Is Scorching Ray Too Good?

[Astalanya]

So we've seen a year of 3.5 and many of its changes. Spellcasters are a perennial favourite in any campaign I've participated in, whether DMing it or playing it, and I've seen a few spells that are considered practically mandatory. While Magic Missile has always been a first level mainstay, I've found another on that "must have" list: Scorching Ray.

Seeing it used more often, I have to wonder if this spell isn't a bit much for second level. First, you get more than one ray and all you need to hit is a ranged touch attack. It does pretty decent damage and there's no saving throw. Though a lot of stuff eventually gets fire resistance, that's easily overcome through certain feats (IE: elemental substitution, which you can make a metamagic rod of in most campaigns) or if the DM allows you to change the element into, say, acid.

Does anyone else see any problems with this spell, or am I just looking too far into it? Are there any DMs who have seen to balance it in some way, or is there no need?

 

[Pax]

IMO the damage should have been d4 based, in keeping with Melf's Acid Arrow.

 

[frankthedm]

I got rid of it In my game. but i am more restrictive on spells on the whole.

It is pretty strong, though the short range hinders it in larger areas.

Ranged Touch is not equal to a save for half IMO, plus you get more damage per level out of it.

lots of things resist fire.

Empowering it has BIG issues with damage cap.

 

[Kalendraf]

I haven't seen a problem with it in my campaigns. The biggest drawback is the wimpy range. In most cases when it may have been a good spell, the caster was way out of range. In fact, the party sorceress got so fed up that she wound up taking Acid Arrow when she learned another 2nd level spell. This is likely a factor of the campaign, since at that point, a lot of our battles were outdoors, but even indoors, the sorceress was having a lot of difficulty getting to within short range to use it.

I've given the spell to a number of NPC casters and it has yet to get out of control. Make no mistake, it is a good spell, but it's not broken by any means. Fire resistance is a fairly common ability or spell for both monsters and PCs as well.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have never used this spell for my own spellcasters, but seen it used by someone else occasionally, and it seemed quite balanced to me (although I have definitely seen it too few times to have a strong opinion...).

What is peculiar about its "balance" is that it doesn't progress in a very linear way, such as a Fireball does which is +1 dice / 1 level. The fact that damage is incremented by +4 dice / 4 levels means that when the increase happens the spell is top-notch, and then it stays behind other spells until it gets to the next increase. What I mean is that at caster level 3rd, 7th and 11th it is definitely a great choice. Acid Arrow only has the advantage of a much longer range and bypassing SR, but is in general worse than Scorching Ray.

 

[Palagast]

I'm currently playing a rogue 2/sorcerer 4 (going arcane trickster etc) and just gained my 4th sorcerer level, thus having to pick one 2nd level spell to cast 4 times a day. It was a very tough choice to make, having both Acid Arrow and Scorching Ray to choose from. In the end I picked SR and I'll be buying a wand of AA in the future. I think I'd end up casting SR more often than AA. The no-spell resistance and extreme range of AA both have their advantages for certain (lots?) situations. For the rest I don't think it's overpowered, but it definately is on the higher end of the power-bar.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

IMO the damage should have been d4 based, in keeping with Melf's Acid Arrow.

Acid arrow does up to 14d4 acid damage, over up to seven rounds. It requires only one ranged touch attack roll, can be used at Long range, and does not allow Spell Resistance.

Scorching ray does up to 12d6 of fire damage. It does the damage in one round, but requires up to three ranged attack rolls. It works only at Close range, and allows Spell Resistance.

On average damage, scorching ray wins, especially considering that the maximum is reached more quickly, at 11th level rather than 18th. It's also generally more advantageous to deal damage quickly and in large chunks, to aid in attrition and in getting past resistances. Continuing damage does aid some in keeping targets from using spells and spell-like abilities, however.

IMO, potential damage is the only criterion by which scorching ray is better than acid arrow.

At close range, a target is likely to be in melee, and most wizards don't have ranged feats to minimize the impact on their attack rolls. For a wizard, not even touch attacks are anything close to a sure thing, so it's unlikely that the full damage potential of scorching ray will be reached.

Fewer potential targets have acid resistance than fire resistance, so acid arrow wins there. (Acid also damages objects better than fire does.) Likewise, the fact that acid arrow blows past Spell Resistance is huge.

If scorching ray is broken, so is acid arrow. But they're actually both fine. Just be sure to remember the limitations, and I really don't think a DM can find either spell abusive.

 

[Darklone]

Acid Arrow is even more susceptible to energy resistance.

Scorching Ray is strong, but not overly strong. I don't allow E-sub or similar feats though.

The main balancing factor is the comparison to most other damage dealers at comparable levels. A wizard who casts scorching ray is in range for a charge attack by a power attacking barbarian in rage with greatsword. Baaaad idea.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Are people enforcing the core rules of firing into melee and cover? I was always finding my sorceror subject to these conditions and would magic missile instead.

 

[Blue]

One big advantage that acid arrow has is that it's continuing damage, which means spellcasters hit by it need to make concentration checks for any spell they cast, even if casting defensively. This isn't a big deal at higher levels, but at lower levels it's a very important point.

Scotching Ray is the direct fire part of the old Flame Arrow spell, which was underpowered at 3rd. So taking out the versitility of casting in different ways, dropping the damage cap, and making it 2nd seems like a good idea.

I see both picked - AA a bit more (especially by sorcerers) because it bypasses SR.

=Blue