Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dungeon2004 02-02-07, 06:30 PM	I noticed these two second level spells in the Spell Compendium and both of them seem overpowered to me. Has anyone actually used either of these in a game and found that to be the case?
TheCobra 02-02-07, 06:39 PM	They do seem to be rather strong, yes. About equal with scorching ray. Great with spell storing weapons.
Dungeon2004 02-03-07, 01:23 PM	They do seem to be rather strong, yes. About equal with scorching ray. Great with spell storing weapons. They seem way superior to Scorching Ray to me. Damage for Scorching Ray maxes out at 11th level with 72 points of maximum damage. Belker Claws maxes out at 12th level with a possible max damage of 120 points. Combust maxes out at 10th level with a maximum possible damage of 80 points and there's a change for burning damage on top of that. About the only advantages I can see of Scorching Ray is that you can target multiple targets and it's a ranged attack. Still, at high levels you probably aren't going to want to spread out that amount of damage in any case and its easy enough for a high level wizard to deliver touch spells with Greater Invisibility or through a familiar.
DevilKiller 02-03-07, 04:43 PM	I have had the chance to use Combust twice so far with my "fire mage" sorcerer. It impressed the table both times. Combust damage goes up every level while Scorching Ray increases in fits and spurts. Considering 6th level, when Combust averages 27 damage and Scorching Ray only 14, you would get the impression that Combust is madly overpowered, but at 7th level Scorching Ray jumps to 28 average damage (assuming two hits) while Combust only goes up to 31.5. The biggest advantage of Combust is that it requires only one attack roll and combines all of its damage to beat fire resistance. This is balanced out by the fact that it requires the spellcaster to get close enough to touch the enemy. The ability to set people on fire is fun extra and the only thing about the spell that makes me question whether it might be overpowered compared to the very powerful and much feared Scorching Ray. Belker Claws is another spell which requires the caster to get within melee range, and it only works on living targets. Still, the untyped damage could be nice for beating resistances. The average damage is 13 per round for up to 5 rounds at 12th level. That's an average of 65 damage total. That's certainly not bad for a 2nd level spell, but the fact it takes 5 rounds to do all that damage is a significant drawback. Also note that the duration of the spell is instantaneous, so you can't use Extend Spell to cheaply double the damage. The best use I can see for Belker Claws is probably to cast it multiple times on an enemy spellcaster so that the damage stacks and he runs into trouble making his Concentration checks each round. It could also be good for hit and run tactics.
Gnarl 02-04-07, 01:10 PM	Combust's average damage isn't much higher than scorching ray's. Belker's claw on the other hand has a higher average damage but the damage is dealt over multiple rounds so it's not as bad because most critters won't last those 5 rounds. These spells should do slightly more damage than scorching ray since they're the same level but in order to get them to work, you need to get somewhere you're rather not be as a wizard: melee.
Ogre4Hire 02-04-07, 04:47 PM	Pity that there isn't some spell like Spectral Hand that you could use to deliver a touch attack from a nice safe distance...:rolleyes:
IceFractal 02-04-07, 05:16 PM	Damage-over-time spells always have a higher maximum damage - they'd be pretty useless if they didn't. What with the average length of an encounter, it's pretty rare that a DoT spell will actually run its course and inflict the full damage.