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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 3134166" data-attributes="member: 141">Re: Proposed [Blast]You don't get to triple the area; after the +16 you only have +2 SP to work with.  You could add "cannot be raised" - say that creatures slain by this spell are incinerated- only a few ashes, teeth or fragments of charred bones remain, not enough for a raise dead.  Or add a minor bit of flexibility; choosing between an area and a line at the time of casting, say.  Or leave it at a kernel value of 58. (damage 4 +8 enhanced +16 double +10 range +6 spread +14 heighten)There's an order of operations problem with your seed; do you apply the empowering (including the built in empowering) first or last?  If first, then logically each +1 SP should give +2d6 off the bat.  Last time we went through this, you felt an internally empowered [blast] was too similar to [destroy].Mind you, [destroy] could use a tiny bit of boosting too.  [Destroy] (damage 4 +8 enhance +4 skew +10 long +14 heightened +8 typeless +1 no raise dead +2 destroys [force] effects +4 epic benefit) = 57That initial "damage 4" is the kernel of a fireball; 10d6 of damage.  This 3rd level base is also where I calculate the heighten effect from; 7 levels to make a 10th level seed.  It comes up a lot when I analyze things.  I don't remember how I calculated the +2 value of skew, but now I recalculating it based on a measure of damaging spells which takes half the failed-save damage plus the whole successful-save damage.  For Reflex: half spells this comes out to the number of dice involved.  It makes the change from enhanced fireball to disintegrate the equivalent of +5d6.  This is half of an enhance, so +4. Would disintegrate be balanced as a 7th level spell?  I know I forgot to include the anti-forcefield effect in previous analyses, so my kernel estimate of 37 is probably low; it should be 39 with the anti-forcefield stuff, +41 with the recalculated skew; it could either be a really high 6th or (with another +2 heighten) a low 7th.****Oh, and it appears that a ray spell that has its USP doubled doesn't allow a saving throw.  Which tends to support the result of my harrow analysis of energy drain.  It would be nice if the numbers came out a little closer, though:E.g. polar ray: (damage 4 + 12 enhanced + 6 close) * 2 = 44.  A 7th level spell.  Which indicates that it is underpowered as an 8th level spell.E.g. scorching ray (damage 4 + 6 close) * 2 = 20.  A 3rd level spell.  Which indicates that it is overpowered as a 2nd level spell.  The fact that fire resistance counts against each bolt might be worth a small mitigation, but it also enables a wizard to attack multiple targets, so I don't know.If polar ray is too weak for its level and scorching ray is too strong, then this analysis would seem to give reliable results.</blockquote>

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