So, here we go again - a little bit of non-sensical and certainly not practical theorycrafting for a wizard who can toss magic missiles all day long.
The Rocketman is a Lvl 17 evocation wizard with bond conservation and superior bond. He also has a MC dedication in Sorcerer to grap Dangerous Sorcery for that sweet extra damage. For a particularly grueling day in the field where he has been told that he will be placed in a protected location to be the support artillery.
Rocketman has memorized (heightened) magic missiles in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th lvl slots. As the battle begins he then proceeds to cast them all over the course of 5 rounds using all 3 actions to cast:
Round 1: 3 action lvl 9 magic missile (Damage: 15d4+15+9)
Round 2: 3 action lvl 7 magic missile (Damage: 12d4+12+7)
Round 3: 3 action lvl 5 magic missile (Damage: 9d4+9+5)
Round 4: 3 action lvl 3 magic missile (Damage: 6d4+6+3)
Round 5: 3 action lvl 1 magic missile (Damage: 3d4+3+1)
After round 5 Rocketman sighs deeply and uses Drain bonded item as a free action before he continues to cast magic missiles:
Round 6: Drain bonded item => 3 action lvl 9 magic missile (Damage: 15d4+15+9)
He then uses 1 action per round to maintain the feat bond conservation and can therefore only cast progressively weaker magic missiles, and only with 2 actions:
Round 7: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 7 magic missile (Damage: 8d4+8+7)
Round 8: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 5 magic missile (Damage: 6d4+6+5)
Round 9: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 3 magic missile (Damage: 4d4+4+3)
Round 10: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 1 magic missile (Damage: 2d4+2+1)
Wiping his brow of sweat Rocketman uses the superior bond feat to drain the bonded item for a second time that day, this time for a max level 7 spell:
Round 11: Superior bond => Drain bonded item => 3 action lvl 7 magic missile (Damage: 12d4+12+7)
Then he's back to using 1 action per round to maintain the feat bond conservation and casting progressively weaker magic missiles using 2 actions:
Round 12: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 5 magic missile (Damage: 6d4+6+5)
Round 13: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 3 magic missile (Damage: 4d4+4+3)
Round 14: Bond conservation 1 action => Drain bonded item => 2 action lvl 1 magic missile (Damage: 2d4+2+1)
At the end of 14 rounds the Rocketman has spent 5 spell slots and dished out 104d4+170 damage (avg 430 total, or 30.7 dmg pr round).
Now, I do realize that this type of scenario will never happen in actual play, but I am somewhat curious to see if this is in fact the way these feats work. Does this seem correct to you guys?
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I don't think you can combine Bond Conservation and Dangerous Sorcery as Dangerous Sorcery says that the spell you cast needs to come from your actual spell slots.
Magic Missile is a very strong single target spell during the whole game, very often overlooked past first levels.
As a side note, if what you're looking for is a strong Magic Missile oriented build, you should add some Wands of Manifold Missiles in your rotation. The extra damage at the beginning of every round really adds up.
Also, as a side note, you can still put Magic Missile in even level spell slots (even if it's not super optimized).
You seem to be right about the Dangerous Sorcery - Bond allows a recast without using a slot.
The manifold missile is dead on! Thanks for the tip. If Rocketman was fortunate enough to find/buy a 7th level spell wand (lvl 17 item) that would add 10 rounds of 4d4+4 for a total of 40d4+40, or 140 average.
Taking out the damage from Dangerous sorcery when using bonded item would reduce the total by 41.
So in total we're up by 99 damage to 529 over 14 rounds, or 37.8 pr round. Pretty neat.
Of course, we could do the same exercise with e.g. fireballs to see where that got us, but it's still highly unlikely that Rocketman would be left alone to continue to cast cascading spells like that.
Why not cast 1 action Magic Missiles and have each one benefit from dangerous sorcery? Memorize them in all your slots and you could cast 3 level 9 magic missiles on the first turn for 18 more points of damage than just 1. (Really, the one action magic missile is probably best cast alongside another spell for ultimate damage, but the main point is rocket wizard can get more damage per round if you burn through your slots…like…rocket fuel?
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Are you accounting in this build for the FANTASTIC Wand of Manifold Missiles at all?
If you aren't, I suggest looking into it and also heavily investing in the Juggler Archetype as that alone has the ability to give you between 1-5 extra free Magic Missles EVERY ROUND for a limited number of combats per day.
Are you accounting in this build for the FANTASTIC Wand of Manifold Missiles at all?
If you aren't, I suggest looking into it and also heavily investing in the Juggler Archetype as that alone has the ability to give you between 1-5 extra free Magic Missles EVERY ROUND for a limited number of combats per day.
Yep its stunning.
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Juggler doesn't work with Wand of Manifold Missiles.
This lasts for 1 minute, until you’re no longer wielding the wand, or until you try to activate the wand again.
You can wield weapons you are Juggling (but not shields or other items) as long as they can be wielded in one hand.
You are not wielding the wand while juggling because it's not a weapon.
Why not cast 1 action Magic Missiles and have each one benefit from dangerous sorcery? Memorize them in all your slots and you could cast 3 level 9 magic missiles on the first turn for 18 more points of damage than just 1. (Really, the one action magic missile is probably best cast alongside another spell for ultimate damage, but the main point is rocket wizard can get more damage per round if you burn through your slots…like…rocket fuel?
My understanding is that the extra damage from Dangerous Sorcery applies even if you use a 3 action cast - but only for the first missile. Is that not how it works?
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Why not cast 1 action Magic Missiles and have each one benefit from dangerous sorcery? Memorize them in all your slots and you could cast 3 level 9 magic missiles on the first turn for 18 more points of damage than just 1. (Really, the one action magic missile is probably best cast alongside another spell for ultimate damage, but the main point is rocket wizard can get more damage per round if you burn through your slots…like…rocket fuel?My understanding is that the extra damage from Dangerous Sorcery applies even if you use a 3 action cast - but only for the first missile. Is that not how it works?
The suggestion here is to cast magic missiles 3 times instead of 1 time to get the dangerous sorcery bonus three times. It costs 3 spell slots but would do a bit more damage.
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Bonus points if you dedicate even your 10th, 8th, 6th, 4th, and 2nd level slots to Magic Missiles as well. Even if you don't get your actual heighten bonuses, those are still slots not being used whatsoever for Magic Missiles, and those are basically free 9th, 7th, 5th, 3rd, and 1st level Magic Missiles that you just aren't using.
Don't forget your Force Bolt, which could work quite well with dual wielding Manifold Missile Wands, or if you need to Move and don't want to burn a full-on spell slot for benefits. You could Activate both Manifold Missile Wands as an Action a piece, doing their 1 action equivalent, and then follow up with Force Bolt with your final action.
Now, each round for which you're casting Magic Missiles, you're also getting 2 additional 1 action bolts from your wands on top of your spell slots.
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You misunderstand how Bond Conservation works. You need to use it immediately after using Drain bonded item. This means after the first volley, you would have to Drain -> Bond Conservation -> 9th level Magic Missile, and same with the third volley when you used the Superior Bond usage of Drain Bonded Item. It's also a Metamagic feat, so some other feats that allow you to modify Metamagic may help here.
Magic Missile is a very strong single target spell during the whole game, very often overlooked past first levels.
Agreed. The wizard in my party always prepares it twice, once each in his two highest spell level slots, and it has turned the tide of battle more than once. It's become such a joyous part of fights that I told him (mostly in jest) that each time he casts it (almost always with three actions) he needs to have enough dice to do so. So far he is rolling 15d4 since 5th level slots are his highest, and I am really looking forward to seeing him roll 27d4 when he gets 9th level slots.
I think your maths is off magic missile as a 5th level spell does 9d4+9 damage
Indeed. The heightening of Magic Missile is a bit strange. It doesn't heighten the damage that it does, it increases the number of missiles that it creates. Each still does 1d4+1.
At level 5, it would be creating three missiles per action. A 3-action casting of it would create 9 missiles.
I'm suspecting that Fumarole is thinking that it has Heightened(+1) instead of Heightened(+2). Because the math would work out to 15 missiles at level 5 for 3-actions if that were the case.