, and that is exactly what is happening here.  I can cast a lot of lesser, safer spells, but the balance of power is 180 degrees from what I - we - are used to. And i'm not sure that's what i'm looking for. Furthermore, even tinkering mildly with the augmentations of a spell will suck up game time as I frantically flip back and forth and recalculate DC's. Having a set, prepared spell is fine, but casting spells on the fly will be much more problematic.</blockquote>

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