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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darkness" data-source="post: 1052537" data-attributes="member: 13">Hm. Disintegrate has a Fortitude save.And an 11th-level Fighter, assuming Con 16 (14 + 2 item) and a +1 cloak of resistance, has a Fortitude save of +11. (Or +13 if he has Con 18 and a +2 cloak.)The save DC for disintegrate is 16 + IntMod (and Spell Focus: Transmutation, if any).Assuming a Wizard with Int 21 and without the Spell Focus feat, this equals a DC of 21. (Or DC 23 for a wizard with Int 23 who has the feat.)If both characters have stats and gear of roughly equal power, the Fighter will make his save on a 10 or more - i.e., 55% of the time.Assuming the Fighter is a human, half-elf, elf or orc, anyway.If dwarf: 7+ or 70%; if gnome or halfling: 9+ or 60%; if elf: 11+ or 50%.In case the Fighter saves, he takes only 5d6 damage.If we go with the aforementioned 55% save chance, this means that the Fighter takes 5d6 55% of the time and 22d6 45% of the time. So on the average, the Fighter will take a bit less than 13d6, or 44 points on the average.Average hp for a Ftr11: 98 (@ Con 16) or 109 (@ Con 18).44 hp equals 45% (or 27% @ Con 18) of the Fighter's hp.Hm. I'd say that the scorching ray is the more damaging spell, assuming the target is a tough one (good Fort save, high Con, big HD).For mopping up Rogues (and Bards) or Wizards/Sorcerers, though, disintegrate is deadlier.Disintegrate also has the advantage of being a higher-level spell. A scorching ray is still 2nd level even if Quickened - so even a minor globe of invulnerability defeats it. Also, fire damage is easier to protect against than disintegrate effects and disintegrate requires only a single attack roll while scorching ray requires one per ray.And it kills everything it reduces to 0 (not -10) hp - and reduces them to dust (not a good thing if you wanna be raised).But on the other tentacle, the scorching ray we're talking about here has the distinct advantage of being Quickened! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />So what's the more powerful spell - a plain old disintegrate or a Quickened scorching ray? Heh. That, y'all have to decide for yourself. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />edit - One more thing... I have to say I'm glad that disintegrate was nerfed (from instakill to huge damage) in 3.5. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /></blockquote>

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