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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Werebat" data-source="post: 3968815" data-attributes="member: 40158">OK, I just thought of two interesting possibilities to pitch to my DM...  He's been pretty reasonable so far so I think he's open to suggestions, but I want to keep things pretty fair and balanced as much as I can.Both of these draw from the mechanics of Rainbow Blast, a 3rd level spell also found in SC and a cousin to Rainbow Beam.  Rainbow Blast is a lot like lightning bolt except that instead of 1d6 electrical damage per caster level, the spell deals 1d6 of each of the five energy types (fire, cold, acid, electricity, sonic).  Every other level, the die size goes up one step, so that at level 7 it does 5d8, at level 9 it does 5d10, and at level 11 (when it maxes out) it does 5d12.  The result is a spell that does slightly less damage than lightning bolt, but draws from all 5 energy types at once, so immunity to one type of energy will only be partly effective (but those well-prepared enemies who get buffed to protect from all 5 types will probably laugh the spell off entirely).So on to my ideas for Rainbow Beam.One is the "quick and easy" house rule.  Instead of 4d6 fire damage (average 14), it does 5d4 damage (1d4 of each energy type, for an average of 12.5 damage).  We drop the wanktastic "dazzle" debuff entirely.  Just like Scorching Ray, at levels 7 and 11 you get to shoot one additional beam.  This results in slightly less damage than Scorching Ray (25 vs 26 at level 7 and 37.5 vs 39 at level 11).The other is a little more complex.  Here we keep Rainbow Beam mostly as is, random energy type and dazzle debuff intact.  It does 4d4 damage (10 damage as compared to 13 damage) at level 3.  At levels 7 and 11, the die size goes up by two (so 4d8 at level 7 and 4d12 (max) at level 11).  This gives us a damage progression as follows:1. --2. --3. 10 vs 144. 10 vs 145. 10 vs 146. 10 vs 147. 18 vs 288. 18 vs 289. 18 vs 2810. 18 vs 2811. 26 vs 42...at which point both spells are topped off.This also has Rainbow Beam dealing significantly less damage than Scorching Ray, but it doesn't suck so hard at the lower levels when energy resistance isn't going to be as much of a factor.What do you think?  Which method do you think is more balanced?  Would you allow either in your own game?   - Ron   ^*^</blockquote>

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