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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Werebat" data-source="post: 3966988" data-attributes="member: 40158">What people seem to be saying is that the -1 to hit penalty and the variable energy damage make up for the loss of 50% of damage when compared to Scorching Ray.  I disagree --because -1 to hit is pretty insignificant from the point where you begin facing things that WILL hit you no matter what your AC is.  Also, the variable energy damage will bite you in the butt as often as it helps you out, so it seems like a wash to me.  Concentrating all of your firepower into ONE beam can be good or bad, depending on the situation (it's good when you have one enemy with Fire Resistance 5 or 10, it's bad when you have multiple smaller enemies).  Split Ray helps Rainbow Beam out more than it does Scorching Ray, sort of -- if you Split a Rainbow Beam it will do the same damage as a Scorching Ray but it will be 2 levels higher.  Bleh.I still say accellerating the damage at low levels is a good idea -- honestly, at 3rd level (when you can first cast the spell), 1d12 vs 4d6 damage is a no-brainer choice considering the few things you will be facing with fire resistance at 3rd level.  I agree that by 15th level the spells are pretty balanced (12d6 vs 5d12), I just don't think it should take quite so long to get there.Have any of you ever actually chosen Rainbow Beam over Scorching Ray when it came to learning new spells or designing villains?   - Ron   ^*^</blockquote>