Enough Ray Spells?

[rushlight]

So, are there enough ray spells to base a sorcerer around? I was thinking of doing this in an upcoming campaign. I only found a handful in the core book, and levels 5 and 7 don't have any that I could find.

Are there any good supplement books that might increase this some? Perhaps provide some variety? Any help would be appreciated!

 

[hong]

2nd level: scorching ray
4th level: empowered scorching ray
5th level: maximised scorching ray
7th level: empowered, maximised scorching ray

 

[Zappo]

You've got excellent low-level damage dealing in scorching ray, then excellent high-level damage dealing in polar ray. You lack a bit of mid-level punch (disintegration isn't guaranteed damage), though you can make up for it with metamagic if you're willing to up the casting time to one round. Overall, I think that the PHB doesn't have enough rays to make a good ray specialist, but more sources could help.

 

[Crothian]

THere was a Dragon MAg that had a lot of cool ray spells and some feats for them.

 

[rushlight]

Okay, here's another question:

All ray spells are ranged touch attacks. Would you consider all spells which are ranged touch attacks to be ray spells? Specifically, as it applies to Weapon Focus: Ray.

That might make up a bit...

 

[Gez]

Well, there's three kind of rolled attack spells: touch attack, energy missile, and ray.

Ray spells are all spells whose Effect: entry is a ray.

Any other ranged touch attack spell who don't have Effect: Ray but something else (for example, Target: Something) instead is an Energy Missile spell.

At least, that's what you get from Tome & Blood.

 

[Nifft]

Let's not forget the Archmage and his Arcane Fire option -- that turns any spell into a Ray attack.

-- N

 

[Anti-Sean]

THere was a Dragon MAg that had a lot of cool ray spells and some feats for them.

"Rays of Light" in Dragon Annual #5. I've got house guests at the moment, so I'm not able to take a close look at the article. This was shortly after 3.0 was released, so some tweaking may be necessary for 3.5.

 

[milotha]

If you are specifically interested in just spells withe the word ray in their name then:

Check out the Tome and Blood- 1st Negative Energy Ray.

However, I might recommend that you expand out to consider all spells that deliver ranged touch based attacks, and have your Sorcerer specialize in these. There are several of these in the Core books and Tome and Blood as several Orb spells that function in this manner.

 

[ashbinator]

If you are trying to go for a ray build, then Seeking Ray (from the PHBII) is a must-have. It's a second-level ray spell (4d6 electricity) that ignores all cover and concealment but total, and allows for you to ignore the -4 penalty for shooting into melee.

The part that makes this spell essential, though is that once a target has been hit with seeking ray, then the caster gets a +4 to attack when using ray spells against the marked target for 1rd/caster level.