Dracolexi and split ray question

[Keral]

Hullo everyone, I'm almost done planning my character, but I wanted to see if my idea could work or would work as I understand it. Sometimes the rules are not very clear so I'd rather have a second opinion. Plus there are a few details I'm missing and would cherish your input.

I'm building a dracolexi sorcerer and I'm picking my spells and feats.

So far I'm sticking to 1 damaging spell per level, while filling the other slots with utility spells, something that could hinder enemies (like black tentacle) et simila. I quite liked the idea of using a few rays: exhaustion, enfeebelment and enervation. And so I wanted to see if I could fit damaging abilities who were also rays in order to make better use of split ray.
So far I picked,

1: Magic missile (SR should work)
2: scorching ray
3: chain missile (not sure if SR works tho)
4:wings of flurry, not a ray but I liked to have a little aoe and this seemed good
5: I didn't find a good ray, but I'm not sure I can fit it anyway. I chose shadow evocation which seemed useful.
6: I was thinking of chain lightning, but I don't think it'd work with SR, so if you have any good suggestion...
7: avasculate; should be a ray
8: polar ray

this is what I came up with, if you have suggestions/better rays feel free to share.

Now the idea would be to get as feat (order still to be determined):
split ray, clearly
easy metamagic, so that I could use split ray with only +1 slot (also using it with polar ray)
eschew materials
fiery burst, so that I get an at will SLA
heighten spell, among other things it will allow me to use the SLA as 9th level if I read correctly
energy substitution, +0 metamagic, useful since it should allow me to use arcane spellsurge better, if I understand it right. Standard casting->swift action; metamagic using ES->standard action.

Plus an extra feat I still have to decide, so again I'd welcome suggestions. I was gonna go for empower, but then I reread the Dracolexi power words.


Valignat: This Draconic word, meaning “burn,” deals 5d6 points of fire damage to the target. If you speak the word as part of a spell with the fire descriptor, you can choose instead either to empower or widen the spell (as if you had applied the Empower Spell feat or the Widen Spell feat), but without any adjustment in spell slot or
casting time.

My thinking was that with energy substitution I could change any spell I have to Fire and make use of empower or widen once for each enemy. Or am I interpreting it incorrecly?
So I'm not sure empower would be a good choice. Although I'd get it to apply to like enervation and such since I can't get them to become a fire spell for the powerword...

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Necroticplague]

Plus an extra feat I still have to decide, so again I'd welcome suggestions. I was gonna go for empower, but then I reread the Dracolexi power words.



My thinking was that with energy substitution I could change any spell I have to Fire and make use of empower or widen once for each enemy. Or am I interpreting it incorrecly?
So I'm not sure empower would be a good choice. Although I'd get it to apply to like enervation and such since I can't get them to become a fire spell for the powerword...

Thanks in advance for your help!

You're missing an important detail about Energy Substitution:

Benefit

You choose one type of energy: acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic. When employing a spell with the acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic designator, you can modify the spell to use your chosen type of energy instead. The altered spell uses a spell slot of the spell’s normal level.

The altered spell works normally in all respects except the type of damage dealt.
So you can't turn any spell into a fire spell. You could only turn certain spells into fire spells. So Energy Substitution for Enervate isn't a valid choice, because it doesn't have the acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic descriptor. .

[Khedrac]

1: Magic missile (SR should work)
Magic Missile is not a ray (and neither is chain missile).

[Keral]

You're missing an important detail about Energy Substitution:

So you can't turn any spell into a fire spell. You could only turn certain spells into fire spells. So Energy Substitution for Enervate isn't a valid choice, because it doesn't have the acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic descriptor. .


Uh, yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. That I may need to take it anyway for those rays.


Magic Missile is not a ray (and neither is chain missile).


Curses! Foiled again. Would you happen to know if chain lightning is?

And if not, are there better 3rd and 6th level rays? Or should I stick with those since I can hit multiple targets? (Or are there better spells for that purpose?)

[Bakkan]

Only spells that have "Effect: Ray" in their heading qualify for Split Ray. In particular, chain lightning does not qualify.

Afb at the moment, but in core, you have as decent options:

Level 1: Ray of enfeeblement
Level 3: Ray of exhaustion
Level 4: Enervation
Level 6: Disintegrate

Disintegrate in particular would be my choice at level 6.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I particularly recommend antimagic ray as 7th. It deals no damage, but it's definitely utility. Blackfire and avascular mass are nice high-level rays, if you're okay with a little moral grey.

For lower-level rays, there are actually ray cantrips (not that they're much good, but thematically...): electric jolt and ray of frost. Ray of flame, a first-level spell, deals only 1d6 damage/2 levels (max 5d6), but it forces a save vs. catching fire, which adds 1d6 damage per round - not bad at level 1, when it can easily be 2d6-3d6 damage from one slot. It also sets objects on fire quite nicely.

[Keral]

Only spells that have "Effect: Ray" in their heading qualify for Split Ray. In particular, chain lightning does not qualify.

Afb at the moment, but in core, you have as decent options:

Level 1: Ray of enfeeblement
Level 3: Ray of exhaustion
Level 4: Enervation
Level 6: Disintegrate

Disintegrate in particular would be my choice at level 6.

Thank you! I was already planning on taking exhaustion and enervation, but disintegration really slipped my mind. That's a good one for 6th


I particularly recommend antimagic ray as 7th. It deals no damage, but it's definitely utility. Blackfire and avascular mass are nice high-level rays, if you're okay with a little moral grey.

For lower-level rays, there are actually ray cantrips (not that they're much good, but thematically...): electric jolt and ray of frost. Ray of flame, a first-level spell, deals only 1d6 damage/2 levels (max 5d6), but it forces a save vs. catching fire, which adds 1d6 damage per round - not bad at level 1, when it can easily be 2d6-3d6 damage from one slot. It also sets objects on fire quite nicely.

Thanks! Antimagic Ray is interesting, I will have to think about it. I don't think I'm gonna go with Blackfire: I already have polar ray as 8th and the bit about it spreading is a bit tricky since my party is a bit more melee oriented. Same for avascular mass, I don't think I can fit it in.
I'm trying to avoid aoe spells with friendly fire, so to speak, unless the area is small enough I can move it to avoid group members.



I'd like to hear your thoughts about chain missile, we've established it's not a ray, but I'd like to know if it's more or less viable as a multi-target attack for low-medium levels or if there are suitable alternatives. Keep in mind that I'll also get wings of flurry as aoe and that I'd rather use something where I decide the targets, rather than, say, a fireball.

Plus I have a small extra question.

FIERY BURST [RESERVE]
You channel your magical talent into a blast of fire.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
Benefit: As long as you have a fire spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast, you can spend a standard action to
create a 5-foot-radius burst of fire at a range of 30 feet. This burst deals 1d6 points of fire damage per level of the highestlevel fire spell you have available to cast. A successful Reflex save halves the damage.
As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus
to your caster level when casting fire spells.

Currently I have scorching ray so that means I can do 2d6 with fiery burst. But does the +1 competence bonus mean that I can cast it as level 3? So if I keep a 3rd slot free I can do 3d6 with it? Or are the two things unrelated?
It would be like using heighten spell, right? And, if I did my research right, having heighten spell would allow me to use fiery burst as higher level with only Scorching Ray, right?

[ahenobarbi]

So you can't turn any spell into a fire spell. You could only turn certain spells into fire spells. So Energy Substitution for Enervate isn't a valid choice, because it doesn't have the acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic descriptor. .

Yeah, but if you hey another feat (Sniwcasting from Frostburn) you can add [Cold] descriptor to all your spells.

[Keral]

Yeah, but if you hey another feat (Sniwcasting from Frostburn) you can add [Cold] descriptor to all your spells.

Interesting, but it requires me to gather snow/ice, would eschew materials do?

[Khedrac]

Plus I have a small extra question.

Currently I have scorching ray so that means I can do 2d6 with fiery burst. But does the +1 competence bonus mean that I can cast it as level 3? So if I keep a 3rd slot free I can do 3d6 with it? Or are the two things unrelated?
It would be like using heighten spell, right? And, if I did my research right, having heighten spell would allow me to use fiery burst as higher level with only Scorching Ray, right?

Scorching Ray is a 2nd level spell so (unless heightened) it only powers a 2d6 burst.

The competence bonus is to caster level - which has no affect on fiery burst, for scorching ray it means you get an extra ray a level early and are harder to counterspell.

[Keral]

Scorching Ray is a 2nd level spell so (unless heightened) it only powers a 2d6 burst.

The competence bonus is to caster level - which has no affect on fiery burst, for scorching ray it means you get an extra ray a level early and are harder to counterspell.

Thank you! That bit about caster level and spell level always manages to confuse me :P

[DeAnno]

Chain Missile is a good spell, but probably not so great at lower levels. It works best as a spell at higher levels for use at extreme range, due to the slow scaling. Also, it has a notable problem with Shield and Brooches of Shielding.

It's difficult to make Split Ray work consistently in a build. It does combo fairly well with things that make other spells rays, like Ocular spell and Spellwarp Sniper. Outside of that, there is no one great ray damage seed to use with Split Ray, though it is useful for many nondamaging rays like Enfeeblement. If you are looking for an damaging +2 slot metamagic, Empower used with better spells like Orbs, Wings of Flurry, Scorching Ray (better than Splitting it), Melf's Unicorn Arrow, etc, is probably going to serve you better.

[ahenobarbi]

Interesting, but it requires me to gather snow/ice, would eschew materials do?

By RAW I don't think that works, Snowcasting feat works "if you add a handful of snow or ice as an additional material component to a spell when you cast it", Eschew Materials only allows you to "cast any spell that has a material component costing 1 gp or less without needing that component".

You can get an item that will ensure that there is snow or ice next to you though.

[Keral]

Chain Missile is a good spell, but probably not so great at lower levels. It works best as a spell at higher levels for use at extreme range, due to the slow scaling. Also, it has a notable problem with Shield and Brooches of Shielding.

It's difficult to make Split Ray work consistently in a build. It does combo fairly well with things that make other spells rays, like Ocular spell and Spellwarp Sniper. Outside of that, there is no one great ray damage seed to use with Split Ray, though it is useful for many nondamaging rays like Enfeeblement. If you are looking for an damaging +2 slot metamagic, Empower used with better spells like Orbs, Wings of Flurry, Scorching Ray (better than Splitting it), Melf's Unicorn Arrow, etc, is probably going to serve you better.

Mh, I see, well I don't mind waiting to have chain missile be worth it, I can get the other 3rd level spells first and get chain missile at level 12.

For split ray I'l have to wait and see then, I'm currently at level 5 and @6 I'll get heighten spell first. And then the next should be energy substitution. So I still have time to think it out and change my mind.


By RAW I don't think that works, Snowcasting feat works "if you add a handful of snow or ice as an additional material component to a spell when you cast it", Eschew Materials only allows you to "cast any spell that has a material component costing 1 gp or less without needing that component".

You can get an item that will ensure that there is snow or ice next to you though.

I figured as much, but I may be able to spin it with my DM. I could reason that "adding an additional material component to a spell" would mean that the spell has that material component. So eschew might work. Although the bit about using a move action might not sell it.