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You can increase the power of your spells, causing them to deal more damage.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half.
Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables.
Level Increase: +2 (an empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level.)
This came up in a game today, and we are debating if it's the dice that are up'ed by 1/2 or if it's the result of the dice that are up'ed by 1/2
This came up in a game today, and we are debating if it's the dice that are up'ed by 1/2 or if it's the result of the dice that are up'ed by 1/2You can increase the power of your spells, causing them to deal more damage.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half.
Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables.
Level Increase: +2 (an empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level.)
I've generally seen it as roll the dice and multiply by 1.5. Thus Empowered 5d6 Fireball is 5d6 x 1.5, not 7d6.
I must admit, I have seen it both ways. Farmer Bob's variant has the advantage of less cut-off due to rounding effects.
However, remember to only multiply the variable parts: If a spell does 1d6+1 per level (for example due to some elemental affinity of the caster), you officially don't roll and multiply the whole damage by 1.5; you just increase the rolled amount, then add the +1 per level.
Likewise, an Empowered Cure Critical Wounds (CL 13) will only heal (4d8 x 1.5) +13 hp, not (4d8+13) x 1.5
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In 3.5 the entire result was multiplied. In Pathfinder only the rolled dice are multiplied by 1.5.
It would be (1d6x1.5) +5
1d6 is the variable potion, and it is the only part that gets increased. The bonus from 1/2 your level is not increased by Empower Spell. Same goes for Magic Missile.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
In 3.5 the entire result was multiplied. In Pathfinder only the rolled dice are multiplied by 1.5.
It would be (1d6x1.5) +5
1d6 is the variable potion, and it is the only part that gets increased. The bonus from 1/2 your level is not increased by Empower Spell. Same goes for Magic Missile.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
I'm sorry to necro this, but the FAQ (also from July 2011) says this?:
Empower Spell: If I use Empower Spell on a spell that has a die roll with a numerical bonus (such as cure moderate wounds), does the feat affect the numerical bonus?
Yes. For example, if you empower cure moderate wounds, the +50% from the feat applies to the 2d8 and to the level-based bonus.
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748c3l3rcp6-top
Which is correct?
Thanks.
This came up in a game today, and we are debating if it's the dice that are up'ed by 1/2 or if it's the result of the dice that are up'ed by 1/2You can increase the power of your spells, causing them to deal more damage.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by half.
Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables.
Level Increase: +2 (an empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level.)
The best way to do it (IMO) is roll your spell and multiply the result by 1.5. Some spells add static values to their damage, like Flame Blade which can go as high as 1d8+10. Roll that, add the 10 and then multiply the total times 1.5.
Since you cannot get 50% of a die to roll this is usually easier if you can do the math.
If the spell deals 3d6+12 damage and you Empower Spell it then you get:
(3d6 + 12) * 1.5
You don't get extra missiles like from Magic Missile or Scorching Ray.
I'm sorry to necro this, but the FAQ (also from July 2011) says this?:
Empower Spell: If I use Empower Spell on a spell that has a die roll with a numerical bonus (such as cure moderate wounds), does the feat affect the numerical bonus?
Yes. For example, if you empower cure moderate wounds, the +50% from the feat applies to the 2d8 and to the level-based bonus.
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748c3l3rcp6-top
Which is correct?
Thanks.
FAQ takes priority over developers posting opinions in random threads. The FAQ is an official ruling based on the whole design team discussing the issue.
What about the bonuses from class, bloodlines, and feats. Do they apply before or after empower?
Before. The kineticist can get many different static bonuses to their blasts: level (1d6 + 1), untyped (elemental overflow), etc. Their Empower metakinesis takes the whole sum total of everything and then multiplies by 1.5.
Before. The kineticist can get many different static bonuses to their blasts: level (1d6 + 1), untyped (elemental overflow), etc. Their Empower metakinesis takes the whole sum total of everything and then multiplies by 1.5.
I have always thought it was [(dice+x)*1.5]+other stuff. Doing all the math then empowering [(dice +x +other stuff)*1.5] is a significant bump.
Is that 'gut' or is there something you can point to?
empower causes the varaiable effects to be bigger. the variable effect is damage. The damage is Xd6+Y, so you multiply the damage by 1.5.
This matches the example in the FAQ, that you add all +s before the multiplication.
empower causes the varaiable effects to be bigger. the variable effect is damage. The damage is Xd6+Y, so you multiply the damage by 1.5.
This matches the example in the FAQ, that you add all +s before the multiplication.
Weapon specialization ray would then be increased by empower. That just seems off.
it's increasing the damage of the ray, the ray now does +2 more, why wouldn't it get empowered? the ray is now 4d6+2 damage. And just like anything that increases damage, gets empowered.
As a philosophical razor, the way a rule works should be the simplest means of implementing it's effect (which for empower is "increase it by 50%"). Which is to say, figure out how much damage (or whatever) your spell would do, then multiply it by 1.5.
Anything that makes you have to bin different numbers, so you're only multiplying the right ones, just makes things complicated and adds nothing of value. Whether or not weapon specialization (ray) works with empower or not is a question of 1 damage, and 1 damage is not worth the headache of having to treat different bonuses differently.
In 3.5 the entire result was multiplied. In Pathfinder only the rolled dice are multiplied by 1.5.
It would be (1d6x1.5) +5
1d6 is the variable potion, and it is the only part that gets increased. The bonus from 1/2 your level is not increased by Empower Spell. Same goes for Magic Missile.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
I'm sorry to necro this, but the FAQ (also from July 2011) says this?:
Empower Spell: If I use Empower Spell on a spell that has a die roll with a numerical bonus (such as cure moderate wounds), does the feat affect the numerical bonus?
Yes. For example, if you empower cure moderate wounds, the +50% from the feat applies to the 2d8 and to the level-based bonus.
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748c3l3rcp6-top
Which is correct?
Thanks.
They went back to the 3.5 ruling which multiplies the total.