Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Rummy Aug 27, 2014 22:45:43	Does Elemental Affinity work the same as Empowered Evocation?  Would a 6th level Gold Dragon Sorcerer casting Scorching Ray using a 2nd level spell slot at a single target do (assuming he hits) 6d6 + Cha or (2d6 + Cha)*3?
#2 superknud Aug 28, 2014 0:46:32	not sure if its correct, but I would work it like a warlocks eldritch blast, where each rolled attack gets the bonus on hit, whether they hit the same target or multiple ones.
#3 CorwynnMaelstrom Aug 28, 2014 1:03:56	2d6+Cha per ray.
#4 2Chlorobutanal Aug 28, 2014 1:14:44	The wording is actually different than a Warlock's Agonizing Blast.   Agonizing Blast says to add your Cha modifier to the damage eldritch blast deals on a hit.   Elemental Affinity says that "when you cast a spell that deals damage" ... "add your Cha modifier to that damage."   (For comparison, Empowered Evocation (from Wizards) says that you can "add your Intelligence to the damage roll...".)   So we have three slightly differently-worded abilities.   Popular opinion seems to be that, since Agonizing Blast specifically mentions damage on a hit, if you hit multiple times, you deal the bonus damage multiple times.   Elemental Affinity says that "when you cast a spell that deals damage," which is an event that occurs one time per spell, so you would appear to just get the bonus damage one time per spell.   However, it'd probably be simplest to group all 3 features under the same rules.  There's nothing super game-breaking about allowing a sorcerer or wizard to get up to 50 bonus damage on a scorching ray spell, but it does make that spell very powerful for single- or few-target situations.  In fact, I believe the spell would be better than all other non-9th level spells for inflicting damage on a solo target - better than finger of death and disintegrate.   So, if you let Dragon Sorceror or Evoker casters in your game add their bonus damage per ray to scorching ray, it'll become the go-to damage spell for most of the game.
#5 Sorxores Aug 28, 2014 5:09:09	http://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4127401   I compare many elemental spell for the sorcerer here and as you can see if you compare scorching ray lvl 9 to disintegrate ray lvl 9 and meteor swarm lvl 9 : (with a fire dragon bloodline and elemental adept feat (fire):   Scorching ray does (2d6+5)*10 = 123 damage that you can divide on 1 or 10 creatures.without the elemental adept it would do on average 120 damage. Remember that if you miss you do 0 damage with that ray disintegrate (who do NOT benefit from any boost since it's force damage) would deal 19d6+40 (106 damage) on a single target and disintegrate the target. The spell also create door where there was none and get rid of wall of force. If the opponent succeed on his dex save you do 0 damage   Meteor swarm does 20d6(fire)+5+20d6(bludgeoning) (148 damage) to everyone within 40ft radius if the targets succeed on there Des save they still take 1/2 damage (74)   and scorching ray without any boost (no fire dragon blood, no elemental adept) would do 10 rays doing 2d6(7) each for a total of 20d6 (70) damage as a spell level 9.   So yes it's powerfull, but there still better options that cna be used at the same level.   For the sorcerer having a spell that stay viable from lvl 3 (spelllevel 2) all the way to level 20 is not a bad thing, since your spell list is VERY limited with only 15 spell known, you are the full caster with the least spell known/prepare. Even half caster get more spellknown/prepare then a sorcerer. and the 1/3 caster (EK and AT) got 13 compare to the 15 of  the sorcerer.   and Eldritch bast for the warlock is the regular basic attack so let's compare it to the fighter with 4 weapon attack with only a fighting style applyed on it (since to add charisma you need to add a class feature from the warlock, so to be fair, let's add a class feature on the fighter as well) so let's take great weapon fighting on a fighter using a glaive (to use the same 1d10 damage) Eldritch blast do (1d10+5)*4 Weapon attack do (1d10+5)*4 reroll 1 and 2s.   So the fighter still do more damage. warlock got a feat option to cast eldritch blast instead of an opportunity attack, but if you play your Eldritch blast warlock, you shoudl stay in range, so not provoking AoO. The fighter got option to get great weapon master (to had an extra attack on a crit or on a killing blow that happen more often then a warlock provoking an AoO) Polearm masterto provoke AoO when the enemy approach him and Sentinel reduce there speed to 0, Savage attacker to gain advantage on damage roll, plus the option to gain a magic weapon that will boost damage and accuracy even more.   So for both sorcerer and Warlock I don'T see the problem (power balance wise) to let them add Charisma on every single rays, specially that if they miss an attack, it does 0 damage compare to most damaging spell that still do 1/2 damage.
#6 IxidorRS Aug 28, 2014 6:54:12	Sorxores wrote:
(Reply to #6) Sorxores	IxidorRS wrote:
(Reply to #7) Lipfi	Empowered Evocation only gives you +int mod on WIZARD evocation spells. +cha mod on every eldritch blast ray is still debated and we will need to wait for official faq to know for sure.
(Reply to #5) 2Chlorobutanal	Sorxores wrote:
#10 Sorxores Aug 29, 2014 5:40:26	2Chlorobutanal wrote:
(Reply to #10) 2Chlorobutanal	The 2d6 + 5 damage of a boosted scorching ray is greater than the 3d6 damage of a disintegrate spell's upgrade.   I think sunburst is actually a rather weak go-to AoE damage spell.  It has a big area of effect, but that could be a double-edged sword for sorcerors whose Careful Spell ability is not quite as good as Sculpt Spells.   It's great situationally, but overall weaker damage-wise than many other scaled-up damage spells.  It really only shines (so to speak) at certain levels and versus undead, oozes or when you want radiant damage or to inflict the blinded condition.  For pure damage, a cone of cold will do more in the same level slot.   In the end, I suppose it's up to the table to decide if they want a red/gold dragon sorcerer's scorching ray to be strictly better than disintegrate and finger of death for single target damage, as well as almost all AoE spells (if used for single-target), keeping in mind that the latter spells can have other effects.