This spell which I'm not sure of its exact name, need a serious nerf or some kind of check, it does an auto 4 hits for somewhere between 18 and 25 fire damage with no save or touch attack. That means the first hit by itself will pretty much get rid of elemental resistance, even prot vs elements will only last at most the first two hits.
It has a ranged touch attack, two of them in some cases.
I just got hit by it and didn't see any checks. And then there's taking into account its better then fire arrow and touch attacks are never used in high damage spells because of how easy they are to make. I mean do you see touch attacks on anything without also having a save or doing low damage? Were talking something doing more damage to a single target then missile storm targeted on one person. heck more damage then fire ball does. Should also to take into account true striking this spell means instant hits since people can barely pull of a 14 touch ac.
Touch AC is your full dodge ac. A monks AC can EASILY beat 14.
Wis is added to dodge ac? Sorry been a while since I played a monk but even if a monk pulls off something like 18-19 still talking an instant hit taking into account true strike the roll and the attack bonuses.
I'd not call this spell OP at all, but more the perfect addition to NWN. I played around with it on Bill and found it a nice spell to have around as a change from Combust.
- It means there's now a L2 spellslot option for pure damage at range. You can't spam Acid Arrow as it fails if the target's already got one on them, and Combust requires you to bitchslap your victim.
- Not having a save for half damage means mages have a go-to spell for dealing with high reflex/evasion PCs (like your guy) who'd otherwise piss all over their attacks and slowdowns, and Blur past Missiles. It gives Monks and Rogues something to actually worry about. Sure they have the highest touch AC but they can't Evade it.
- It's only any good when you're L7 or higher, anyway. It deals 4d6 at L2-6 and 8d6 at L7+ because then it fires 2 rays. You got hit by some lucky rolls (or a crit, yes rays can crit apparently), and the guy was obviously hasted and shot two off.
- You can whack up Insulations to protect from it and walk around with those up all day.
- Flame Arrow's just a sucky spell full stop unless you're empowering it as that boosts both the damage and the number of Arrows. Scorching Ray is effectively what Flame Arrow should have been.
- True Strike means you're using 2 spells to pull off the attack.
- Insulations won't ever go down to a single strike. Endure Elements will absorb up to 20 points of total Fire damage. It can only block 10 damage at a time though. So, the first ray will be weakened by up to 10 damage. Then the second ray will be weakened by up to 10 damage. Then, if the Insulation's stopped at least 20 points of damage so far, it will vanish. Having two shots rather than one big shot makes it weaker as it checks for DR twice.
- Touch attacks (//%22http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Touch_attack%22) deny you armor, shield, and Natural AC (Barkskin or Amulet) only. Means they rock against 10 dex fighters but suck against Monks, who only lose the +4 AC from Mage Armor and +3 from bark.
It's a touch attack, meaning stuff like improved invisibility and Improved expertise make it miss like 50-75% of the time so long as you have at least 10 dex. (imp expertise grants +10 ac for touch attacks too!)
Oh and as for true strike even with that due to the fact that truestrikes cast animation takes up a few seconds of it's duration, even hasted most of the time you will not be able to cast two of these spells before the duration is up.
The damage dealt to me with while concealed and with the 20/ elemental protection spell up was (25)5/(18 )8/25/19, numbers in () are before elemental dr It may have been two spells I don't know, at the time I was suffering from the darkness bug and couldn't even seen the caster. And hasted one can easily pull off true strike and two casts of this spell. As for monks yes they have somewhat of a chance at say +4 from dex +3 from wis, but that's monks, that's one class which has the strongest over all saves of the classes and can be expected to breeze by a lot of spells. But then you have fighters, rogues, sorcs, and every other class getting nailed by this spell almost constantly. Its not like one can buy Imp invisibility potions and displacement potions are rare enough as is. As for true strike its a lvl one spell, not like its costing you a lvl 3 spell to ensure its going to hit.
Were talking a lvl 2 spell there needs to be more then a few very limited access ways to protect against it. Elemental protection works yes, but only so much. The rest you need to be a mage with imp invisibility or a monk or someone carrying displacement potions. After all PnP spells such as scorching ray were designed to be used against enemies of a similar lvl, in the case of pvp this spell is much more dangerous then it should be.
If you don't have a couple of displacement potions, you're in trouble in a PVP anyway if someone runs at you with a weapon. Just buy them off any brewer, I've never had a PC of any class who didn't carry some, 180 gp is not expensive.
There shouldn't be a hard and easy counter for every spell, simply as otherwise what's a mage to do? The average damage off 4d6 is 14. Even lesser insulation will take the edge off both strikes hugely. Bear in mind that Combust you can't protect against with anything short of Insulation, it burns you for 1d6 +Caster Level over time, and that's L2 too. You got ambushed by someone who spammed single target spells at a single target. It's what they're there for. It happens. I'd like to see who's been "nailed by this spell constantly" as I only know of one PC who regularly uses it and have never run across mobs with it.