Blades of Fire underpowered?

[Obscure]

I was looking at the spell Blades of Fire from Complete Arcane, and it seems underpowered to me as a Wiz/Sor 2.

If we compare it to the famous (infamous?) Scorching Ray, it has the following advantages:

- V component instead of V, S
- Swift action casting time instead of standard action
- No SR allowed, Scorching Ray allows SR

But look at the disadvantages:

- Notably, 4d6 fire damage vs. 1d6 + weapon damage
- Scorching ray uses ranged touch attack instead of regular melee attack
- Power scaling is much better for Scorching Ray. The caster needs to make multiple melee attacks per round to keep up with the 8d6 and 12d6 output of Scorching Ray, which are made at penalties relative to the "easy" touch attacks for the Rays.

A Ftr/Wiz with good Str and a big sword using Blades of Fire could keep up with Scorching Ray damage output at lower levels, but it doesn't make sense for a plain Wiz/Sor.

 

[Thanee]

I'm not sure, what you are looking at, but these two spells are *extremely* different.

The swift spells in the Complete books are often for multiclassed spellcasters, who only have a couple levels of sorcerer/wizard to add some useful arcane utility. These spells allow them to use their arcane knowledge in combat, mixing them with their mundane fighting abilities. Usually, the problem is, that the low level spells are too weak to be a use in combat, but with those you can actually do something meaningful (most often without wasting an action either).

These spells are not meant for single class sorcerer/wizards.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Just before I read Thanee's response I was thinking 'hey, that sounds like a great spell for a multiclass caster who is just dipping into arcane magic for a few levels'.

I agree. It is not aimed at someone who is primarily a caster (why do they want to prepare to get tangled up in sword range with someone anyway?).

Cheers

 

[ThoughtfulOwl]

Consider how much it stacks up once you bring in TWF, Great Cleave, Flurry of Blows, Whirlwind Attack, or Combat Reflexes. After all, it gives you extra fire damage on top of a full attack, not instead of one.

 

[Shariell]

yes, great spell for an arcane-dipping character (like other like shield, mage armor, true strike, ecc...).
Swift action (no need to waste a partial action, and no need to be quickened), no SR and damage over every attack make this spell to me a must-have for every half-caster.

Even a Cleric with "anyspell" can greatly improve his melee capacity with this spell (altough this is no way relevant for balacing this spell of course).