Disintegrate: Arcane, Divine, or Psionic?

[ThinkMinty]

From a purely mechanical standpoint, I wanna know which Disintegrate is the best one. Entirely because I'm curious.

[Jack_Simth]

From a purely mechanical standpoint, I wanna know which Disintegrate is the best one. Entirely because I'm curious.
You can't call any of them best or worst in an absolute sense. The Wizard's costs the least resources for the effect... at least up until caster level 20, at which point the fact that the Psion's version scales indefinitely comes into play (but it's more resource intensive, as it requires more power points for greater effect). Meanwhile, the Cleric version comes with the best native save DC (because it's a higher level spell for them).

So which is best depends on your specific situation. Bound and gagged? Psion, due to no verbal or somatic components. Wearing plate in battle at 18th? Cleric, because it doesn't hinder you noticeably and it's still just a 7th level spell slot for full effect. Playing at level 500? Psion, because it can deal 1,000d6 damage while the others are capped at 40d6 (before metamagic).

[Psyren]

While the psion's is uncapped, keep in mind that the DC does not increase with augmentation, there is no other way to "heighten" it, and the damage on a successful save does not change. That 10,000d6 is somewhat less impressive when a DC 19 fort save (for example) ends up removing 9,995d6 of it.

[Remedy]

While the psion's is uncapped, keep in mind that the DC does not increase with augmentation, there is no other way to "heighten" it, and the damage on a successful save does not change. That 10,000d6 is somewhat less impressive when a DC 19 fort save (for example) ends up removing 9,995d6 of it.
On the other other hand, if you're a level 500 Psion, it's entirely unreasonable to not be able to fire off (and empower and maximize while we're at it) at least 8 per round with just standard Metapsionics and that's not even optimization, so statistically you can bank on a natural 1 on the Save. Granted, at level 500 I'm sure there are so many better things to do with your actions that Disintegrates would be a waste even as Free actions, but I can't be certain, because who's even played at that level, much less optimized it? :smalltongue:

[Troacctid]

All other things being equal, Psionic > Divine > Arcane. Psionic is the best because it has no components. Arcane is the worst because it's subject to arcane spell failure. That being said, if we're comparing Wizard disintegrate, Destruction Domain disintegrate, and disintegrate, psionic, then the divine version is clearly the worst, as it requires a higher-level spell slot, and the psionic version and the arcane version are reasonably balanced against each other, since you have to give up the auto-scaling in order to get rid of the verbal, somatic, and material components.

[DrMartin]

I think Divine is worst, being a domain spell means that without shenanigans you are limited to casting it once per day.

I would rate Psionic as best, for two reason: the nature of the power point mechanic means that you can use it more freely than your wizard/sorcerer buddy, and Overchannel means that you can Empower or Split Ray it as soon as you get it, without having to optimize further or spend resources specifically on it (I assume that most psionic characters gets Overchannel by level 11)

[ranagrande]

Better yet for psionics, get Disintegrate on an Ardent mantle and use it with your Dominant Ideal.

[Troacctid]

Better yet for psionics, get Disintegrate on an Ardent mantle and use it with your Dominant Ideal.

Destruction Mantle. Kaboom. Sounds good to me.