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View Full Version : What do empower spell and power do exactly?



Samb
2009-11-15, 12:29 PM
The wording for the two of them leaves me a bit confused. "Numeric" means that things like damage, healing, range, duration, radius, should all be increased by 50%. "Variables" means requiring to roll a die, which would exclude most of the things that are listed under numeric, since most powers/spells have discrete range, duration, and radius.

So something like vigor, which has no variables would not be augmentable by empower since it gives a flat 5 temp HP. But something like fireball would benefit from empower. So far so good.

But lets say I maximized my fireball, removing the randomness of its damage. Would empower still be applicable?

Or is my present interpretation of empower completely wrong? Maybe I can empower vigor for 7 HP instead of 5 HP? The fact that the text in empower power says "affects half again as many targets" when # of targets is almost never a variable.

Claudius Maximus
2009-11-15, 12:37 PM
An Empowered Maximized Fireball deals maximum damage plus half of a rolled amount. This is explicitly stated in the rules somewhere.

ericgrau
2009-11-15, 12:38 PM
Maximize + empower is explained as a specific exception inside of the empower and maximize feat descriptions. You still roll, and you get 1/2 your roll plus the maximum possible roll. Not 1.5 x the maximum possible roll. EDIT: ninja'd.

Otherwise, yeah, only the variable stuff gets multiplied by 1.5. Fireball not vigor, like you said.

KillianHawkeye
2009-11-15, 11:13 PM
The fact that the text in empower power says "affects half again as many targets" when # of targets is almost never a variable.

This would come into play when you empowered something like circle of death or any other spell that affects a random # of Hit Dice worth of creatures.

Samb
2009-11-15, 11:30 PM
My follow up question would be, what about chaotic surge? It's a class feature for anarcahic initiate, would that function only on variables as well?

Glimbur
2009-11-15, 11:31 PM
Worth noting in all this is that a Maximized or Empowered Dispel is no better than a regular Dispel, a Dispel Check isn't a numeric effect, it's a test that leads to a binary effect (dispelled or not).