Melf's Minute Meteors and Empowered Evocation

[Baptor]

Hey playground, I have a rules question.

If you cast Melf's Minute Meteors and have the ability Empowered Evocation, how does that work?

If you shoot two meteors each round, does the bonus only apply to a roll from one meteor or both?

OR does the bonus only apply to one roll on one meteor for the entire spell? (i.e. if you boost the first meteor you throw, none of the meteors you throw on subsequent rounds can receive a bonus)

Thank you in advance for any advice.

[Kane0]

You may be interested in the tweets regarding the same dilemma with magic missile, there appear to be arguments both ways.

[Baptor]

You may be interested in the tweets regarding the same dilemma with magic missile, there appear to be arguments both ways.

Yeah, I read many of those and they make sense - I guess where I'm hung up is that magic missile happens all at once. You get many missiles, but they are all at once. Meteors is spread out over multiple rounds.

If nothing else, I'll default to the conservative ruling. =/

[Kane0]

Considering the alternative is Fireball, I'd let it work on all your meteors whenever you choose to use them.

But full disclaimer, i'm well on record for ruling on the side of cool more often than not.

[Chronos]

The ability just says "you can add your Intelligence modifier to the damage roll of any wizard evocation spell you cast". It doesn't say "when you cast it", and it doesn't say that it applies to only one roll per spell. That looks to me like it'd be added to every meteor.

Which still leaves the spell rather underwhelming compared to Fireball.

[LudicSavant]

The ability just says "you can add your Intelligence modifier to the damage roll of any wizard evocation spell you cast". It doesn't say "when you cast it", and it doesn't say that it applies to only one roll per spell. That looks to me like it'd be added to every meteor.

This was altered in errata. It now applies to only one roll per spell.

Empowered Evocation (p. 117). “The damage roll” has been changed to “one damage roll.”

To determine what is "one damage roll," we have to look to the appropriate section on pg196.

If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them. For example, when a wizard casts Fireball or a cleric casts Flame Strike, the spell's damage is rolled once for all creatures caught in the blast.

So, a single meteor will provide the damage to all targets within the blast, but subsequent meteors would not, since it's not "at the same time."

As for its relevance in the face of Fireball, Fireball and Minute Meteors don't quite fill the same role. One is for your bonus actions, the other is for your action.

[Chronos]

Ah, OK, then, with that erratum it only applies to one meteor. I think you can still choose which meteor to apply it to, but you'd almost always want to choose the first one.

[Baptor]

Thanks to everyone who responded, this seems air tight to me now.

The bonus applies to only one meteor from the spell.

Personally, I think it's a great spell because it does more damage than fireball over time and it gives you something to do with your bonus action.