Question about spell numerical scaling


Rules Questions


Hello I recently read a bit about technology spells from the Technology Guide, and I came across the spell Make Whole, Greater. The greater version of this spell scales as follow:

description wrote:
This spell repairs 1d6 points of damage plus 1 point per level when cast on a construct creature (maximum 10d6+10).

Notice that the section specifying the maximum also gives insight on how the spell scales. This spell has a xd6 + y format. I always thought that spells with this format only scaled the y part of the equation. In this case, if a lvl 20 caster used this spell, I would think that it should repair 1d6 + 20 points of damage.

However, the above spell scales the entire base equation. Both the number of die and the added constant are scaled. Is this how spells are supposed to scale or is it an isolated case?

Another spell from the Tech guide, Destroy Robot, has the exact same wording:

description wrote:
The target takes 12d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level, or 3d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level on a successful saving throw.

If both the die number and the constant are scaled, this makes the spell insane (especially since its uncapped, unlike make whole greater). A lvl 20 caster would deal 240d6 + 20 damage on a failed save.

Clarifications please! I'm pretty sure its a mistake, and the correct ruling would be that only the constant is scaled. The wording has always been ambiguous with these kind of spells.


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The wording is poor. The first one scales both.. the wording is better in the normal make whole. The destroy robot has fixed dice and +1 per level.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

It's poor wording. It should be "1d6+1 points of damage per level".

Generally speaking (ie, every other spell I know of) "1d6 points of damage plus 1 point per level" means the "y" scales, not the "x".

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