What makes scorching ray so special

[Sheezgame]

I was just wondering why scorching ray doesn't have any saves, whereas spells like lighting bolt you can save for half etc.

I assume this is how it is in PnP, but I'm just wondering why? Fireball has a reflex save, why not scorching ray? It almost seems like they just forgot to put it in as part of the spell.


Anyhow this is not a complaint or anything, I'm just genuinely curious as to why it is treated differently.

[Ghoste]

Scorching ray does not in fact work just like PnP. In PnP, every creature has it's normal armor class, and a touch armor class. Scorching ray, being a "ranged touch attack", must overcome the target's touch armor class to successfully hit.

[The_Cataclysm]

In PnP rays are considered ranged touch attacks. This was ignored in DDO since a user can move out of the way (essentially accomplishing the same thing in their eyes, I do believe).

[Sheezgame]

Okay thats fair enough, but even in DDO scorching ray seems singled out compared to lightning bolt which has a reflex save, niacs cold ray which is a ray but has a save as well.

Just seems strange to me that even though their system is different it is treated without a save.

[The_Cataclysm]

Well Lightning Bolt isn't a ray spell.

Niac's is the exception, but this is due to the fact that it is a spell unique to DDO.

[DemonMage]

Actually it's due to the fact that it has a very high damage cap for a level 1 spell and needed a downside to balance out the level.

But Lightning Bolt and Fireball, etc, are not rays as said before. Lightning Bolt is... a bolt. It's a wide path of lightning designed to catch multiple targets in a straight line. A ray spell is a thin beam of energy that delivers it's payload onto the first thing it hits, whether that is your intended target or not.

[wrinyn]

Actually it's due to the fact that it has a very high damage cap for a level 1 spell and needed a downside to balance out the level.

But Lightning Bolt and Fireball, etc, are not rays as said before. Lightning Bolt is... a bolt. It's a wide path of lightning designed to catch multiple targets in a straight line. A ray spell is a thin beam of energy that delivers it's payload onto the first thing it hits, whether that is your intended target or not.

Many a melee has felt my wrath unexpectedly when they stepped into the path of an empowered SR with full fire spec meant for the caster. Of course that didn't stop the FoD from laying him low....MUHAHAHA! Of course, as my other esteemed colleagues have said, SR has no saving throw due to the ability to move out of the way and Niac's, being unique, would be over powered with the same parameters. It appears that some rays (ray of enfeeblement, and ray of exhaustion) work the same way as SR but others like disintegrate would be vastly over powered if they operated under the same parameters of SR (wouldn't that be nice though). It is this uniqueness that makes SR the highest damaging spell for single targets per spell point in our arsenal.

In addition the nightmare that would result for the dev's if they coded a touch AC (which does not include armor or shield) for each Mob at each level of difficulty in the game for a handful of spells.....

[Sheezgame]

Well yeah thats fair enough, but would it be a bad thing if SR also had a save like the other spells?

As you said it is pretty much the highest damaging spell, and is pretty powerful.

[Jaywade]

To The Op

[Jaywade]

To The Op

Why does the ray have no save? while it may have no SR check or Reflex save or check against "touch Ac" you (and mobs) can dodge it , which is one of the many things that makes our game neat...... I don;t think you can count the number or rays that have not hit thier target beacuse of a moving target, the real time combat system lends itself to not needing a "touch Ac" ..... still if you can line it up it's one of the best DD spells ....on a sorc it like a gunslinger shooting form a .50 cal colt bam bam bam...lots of fun

[unionyes]

Sure it has no save. The drawbacks to it outweigh this. You can dodge it, and it can hit the wrong mob (with sometimes disastrous results as far as aggro management).

The main drawback to it IMO is that it isn't an AOE. The only time I use it is when going against one mob at a time (and even then sometimes they have protections so it doesn't do a ton of damage) or for those 'oh ****' moments when something breaks past the tanks and saves on the first couple of pks or fods.

IMO it is a great spell, not overpowered, and a staple spell for low-mid level casters but it's usefulness declines a lot at higher levels. I use firewall, pk, finger, ottilukes, and hypno a lot more than scorching ray.

[Jaywade]

IMO it is a great spell, not overpowered, and a staple spell for low-mid level casters but it's usefulness declines a lot at higher levels. I use firewall, pk, finger, ottilukes, and hypno a lot more than scorching ray.

ummm no, not even close to be honest with you..... My own 16th lvl sorc fire spec runs around w/ max and empower on at all times ... and I've seen 3 rays all above 200pts of damage, I mean when you can hit something for upwards of 500-700 pts of damage quickly and often it's still a usefull spell at the end game content...not all spell casting is a FOD, and Pk's

[Sheezgame]

Okay thanks, well was just curious really.

Still doing alot of damage it's kinda strange that it doesn't have a reflex save. I understand the being able to dodge comment, but taking that into account nothing should really have a reflex save.

I'm guessing you can't simply move out of the way in PnP, this is where PnP has some shortcomings and why it can be hard to go from PnP to PC where you have more control.


The most annoying thing about being on the receiving end of this is while i know you can dodge it, often it seems like the mob instafires is so there is no way you can dodge it. Maybe it is just lag or something that pops up.