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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6794708" data-attributes="member: 6799649">For me, while the rules of D&D have drifted over the years, most of the concepts that the rules help us produce in the game have stayed constant. For example, the meaning of the 'instantaneous' duration has stayed unchanged, even if the words used to describe it are briefer in 5E than they are in 3E. The briefer description lends itself to misinterpretation, but I don't think that the actual way instantaneous spells work has changed at all! BTW, the 3.5E and 5E spell descriptions of scorching ray are almost identical, except the 3E line about all the targets having to be chosen in advance. However, that line was redundant anyway, because the consequence of the instantaneous duration already meant that all the rays must be used in that same instant. Since 5E has retained the instantaneous duration, this has not changed. I don't believe that the concept of scorching ray, which was 'shoot a number of simultaneous rays of fire', suddenly changed in 5E, without any wording indicating any such change. I find the idea of rays shot with enough time between rays to see what they do, and using that information to choose who to target next, to be absurd for a spell that is defined as instantaneous and 'the magic exists only for an instant', and a totally unnecessary bit of absurdity that has consequences beyond these two spells.</blockquote>