Goodbye Haste! Hello New Mandatory Spell!

[hong]

Don't forget that you need PBS and Precise Shot to effectively use SR when your friends are engaged in melee combat. Against opposing mages it's a killer though, especially with endure elements being toned down.

Endure elements may have been toned down, but resist elements got bumped up. EE was always the "withstand natural hazards" spell, what with its 24-hour duration. RE was the combat spell, and now it's even better because it works per attack, not per round.

 

[Li Shenron]

Nope if it was one attack roll for all three rays, then as DM I would apply the standard rule (from stuff like Manyshot) that only the first damage roll gets the critical. So it would be (2 x 4d6) + 4d6 + 4d6 = 16d6. Not 2 x 12d6 = 24d6.

Even if it was a single roll, I would double the total, just as I would do with Shocking Grasp which is 1d6/level, and just as I would do with a Greatsword which is 2d6. I don't think the GS would total 3d6 on a crit...

 

[Celtavian]

re

I don't know. I redid my sorcerer spell list and I didn't take it. There are alot of good 2nd level spells to take. A single spell that does 4d6 damage with a ranged touched attack doesn't outdo Mirror Image, Knock, or Melf's Acid Arrow (especially now that SR doesn't work against it.), and the majority of stat buffing spells are level 2. Scorching Ray at level 2 doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Even if it was a single roll, I would double the total, just as I would do with Shocking Grasp which is 1d6/level, and just as I would do with a Greatsword which is 2d6. I don't think the GS would total 3d6 on a crit...

A Greatsword is only one blade. Scorching ray is three different rays. Therefore you either score these rays differently or use the manyshot rules.

And the spell isn't really bad. You can outdo a fireball in damage, but only against a single foe. A fighter can still do more damage than you against a single foe. Wizards are the best damage dealers only against hordes of foes, so fireball's still the better choice.

But the spell is nice for rogue/casters and arcane tricksters. (And polar ray just rocks for them. Meteor Swarm is nice for that as well, but for the fact that you must be within 30ft and the meteors have a blast radius of 40ft... )

 

[Li Shenron]

A Greatsword is only one blade. Scorching ray is three different rays. Therefore you either score these rays differently or use the manyshot rules.

We are not going anywhere from here. It's 3 attack rolls because it's 3 different rays. If it had been 1 ray, it would have been 1 attack roll. It could have been 3 rays x 1 attack, but after all it's not. There are similar cases in both spells and weapons, but they are still quite few. I was thinking of a single ray with simply increased damage.

 

[Darklone]

Played with the spell and no, it does not look overpowered. 14 points of damage (average) against a single opponent (and the dude missed more than once already) is not much better than damage against several. More than once, the pyrosorcerer who took it used Burning Hands instead.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

We are not going anywhere from here. It's 3 attack rolls because it's 3 different rays. If it had been 1 ray, it would have been 1 attack roll. It could have been 3 rays x 1 attack, but after all it's not. There are similar cases in both spells and weapons, but they are still quite few. I was thinking of a single ray with simply increased damage.

I think that one attack that shoots several missiles (be them arrows, rays or cream pies) should use the manyshot mechanic. (Or the old shuriken mechanic).

 

[Bauglir]

Who knew that Tasha's Hideous Laughter used the manyshot rules

 

[Taren Seeker]

The real strength of this spell is that it's 2nd level and thus a REALLY nice target for metamagic.

Empower - 18d6 at 11th level, much better than Polar Ray
Quicken - an extra 12d6 for a 6th level slot
Twin - 24d6 as a 6th lvl spell (also 11th lvl)
Energy Sub - since you can mem so many of these you can easily have 2 elements covered for that 150% damage, which multiplies with empower.

It requires a touch attack, but really, most things have poor touch ACs and for classes like the AT then it's even better for the sneak. There will also be a lot of EK ray specialists out there who will have as many of these as they can carry.

With no save, this is a rogue killer.

Really powerful. In 3e, flame arrow had no cap but allowed saves for each arrow fired, and it seemed balanced as a 3rd lvl spell.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Touch spell + save is just to much, I think.