Beating the 10-level cap on direct-damage spells. Where does it start?

[Felon]

So, I'm building my evoker mage, and I notice that there are direct-damage spells going all the way up to fifth-level that have a cap of 10th-level on their effects (which is to say in most cases, 10d6).

I'm kind of new to looking over arcane spells myself--haven't played a lot of mages--so I'm interested in finding the point where spells start breaking the 10-cap. If someone's building a mage and want to exceed ten dice, what are good starting points?

 

[blargney the second]

Cone of Cold goes to 15d6.

 

[frankthedm]

Scorching ray deals 12d6 total at 11th level.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Empower spell.

Thus an empowered scorching ray does 3 x 6d6 damage (potential 18d6 equivalent if they don't have fire resistance) as a 4th level spell once you reach 11th level.

empowered fireball does 15d6 as a 5th level spell (once you are 10th level)

(divine magic breaks the 10d6 cap quickest of course - with druid flamestrike having a 15d6 cap as a 4th level spell. Remind me again how arcane casters are the blasters, hmmm )

Cheers

 

[frankthedm]

(divine magic breaks the 10d6 cap quickest of course - with druid flamestrike having a 15d6 cap as a 4th level spell. Remind me again how arcane casters are the blasters, hmmm )

Supposed to be. I wish i could get produce flame as a mage.

 

[shilsen]

Supposed to be. I wish i could get produce flame as a mage.

You don't have to go that far. You can limited wish yourself a produce flame

 

[Infiniti2000]

Supposed to be. I wish i could get produce flame as a mage.

You can always get it, but to cast it off a scroll you need UMD.

To Felon, check out the charts on page 36 of the DMG. Don't let the fact that the core rules break this chart bother you too much.

 

[GorTeX]

Empower spell.

Thus an empowered scorching ray does 3 x 6d6 damage (potential 18d6 equivalent if they don't have fire resistance) as a 4th level spell once you reach 11th level.

empowered fireball does 15d6 as a 5th level spell (once you are 10th level)

(divine magic breaks the 10d6 cap quickest of course - with druid flamestrike having a 15d6 cap as a 4th level spell. Remind me again how arcane casters are the blasters, hmmm )

Cheers

kinda a pet peeve of mine--and one that is relatively insignificant really--but you are slightly off here.

an empowered Scorching ray does (4d6)x1.5 damage per ray, not 6d6 damage.
an empowered Fireball does (10d6)x1.5 damage, not 15d6.

 

[Plane Sailing]

kinda a pet peeve of mine--and one that is relatively insignificant really--but you are slightly off here.

an empowered Scorching ray does (4d6)x1.5 damage per ray, not 6d6 damage.
an empowered Fireball does (10d6)x1.5 damage, not 15d6.

I know, but I consider 6d6 to be acceptable shorthand, and makes the point better in the context of the original question

 

[lukelightning]

an empowered Fireball does (10d6)x1.5 damage, not 15d6.

Yeah, I learned that recently, but it was more vicerally satisfying to have a huge handful of dice...