Talk:All-Piercing Arrow (3.5e Spell)

Compare this spell to Meteor Swarm, the 'classic' 9th level evocation. Its damage is done in a sphere, which is 90% of the time a better AoE than a line, and it does more damage if you stack all the spheres. Heck, if you can make the ranged touch attacks, there's no save. What I think this spell should do is be essentially the ultimate single target damage spell, with the line effect being gravy; if you can line up to hit multiple important targets with it, great. In that vein, remove the save for half damage and to stop the spell. Between that, the no SR, and the 'untyped' damage (so no resistances), this spell will deal its full damage. The damage itself should be higher as well. Disintegrate is 2d6 per CL, so I was thinking this would be a little more than that, with the lack of save being the rest of what makes this worth the extra spell levels. Something like 4d4, 3d6, or 2d8/2d10 damage per CL. Alternatively, you could keep the damage at 2d6/CL, and give it some extra effects. Make it shatter magical defenses (like mage armor, shield, resist energy), dispelling them with some huge bonus (maybe a bonus based on the damage dealt?), and then reducing their AC, any DR, any SR, and fort save (or all saves) by 5-10 for several rounds (probably want to give at least a partial save to that component). Lastly, I think an expensive material component is unnecessary; make it simply use an Adamantine Arrow as the component; while that still costs some gold, a little more than 1k gives you 20 shots, which isn't much by the time you have 9th level spells. Zau (talk) 03:06, 11 April 2015 (MDT)

I made some adjustments per your counsel. I went with 2d8 per caster level plus shatter magical defenses, and also implemented the limitation that its area cannot be changed. What do you think? Jwguy (talk) 16:40, 11 April 2015 (MDT)