Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 rarejon42 Aug 22, 2014 14:58:53	The 10th level ability of Evocation Wizards is Empowered Evocation. Which allows you to add your ability modifier to damage rolls of evocation spells.   Scorching Ray and Magic missile create multiple packets of damage / attacks.   Does your ability modifier apply to each packet?   Thanks!
#2 Yunru Aug 22, 2014 15:09:10	Of course, it's added to each damage roll. That's what it says so that's what it does. Whether all those damage rolls originate from the same source or not is irrelevent, only if they're seperate rolls or not.
#3 Deltabeoulve Aug 22, 2014 22:38:33	Empowered Evocation only works ONCE per target. Here is a tweet from a developer answering this exact question. https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/487995399899074560
#4 OutsiderSubtype Aug 22, 2014 23:58:27	Deltabeoulve wrote:
#5 2Chlorobutanal Aug 23, 2014 1:00:24	I think the various ruling for these kinds of bonuses has been:   Magic Missile and Empowered Evocation - All the dice rolls occur at once, and are not separate "attacks" (because the spell doesn't use attack rolls).  The bonus damage applies once per creature.   Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast - This feature specifically adds bonus damage "on a hit", and eldritch blast can hit up to 4 times, thus getting the bonus damage up to 4 times.   I haven't seen a specific ruling about scorching ray, but:   Scorching Ray and Empowered Evocation - Each ray is a separate attack roll, which would imply a separate damage roll.  A caster doesn't really get any more damage from the spell (in total) by choosing to target one creature or many, and the fact that the spell requires a hit roll lowers the impact of Empowered Evocation upon the overall spell damage.  I'd be inclined to let each ray add the bonus damage, but this would make the spell pretty powerful.   If you use a 6th-level spell slot to cast scorching ray, with a 20 intelligence and Empowered Evocation, it would deal 14d6+35 (84) damage.  In comparison, a disintegrate spell would deal 10d6 + 40 (75) damage.  For an Evoker, a 6th-level scorching ray would be stronger than a 6th-level damage spell such as disintegrate if you apply Empowered Evocation.  Assuming a roughly 50% hit or save rate, scorching ray would deal about 42 damage and disintegrate would deal about 37.5 on average.   In comparison, if magic missile got its bonus from Empowered Evocation on every die, a 6th-level magic missile with Empowered Evocation would deal 8d4+8 + 40 (68) damage with no attack roll or save.  Obviously, magic missile would be stronger than both scorching ray and disintegrate if it worked this way.   In conclusion, I'd say that magic missile should only benefit from Empowered Evocation once per target.  Scorching ray could go either way, but if you choose to allow it the bonus damage for each ray, including when focused on a single target, it becomes a very strong contender for single target damage at most spell levels (until 9th, probably).
#6 Psikerlord Aug 23, 2014 1:28:52	Its very likely the dmg will suggest tweaking rules to suit your table. In this case i like the version where each time you roll to hit, you get the bonus dmg.
#7 Deltabeoulve Aug 23, 2014 10:01:59	It looks like the ability Empowered Evocation is only supposed to work once per target. (Which looks to be what the twitter thing says as well, not just to magic missile). So all spells, no matter how many attacks it gets, would get a one time INT boost per target. The difference between this and Agonizing Eldritch Blast is in the wording. Agonizing Eldritch Blast actually says "On a hit" add CHA mod to the damage rolls. Empowered Evocation just says add Int modifier to THE damage roll of any wizard evocation spell you cast.
(Reply to #6) Undrhil	Psikerlord wrote:
#9 TheCriticalFail Aug 23, 2014 15:40:19	From what I've heard from most few people, it depends on the text and instance. That tweet was apparently responding specifically to magic missile. In magic missile, the darts are added together since there aren't separate attack rolls, and are considered to act as a single damage roll (due to the way players roll and the statement that all darts strike simultaneously). Due to this, empowered evocations only proc's once. However, since scorching ray involves separate attacks rolls and, more notably, separate damage rolls, I would say it activates on each individual hit and damage roll. Agonizing blast and Eldritch blast is usually agreed to activate on every separate attack roll now. That's my take at least.
#10 Psikerlord Aug 24, 2014 0:58:57	Undrhil wrote:
#11 Plaguescarred1 Aug 24, 2014 7:33:11	OutsiderSubtype wrote: