So, evocation didn't get the much-needed boosting that was discussed in beta. The formula is still static blah blah blah. I'm trying to take it upon myself to fix the nukes back to some level of 'kick ass' in my games. First off, I'm installing the suggested houserule that SR doesn't apply to energy-based spells. Easy enough. Secondly, I've decided to come up with the following magical item.
Rod of Frost/Flame/Thunder/Lightning:
Each of these 'wizard rods' as they're colloquially called, is associated with a specific energy type, fire, ice, lightning, or sonic. When casting a spell of that specific energy type and wielding the rod, the caster adds a set amount of damage to each die of damage dealt.
Lesser rods add 1 to each die of damage, while greater rods add 2. (namely, a 10d6 fireball becomes a 10d6+10 or a 10d6+20, respectively).
I'm thinking the lesser rod should be an easily affordable/common magical item (since, even with that rod, evocation spells suck), so I'd price it at about 3k base price (1500 to craft). The greater rod, I'm thinking, would be moderately expensive, but still not up there with the really amazing magical items, so I was thinking about 9k base price for that one.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
So, evocation didn't get the much-needed boosting that was discussed in beta. The formula is still static blah blah blah. I'm trying to take it upon myself to fix the nukes back to some level of 'kick ass' in my games. First off, I'm installing the suggested houserule that SR doesn't apply to energy-based spells. Easy enough. Secondly, I've decided to come up with the following magical item.
Rod of Frost/Flame/Thunder/Lightning:
Each of these 'wizard rods' as they're colloquially called, is associated with a specific energy type, fire, ice, lightning, or sonic. When casting a spell of that specific energy type and wielding the rod, the caster adds a set amount of damage to each die of damage dealt.
Lesser rods add 1 to each die of damage, while greater rods add 2. (namely, a 10d6 fireball becomes a 10d6+10 or a 10d6+20, respectively).
I'm thinking the lesser rod should be an easily affordable/common magical item (since, even with that rod, evocation spells suck), so I'd price it at about 3k base price (1500 to craft). The greater rod, I'm thinking, would be moderately expensive, but still not up there with the really amazing magical items, so I was thinking about 9k base price for that one.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Well, I'm not 100% convinced Evocation needs a huge boost, I'd rather see Save or die/suck spells get some nerfing, but that's a whole different discussion.
SR not applying to direct damage spells seems a bit over the top, direct damage spells already have the advantage vs. non damaging spells, in that a successful save will usually only mitigate the damage instead of flat negating the effect. (I wouldn't mind seeing more conjuration spells that deal damage and force effect spells. Gives players some tactical options, and makes choosing what spells to memorize more important.)
The Rods aren't bad, but I'd suggest applying a flat bonus to the total, instead of applying it per die. Per die scales a bit too well with level, and while a lot of spells follow the 1dx/caster level pattern, there are enough oddball spells that don't that it would apply unevenly. With a flat bonus you can widen the rod selection a bit more too, so they're available sooner for low level characters, and there are more opportunities for upgrades, which adds some spice to loot. You could even style them after the weapon enchant rules, have a +1/+2/+3/+4/+5 spell rod that adds to damage/save DC, then have various special enchants that add effects to the spell, in the same way Keen/Flaming/Bane etc. add effects to attacks.
One other option for upping evocation damage, that has worked well for me in the past, is allowing casters to apply their casting stat bonus as a damage bonus. So a 10th level wizard with a 22 int, would deal 10d6+6 per fireball. (That may not seem like much, but it's about a 20% boost in damage.)
These feel almost like metamagic rods to me, which is how I'd evaluate the prices. I'd make 3 versions of the +1 and +2 rods, lesser (spells of level 3 or lower), normal (up to level 6 spells) and greater (any spell).
+1 or +2 per die is +28% or +57% damage, assuming the spell does Nd6. Empower is +50%, so I'd price the +2 rods at 10k, 35k and 80k (slightly more than a rod of empower). On the theory of quadratic scaling of prices, I'd price the +1 rods at 2.5k, 9k and 20k.
I'd wouldn't worry about the spells whose damage isn't X/level. Rods of Empower also work with those spells, and this has a similar effect. I'd worry about spells that use d4 or less for damage. A d4 based spell gets an 80% boost from these rods, while a d3 spell gets a 133% boost. (Fear the spell that does 3d2/level with this rod.)
Now that I've said all that :-D, given how similar it is to a Rod of Empower, I'm not sure that you need both. If you want something cheap for low level casters, introduce a Rod of Minor Empower that increases damage by 25% for 1/4 the price of the regular Rod of Empower. (That's probably more difficult to abuse anyway.)