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Ok, hardly world shattering, but some references exist to 2nd level magic missile wands. The given recommendation is generally to generally treat it as a 1st level one, but what if we could easily make it matter, but keeping it within reason.
My suggestion, What if you added the following to the end of the description for the Force Barrage spell.
Heightened (+1; once) You fire one additional shard irrespective of the number of action taken. (this heightening can only occur once, and uses up a rank of heightening not available to the other heightening option, which can also be used for other rank advancements)
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Net effect:
every even rank advancement you get one additional missile per action, leaving the only benefit of going to an even rank, you get one extra missile total, than the prior rank.
rank 1: 1a = 1; 2a = 2; 3a = 3
rank 2: 1a = 2; 2a = 3; 3a = 4
rank 3: 1a = 2; 2a = 4; 3a = 6
rank 4: 1a = 3; 2a = 5; 3a = 7
rank 5: 1a = 3; 2a = 6; 3a = 9
rank 6: 1a = 4; 2a = 7; 3a = 10
rank 7: 1a = 4; 2a = 8; 3a = 12
rank 8: 1a = 5; 2a = 9; 3a = 13
rank 9: 1a = 5; 2a = 10; 3a = 15
Had the random thought, and thought I'd share to see if others felt it was worthwhile or problematic.
I like it. It has the additional benefit of making the one action casting more likely to be worth it on occasion.
In general I'd prefer ALL damaging spells to have heighten +1, or to have Rank X versions in cases where the effect actually changes. Spells that have heighten +2 because they gain 2 or more dice of different types (live wire, looking at you) could alternate, either with a new Heighten description or Simply by listing damage at each rank.
Yes, some conventions for heighten entries could make things be less pulse-like in their damage progressions.
For Livewire something like:
Heightened (+1; even ranks) +1d4 extra slashing damage
Heightened (+1; odd ranks) +1d4 extra electricity damage
the Heightened (+1; once) entry I suggested above would be made clear it only applies once to fill in between +2 Heightening entries.