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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2632008" data-attributes="member: 13966">Hrum.First, as a suggestion, I think you should restrict which options a mage should normally have available from amongst these; if they were to have free choice from amongst all of them, they'd just use the most effective type of bolt for every situation and never really have to care about the target's resistances or creature type.  For instance, if the mage faces a salamander, he's just going to go right for the Frost Bolt and not have any difficulty accessing it.  Then in the same day or same encounter he could be flinging Whitebolts at ghouls, Fire Bolts at ice mephits, Psychic Strikes at enemy human warriors, and so on and so forth.  Always able to capitalize on the enemy's obvious weaknesses without worry or fail.  So perhaps you should only grant access to a few types of energy bolt initially, and only allow access to new ones via feats?  I.E. an Expanded Energy Bolt feat, obtainable multiple times, and each time granting access to, say, 2 more types of energy bolt?  Maybe even just 1 more type.  It's just an idea, albeit a very valid concern.Shocking Bolt is a bit too strong on the extra effect.  1 round of being dazed is rather worse than potentially needing to spend a portion of your next action extinguishing your burning clothes, or 1 round of sickness.  Perhaps change it to 1 round of being staggered (but without the associated subdual damage normally necessary to do so; but only staggers targets susceptible to subdual damage).Holy Bolt and Unholy Bolt should only deal 1d6 damage per spell level, as they're not subject to any real energy resistances and, to the kind of people who would use them, there's rarely going to be any foes the bolts won't work against (without even bothering to modify them; i.e. most heroes will only fight evil stuff, and, at worst, only occasionally fighting neutral or good stuff).Flying Arrow, Propelled Blade, and Bolt of Impact should probably deal one degree better damage, since mages suck at making normal ranged attack rolls, and will thus rarely succeed against any decent opposition with such attacks.Psychic Strike should probably be scaled down to a d6 of damage per spell level, since, like Holy Bolt, it bypasses energy resistances and whatnot and will affect the vast majority of enemies.  The stun effect is too strong compared to other versions, as well.  Perhaps, instead, 1 point each of temporary Wisdom and Charisma damage in the vein of Frost Bolt?  2 points to a single mental ability score would hurt an enemy mage much more than 2 points of Dex loss would affect an enemy warrior, since the warrior could always just move up closer and hit you with a sword rather than an arrow, whereas an enemy mage may as well try fighting you with insults and mean thoughts if you chop down several points of his Int/Wis/Cha in the first one or two rounds.Whitebolt's modified extra effect could perhaps be a Reflex save against 1 minute of being dazzled, maybe 2 minutes instead.Darkbolt will bypass resistances and deal good damage to the vast majority of enemies, unlike Whitebolt, while only being diminished against one small group of creatures, so I'd reduce its damage to 1d6 per spell level.Sunbolt and Shadowbolt should probably be reduced to 1d4 damage per spell level, since they bypass resistances and have no restrictions or limitations on what they can affect, unlike just about everything else here.Chaos Bolt should probably just affect lawful-aligned creatures, and should then deal 1d8 damage per spell level instead of 1d6.  Probably make an Axiomatic Bolt as its counterpart, only affecting chaotic-aligned creatures, dealing 1d8 damage per spell level, with the modified extra effect being a Fortitude save against being knocked back 10 feet (relative to the mage's position).  Maybe 15 feet away instead, or maybe some other effect, but after all the other bolts' effects, I can't think of a good secondary effect for an Axiomatic Bolt.</blockquote>

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