Intensified Spell will do nothing for you at level 5 in regards to making damage higher. It allows spells that have a damage cap, to go 5 dice higher then the normal cap, at the cost of a spell leveler higher.
Example: Shocking Grasp is level one, caps at 5d6 at lvl 5. IF you were level 6 shocking grasp still caps at 5d6, however, if you prepare an intensified shocking grasp it now counts as a second level spell, using a second level spell slot, and now has a cap of 10d6, but being level 6 yours would be 6d6
but i cannot prepare a 3rd level Scorching ray
As a wizard, you can prepare an Intensified Scorching Ray as a 3rd level spell. Actually you have to, see here. Unless you pull special tricks like Preferred Spell.
According to Intensified Spell i can cast Scorching Rays as a 3rd level spell, increasing the die from 4d6 to 4d8 - one step above.
Intensify works differently. It allows you to widen the cap of some damage spells. Scorching Ray is usally capped at level 11, meanining 3 rays maximum. Intensify increases this to a cap at level 16, meaning 4 rays maximum. Actually you will get the 4th ray already at level 15 (due to +1 ray per 4 levels). Note that below level 15, you still get the usual number of rays (e.g. 3 at level 11) - Intensify is pointless there.
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First, you can always just put a lower level spell in a higher level slot, so you could prepare a normal scorching ray in a 3rd level slot if you wanted to.
Second, Intensified Spell does not do what you think it does. All it does is increase the damage dice cap by 5 dice:
An intensified spell increases the maximum number of damage dice by 5 levels. You must actually have sufficient caster levels to surpass the maximum in order to benefit from this feat. No other variables of the spell are affected, and spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat. An intensified spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
So adding Intensified to scorching ray does absolutely nothing, because that spell doesn't do damage dice per caster level. It similarly has no effect on magic missile for the same reason.
As far as I know there is no effect that bumps up your damage dice in the fashion you describe.
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God i am terrible at this game, i don't understand anything
Thank you so much everryone
Don't feel bad about yourself. It's a complicated game with a lot of little rules that are easy to overlook. It gets easier with practice. And, really, don't sweat it if you do something wrong. As long as your group is having fun you're doing it right!
Unfortunately, per RAW, Ryric is correct: You gain 1 Ray per 4 Caster Levels beyond 3rd, which deals 4D6 points of damage. The Caster Levels affect the amount of Rays you create, not the amount of damage each Ray applies, which is what the Intensify spell would normally affect.
I personally disagree with it not affecting spells such as Scorching Ray, as I find there is a parallel with Caster Levels and Damage Dice with this spell, but because it's not expressed explicitly as a Damage Dice increase (and not the amount of subjects created based upon Caster Level, as Scorching Ray permits), it has no grounds of application.
I also don't see any major problems with allowing the +5 level increase to apply to these subjects in a home game, as things like Mirror Images, Divine Favor, et. al. wouldn't be an overpowering (but still useful) benefit, and can only be supported when you actually reach the amount of power needed to emulate those subjects, but know that if it is run that way, it is considered houseruling.
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Intensify works differently. It allows you to widen the cap of some damage spells. Scorching Ray is usally capped at level 11, meanining 3 rays maximum. Intensify increases this to a cap at level 16, meaning 4 rays maximum. Actually you will get the 4th ray already at level 15 (due to +1 ray per 4 levels). Note that below level 15, you still get the usual number of rays (e.g. 3 at level 11) - Intensify is pointless there.
Yes, this. Scorching Ray has up to twelve damage dice normally, so it has up to sixteen if intensified.
This is becase common English reading trumps overly bureaucratic nitpicks. The game isn't called Lawyers and Loopholes, after all.
Intensified Spell will do nothing for you at level 5 in regards to making damage higher. It allows spells that have a damage cap, to go 5 dice higher then the normal cap, at the cost of a spell leveler higher.
In fact it raises the cap by 5 levels. For many spells that's the same as 5 dice but not for all. Some spells only increase damage every other level.
Except that the damage is based off of the number of Rays you create, and the amount of rays you create is based off of Caster Level.
No other variables of the spell are affected, and spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat. An intensified spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
Since the feat specifically mentions it only increases damage dice based off of caster level, and nothing else, such as generation of rays or missiles, it won't increase.
Hmm yes, strictly read there is no 4th ray. But given the only linear increase in power plus the increased spell level, I would allow it. At level 15 it's rather underpowered than overpowered...
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But getting away from Intensify and Scorching Ray for a moment, let's make sure the original poster understands how metamagic works on wizard spell slots, since the original post seemed pretty confused about that.
For my example, we'll use the spell Grease (a level 1 wizard spell that's pretty good for making enemies fall on their butts) and the Persistent Spell feat (bolding mine):
Persistent Spell (Metamagic)
You can modify a spell to become more tenacious when its targets resist its effect.Benefit: Whenever a creature targeted by a persistent spell or within its area succeeds on its saving throw against the spell, it must make another saving throw against the effect. If a creature fails this second saving throw, it suffers the full effects of the spell, as if it had failed its first saving throw. A persistent spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level.
Spells that do not require a saving throw to resist or lessen the spell's effect do not benefit from this feat.
So a 5th level wizard can prepare Grease as a level 1 spell. If he has the Persistent Spell feat, he can prepare Persistent Grease as a level 3 spell. This lets him cast Grease, and get the benefit of the metamagic feat (the enemy has to roll two saving throws and pass them both to avoid slipping) when he does.
The key here is that he has to prepare the spell with the metamagic feat in the appropriate spell slot (3rd level) when he prepares his spells.