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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7373584" data-attributes="member: 58197">If you phrase the question in a way that's designed to elicit a quick, ill-considered answer, then a quick, ill-considered answer is what you'll get. Doesn't change what the right answer is.In this case, the answer depends on how the &quot;maximizing damage&quot; ability is worded. If we are talking about the wild magic effect, the text of that ability is: &quot;Maximize the damage of the next damaging spell you cast within the next minute.&quot;Nothing in there mentions dice. You still roll the dice normally*; the surge just steps in at the end to overwrite the final damage number with the highest possible value. So maximizing chaos bolt won't result in infinite bounces. Contrast the sorcerer's Empowered Spell feature: &quot;When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to your Charisma modifier.&quot; That ability does mess with the actual roll. If you used Empower Spell to re-roll a die and got doubles as a result, you'd get the extra bounce off.[Edited: I originally said I'd be tempted to make a house rule for wild surges. Changed my mind. The surge effect lets you decide in advance what damaging spell to cast, so you can see the 33-34 result and decide then to cast chaos bolt. That takes away the &quot;crazy crit&quot; fun of the house rule.][SIZE=-2]*For most spells, the dice have no effect other than damage, so physically rolling them is a waste of time. But in a case like chaos bolt, the roll still applies.[/SIZE]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 7373584, member: 58197"] If you phrase the question in a way that's designed to elicit a quick, ill-considered answer, then a quick, ill-considered answer is what you'll get. Doesn't change what the right answer is. In this case, the answer depends on how the "maximizing damage" ability is worded. If we are talking about the wild magic effect, the text of that ability is: [I]"Maximize the damage of the next damaging spell you cast within the next minute."[/I] Nothing in there mentions dice. You still roll the dice normally*; the surge just steps in at the end to overwrite the final damage number with the highest possible value. So maximizing [I]chaos bolt[/I] won't result in infinite bounces. Contrast the sorcerer's Empowered Spell feature: [I]"When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to your Charisma modifier."[/I] That ability does mess with the actual roll. If you used Empower Spell to re-roll a die and got doubles as a result, you'd get the extra bounce off. [Edited: I originally said I'd be tempted to make a house rule for wild surges. Changed my mind. The surge effect lets you decide in advance what damaging spell to cast, so you can see the 33-34 result and decide then to cast [i]chaos bolt.[/i] That takes away the "crazy crit" fun of the house rule.] [SIZE=-2]*For most spells, the dice have no effect other than damage, so physically rolling them is a waste of time. But in a case like [I]chaos bolt[/I], the roll still applies.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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