May sound silly but which do you think is better? I'm not sure as for one thing I am pretty sure a lot fewer creatures are immune/resistant to acid than cold, however, a lot more creatures are vulnerable to cold (i.e anything with the fire subtype). In fact, I can't think of any creature with vulnerability to acid off hand. Can anyone name one?
Once in a while you may run into regeneration which acid stops. That might also be relevant. I can't think of any actual vulnerability to acid, that's true. It hardly matters when you're talking about the difference between 1, 2 or 3 points of damage vs. 1, 3 or 4 points though. The actual amount of damage is insignificant either way.
Still - if you want ice clinking around in your drink, ray of frost is the way.
Ray of frost has SR while Acid splash doesn't.
Can't believe I never noticed this before. I wonder why this is the case?
Ray of frost has SR while Acid splash doesn't.Can't believe I never noticed this before. I wonder why this is the case?
Evocation vs Conjuration. Most Conjuration spells don't apply to SR because they aren't a spell effect as much as summoning a thing into existence.
Ray of frost has SR while Acid splash doesn't.Can't believe I never noticed this before. I wonder why this is the case?
It's the (incredibly arbitrary) evocation/conjuration divide; in the case of ray of frost the ray itself is the spell effect, and therefore can be resisted with SR. For Acid Splash and other conjuration spells the spell effect is in the creation; once it exists its as magical as throwing an acid flask at someone, and therefore ignores SR.
I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not defending this idea, because even though I know what the concept is I think it is very silly.
You could probably argue that acid splash could bypass hardness on more objects, e.g metal and wood objects than ray of frost. Could be useful when faced with a stubborn lock like those found on manacles.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Acid splash, the focus for +1 damage is cheaper, no SR, and can stop regeneration.
Ray of frost is good if you want to have fun with rime spell.
There's also jolt to compare, which is basically the electric version of ray of frost.
You could probably argue that acid splash could bypass hardness on more objects, e.g metal and wood objects than ray of frost. Could be useful when faced with a stubborn lock like those found on manacles.
True. Plus acid and sonic are the only energy damage types that do full damage to objects, while cold is actually the worst (I think it does like 1/10 damage, which, assuming you round down, would be 0 damage for ray of frost.)
Plus acid and sonic are the only energy damage types that do full damage to objects
This is untrue. All energy attacks by default do half damage to objects, but the GM has digression to let them do full damage as the feel appropriate (the examples are fire for paper and sonic for glass.)
This really should be in the "Advice" forum.
Acid splash is probably useful in more situations (vs. regeneration, no SR, etc.), but ray of frost is the best way to deal with brown mold at low levels. So, IMO, start with ray of frost and switch to acid splash later.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Re: SR, by the time this becomes an issue you really shouldn't be casting either of these spells in combat.
Acid Splash probably is better, but Ray of Frost sounds cooler.
Plus acid and sonic are the only energy damage types that do full damage to objectsThis is untrue. All energy attacks by default do half damage to objects, but the GM has digression to let them do full damage as the feel appropriate (the examples are fire for paper and sonic for glass.)
Ok. It was that way in 3.5 so I just figured it was the same here (also it turns out cold does 1/4 damage in 3.5, though it would still be 0 for ray of frost).
Re: SR, by the time this becomes an issue you really shouldn't be casting either of these spells in combat.
Acid Splash probably is better, but Ray of Frost sounds cooler.
I see what you did there.
For the reasons that others have posted above, Acid Splash is generally better, but some things work only with Ray of Frost, precisely because it is a ray. Unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank on just what those are, but I mean something more than just Weapon Focus (Ray).
Before they nerfed Snowball, I liked to play a Silver/White Dragon Blooded Sorcerer and take Ray of Frost along with other Cold spells. Sure, its only +1 point of damage on ray of frost but 1d3+1 is actually respectable as a touch attack.
{. . .}
For the reasons that others have posted above, Acid Splash is generally better, but some things work only with Ray of Frost, precisely because it is a ray. Unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank on just what those are, but I mean something more than just Weapon Focus (Ray).
This wasn't what I was trying to think of, but Ray of Frost becomes an awesome debuff if you take Winter Witch prestige class (which requires the Winter Witch archetype, but also eventually helps overcome Cold Resistance and Spell Resistance) and get the Numbing Chill Hex.