Resist Fire and Scorching Ray

[scrubkai]

I think I have been playing this wrong....

When someone casts a volley spell, such as an 11th level Scorching Ray, against something with Energy Resistance. How many times is the resistance applied.

In the example above all three rays go to the same creature which has fire resistance 5.

Does energy resistance get applied once to remove 5 points from the total 12d6 damage.
OR
Does energy resistance get applied once to each of the three rays, so 15 points are taken from the 12d6 damage.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Vorput]

In 3.0- it was the former,

In 3.5- it's the latter.

Vorp

Edit: Can't find an SRD quote on that... but I remember it being in an obscure place when I asked about this... hopefully someone else can post it.

 

[Staffan]

That's the big disadvantage of scorching ray - it is very susceptible to fire resistance. In 3.5, resistance is applied to each attack separately. In 3.0, resistance was dealt with on a round-by-round basis, so you could overwhelm a creature's resistance by casting multiple spells on it.

 

[Thanee]

It's not really 'per attack' though, it's for each time you are dealt energy damage.

The difference is, that with the first one could argue, that one Scorching Ray spell is also only one attack (like when applying precision-based damage), but that doesn't matter.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Moon-Lancer]

my guess is that under energy resistance in 3.0 it said something like once a round or some jazz like that. In 3.5 it doesn’t say this and this is probably how it has changed. Rather then saying each ray is susceptible to energy resistance, it miry doesn’t say that you can overwhelm a creature that’s protected.

Again this is only a guess, as many rules changed in omission rather then presenting an opposite rule set.

The sneak attack bit is an odd one, however you cannot even get sneak attack from multiple targets even though you are making separate attacks, and that’s just odd, so it seems like an oddity of sneak attack.

If you broke up the rays and hit multiple targets, would the cumulative damage of all the rays apply to getting past the resistance of all the creatures at once? well no that’s silly, so if blast a target with multiple rays, why would it get energy resistance be calculated after all the fire damage is done rather then per a ray? just something to think about.

 

[Liquidsabre]

I'm for fire resistance being applied to each scorching ray. That sure sounds on par for a second level spell.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't think there is any doubt that the energy resistance is applied against each of the scorching rays - it is the limitation on scorching ray.

Scorching ray didn't exist in 3.0e, although the 3rd level flame arrow allowed you to throw eventually up to 5x4d6 damage.

 

[scrubkai]

The whole question came up when I started thinking about the fact that my Arcane Trickster can only apply Sneak Attack to one ray, but we have been playing that damage reduction gets applied three times.

It all comes down to the question: Is the spell a single source of energy damage, or is each ray generated by the spell, a single source of damage.

Sounds like the general concensous is that resistance is applied to each ray, so that's the way we'll continue to play it.

Thanks all for the feedback

 

[Staffan]

Scorching ray didn't exist in 3.0e, although the 3rd level flame arrow allowed you to throw eventually up to 5x4d6 damage.

Pretty sure it was 4x (1d6 piercing + 4d6 fire).

 

[moritheil]

The whole question came up when I started thinking about the fact that my Arcane Trickster can only apply Sneak Attack to one ray, but we have been playing that damage reduction gets applied three times.

DR is never applied against energy rays. Energy resistance is, though!