How good is Scorching Ray post Tasha's?

[Citadel97501]

Hello all, I was just wondering how you all feel about Scorching Ray post Tasha's? I was thinking that with being able to switch the element with Sorcerer the spell has gotten a lot better? There are a number of other methods to alter the spell damage or even just make an identical spell with a switched damage type according to Tasha's.

[Eldariel]

Hello all, I was just wondering how you all feel about Scorching Ray post Tasha's? I was thinking that with being able to switch the element with Sorcerer the spell has gotten a lot better? There are a number of other methods to alter the spell damage or even just make an identical spell with a switched damage type according to Tasha's.

Spirit Shroud makes it pretty solid on high levels if you have means to operate at short ranges. Indeed, it's the premiere combo for the spell given that nothing else gives you as many attack rolls with one action (next best thing, Marilith Shapechange, can only get you 7 and has the Concentration limitation anyways). But that requires high level slots. On level 2 slot it's 3 rolls which is fine with a level 3 Spirit Shroud, but nothing to write home about. Eldritch Blast does as much from Tier 3 on. Of course, on Tier 3 you can generally afford level 4-5 slots and level 5 Spirit Shroud for +2d8 and 5-6 rays, which is already substantially better for when you absolutely need to obliterate someone. Level 5 Shroud + level 4 SRay is 10d6 + 10d8 = 80 damage without crits (90ish damage at +9 vs. AC 17 and Advantage and Elven Accuracy), which is solid for two slots since one of them keeps on giving and you can spread out the actions too. By comparison, Eldritch Blast 3 is 3d10+15+6d8 = 58,5 damage at the same point (or a bit later, 63 at EA Advantage) so there's 2/3rds of the damage without slot investment though. Of course, level 5 SRay would do 107 and Sorc can craft those 5th level slots out of lower level ones so that's not something to ignore: it's almost double the EB damage already so it's worth noting at least.

Tier 3 is a bit funny in that you get so few level 6-8 slots that you really don't want to put them in once-and-done effects but you mostly use them for longer duration good stuff or really high priority enemy removal stuff so slot-based damage isn't really a thing they should mostly be doing: to that end, the scaling kinda peters out at that point (this is the same damage you've got from level 9 to level 18ish where you finally get enough high level slots to use them for lesser uses occasionally).


Other than the combo with Spirit Shroud, I generally wouldn't bother; it's just twice more than Dragon's Breath, which is a repeatable bonus action, or upcast Thunderwave. You only need to hit two targets to get the same damage. Of course, one of the advantages and disadvantages of SR is that it uses attack rolls: this means that you can get advantage or disadvantage and crit and use Elven Accuracy with it, which can be quite relevant as shown above. This gives it some niche if you're good about generating advantage, but since you wanna combo it with a Concentration spell, that's not Darkness. Like, in the combo, Spirit Shroud is over half of the damage and of actually decent elements too (while Scorching Ray base damage takes Elemental Spell or Order of the Scribes to make useful vs. a significant number of things - though it's worth noting that Fire vulnerability is the most common vulnerability too so it's not entirely without boons).

2d6/level + 2d6 quickly begins to lose luster as a resource-using option, though it can be decent on its level (and it's obviously good against high AC low HP enemies like humanoids if you have a way to generate advantage; but it's pretty bad against most "meatbag"-class enemies with tons of HP alone).

TL;DR: Got riders that care about the number of attacks? (Y)
Otherwise? No.

[LudicSavant]

Scorching Ray’s niche is basically to be a delivery mechanism for per-hit enhancements, like Spirit Shroud, advantage on all attacks, etc.

[RogueJK]

Besides the abovementioned Spirit Shroud delivery mechanism, the only other time I'd consider Scorching Ray as a contender would be if playing something like Descent into Avernus as a Scribe Wizard or as a Sorcerer who has the Transmute Spell metamagic.

Fiends' Magic Resistance renders offensive spells that require a save all but useless, so you're left sifting through the remainder for spells that use attack rolls for when you want to deal some damage, while at the same time needing damage types other than Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison. So that doesn't leave much, and Scorching Ray swapped to Thunder damage is one of the only remaining options for damage-dealing arcane spells that utilize an attack roll instead of a save.