Fizban
2010-10-03, 02:28 AM
Darkfire is a Cleric only spell in the Spell Compendium that lets you throw fire for the duration of the spell, basically higher level Produce Flame. I'm looking for ways to optimize it, and here's what I've got for metamagic: Searing Spell, Maximize Spell, Empower Spell, Blistering Spell, Persistant Spell, Divine Metamagic, and Spell Thesis. I'm wondering if the thesis reduces the cost of Divine Metamagic, but I don't think it does. While DMM: Persist is an obvious way to go, and is doable by the time you get the spell, I rather like going for Searing, Thesis, and DMM: Maximize at 6th, just for shock value.
That stuff's all pretty basic, and the real reason for the thread is the Ring of Mystic Fire from the Magic Item Compendium. It has several charges per day and lets you spend them to increase the damage of your fire spells. It's workings are obvious with an instantaneous spell, but how does it work with a duration spell?, how does it work with a duration spell requires active use like Flame Blade or Darkfire?, and how does it work with metamagic?
The wording on the ring is "grants a bonus to the amount of damage you deal with the next fire spell you cast before the end of your turn. (If the fire spell doesn't normally deal damage, this expenditure has no effect)." Either Darkfire deals damage so it should be eligible for the bonus damage, or Darkfire deals no damage on it's own because it merely creates an effect (that then deals damage defined by the spell's parameters). Maximize Spell has been used with other duration spells (I'm sure I've seen Maximized Walls of Fire and the like even if they aren't great) and says "all variable effects"- if it works on stuff like Wall of Fire then that implies that even if the damage isn't dealt immediately, damage dealt by the created effect of wall or blade counts as damage dealt by the spell and is maximized. If you can maximize the effect then you should be able to add "a bonus to the amount of damage you deal" to the effect and use the ring on Darkfire.
There's what reasoning I can put together, but obviously I want it to work so I'm a biased source. While I think I've got an argument to get the ring to work on the spell, I still have no idea what happens if you use the ring on a Maximized and/or Empowered Darkfire. How much damage can we make this spell do? I think the playground can find me an answer I like :smallbiggrin:
That stuff's all pretty basic, and the real reason for the thread is the Ring of Mystic Fire from the Magic Item Compendium. It has several charges per day and lets you spend them to increase the damage of your fire spells. It's workings are obvious with an instantaneous spell, but how does it work with a duration spell?, how does it work with a duration spell requires active use like Flame Blade or Darkfire?, and how does it work with metamagic?
The wording on the ring is "grants a bonus to the amount of damage you deal with the next fire spell you cast before the end of your turn. (If the fire spell doesn't normally deal damage, this expenditure has no effect)." Either Darkfire deals damage so it should be eligible for the bonus damage, or Darkfire deals no damage on it's own because it merely creates an effect (that then deals damage defined by the spell's parameters). Maximize Spell has been used with other duration spells (I'm sure I've seen Maximized Walls of Fire and the like even if they aren't great) and says "all variable effects"- if it works on stuff like Wall of Fire then that implies that even if the damage isn't dealt immediately, damage dealt by the created effect of wall or blade counts as damage dealt by the spell and is maximized. If you can maximize the effect then you should be able to add "a bonus to the amount of damage you deal" to the effect and use the ring on Darkfire.
There's what reasoning I can put together, but obviously I want it to work so I'm a biased source. While I think I've got an argument to get the ring to work on the spell, I still have no idea what happens if you use the ring on a Maximized and/or Empowered Darkfire. How much damage can we make this spell do? I think the playground can find me an answer I like :smallbiggrin: