Why is Polar Ray an 8th level spell?

[Grog]

Say you have a 15th level Wizard. For a 4th level slot, he can Empower a Scorching Ray and do 18d6 damage. Or, he can cast Polar Ray for an 8th level slot and do 15d6 damage.

Even at 18th level, Polar Ray only gives him the same amount of damage for an 8th level slot that Empowered Scorching Ray does for a 4th level slot.

Polar Ray sucks.

 

[Nifft]

The auto-failure also exists for a saving-throw spell (20 on the save and the spell autofails), but there is no commensurate critical spell success on a natural 1 saving throw roll. So the ray indeed balances out perfectly, but the saving-throw spell is unbalanced against the caster!

Nah, the area effect still deals half damage on a save, as opposed to none for a Ray.

Unless you're assuming Evasion?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Rystil Arden]

Nah, the area effect still deals half damage on a save, as opposed to none for a Ray.

Unless you're assuming Evasion?

Cheers, -- N

I'm not, but the half damage for Ref saves is something else entirely that I figured everyone was already counting (it needs to be integrated for all "failures" rather than for a critical "success"). This is usually balanced by the fact that hitting Touch AC is zounds easier than getting a baddy to fail a Ref save.

Admittedly, the difference for the crit on the ray is tiny and doesn't really matter at all here, but it does exist.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Say you have a 15th level Wizard. For a 4th level slot, he can Empower a Scorching Ray and do 18d6 damage. Or, he can cast Polar Ray for an 8th level slot and do 15d6 damage.

As pointed out earlier, keep in mind that the upside to polar ray vs. scorching ray is that a resist energy will entirely negate the empowered scorching ray (even at 7th level, resist 20 will negate all but 1 point each of an average-roll empowered scorching 3 rays). 15d6 with no save is nontrivial and there are plenty of ray feats (and others) to make it even more appealing (average roll 53).

 

[Folly]

I'm not, but the half damage for Ref saves is something else entirely that I figured everyone was already counting (it needs to be integrated for all "failures" rather than for a critical "success"). This is usually balanced by the fact that hitting Touch AC is zounds easier than getting a baddy to fail a Ref save.

Admittedly, the difference for the crit on the ray is tiny and doesn't really matter at all here, but it does exist.

Save vs Touch is a matter of encounter as I mentioned earlier. Not all bad guys have good reflex saves and not all bad guys have terrible touch ACs. Not to mention that if you can hit two enemies and both save you are still doing the same amount of damage. If you can get more enemies or some failed saves your doing better.

 

[moritheil]

The opposite of "limited targets" is "affecting more targets;" your analysis is not inconsistent with mine, as far as I can tell.

What's your analysis again?

-- N

I think I was referring to this:

In most cases an augmented power still isn't as good as an actual power of a higher level (easier saves, more restrictions, or slightly smaller damage dice.)

The idea being that higher level powers have better targeting options.