Himself takes on Arcane Spells

[Demivrgvs]

Armor - Too powerful. Original version was ok to me, 9 hours is a long time. Most I would ever change was maybe make it castable over somebody else on lvl 9.

It surely have to be "caster-only", but does anybody else thinks it's too strong? The AC increase can be toned down from +1 every 4 level to +1 every five or six levels.

Blindness - 3 rounds + 1 round per level duration

I've made it permanent because I wanted to make Cure Disease a little more useful.

Burning Hands - Cap of 18d3 + 36 at lvl 18, save for half

A 1st level spell that can inflict up to a minimum 54 points of damage is way overpowered. For the next version I'm probably changing it as per Tweak Pack component with a small cone area of effect.

Chill Touch (+6 enchatmt ?? ) - 1d6 cold damage, +1 cold damage per lvl, -1 STR unless save death looks good (would set 1 turn though, and give a penalty of -1 for this save), +1 to hit and enchatmt

The uber-high enchantment level is a vanilla's feature, I think it was there to slighlty simulate that it's neither a normal weapon nor a magical one. Does anybody else think it would be better to tone it down? The +1 cold damage per level can be interesting, though 1D6 + 20 is probably too much, I'd cap it at 10th level or somethink like that.

Chromatic Orb - liked the insta death.. (when it worked in ToB it was very funny) also removing the save bonus may make this spell a little too strong, can't know for sure though

Instant death with a 1st level spell is absolutely silly imo. I've removed the save bonuses but the effects now aren't as powerful as before.

Shocking Grasp - 1d6 damage per caster lvl, electrical damage, save for half, +1 to hit and enchatmt, 1 round per level to try and hit, NO DAMAGE CAP! (Max of 50d6)

Are you kidding? It would deal 175 points of damage on average, enough to instantly kill an epic warrior! Anyway, does anyone else thinks that 5D6 + stun for 1 round still doesn't make it appealing?

Detect Invisibility - lats 6 rounds, casting time lowered, maybe 1 or 2

Anyone else thinks that it should have a sort of instant-casting time?

Glitterdust - Dust affetcs area for 3 rounds instead of 4, higher casting time (6, 7 or 8)

It doesn't affect the area but rather the characters in the area when it is cast. The casting time is low exactly to make it different from Detect Invisibility. The former is fast, has a small area of effect, but it's more deleterious (because nullifies the chance of becoming again invisible and even has a change of blinding the targets); the latter has average casting time, an extremely large area of effect and last longer.

Ghoul Touch – Damage 1d8, paralyzes for half the caster lvl number of rounds unless saved, +2 to hit and enchatmt

Paralyze for 10 rounds is equivalent to sure death imo.

Luck - 3 rounds + 1 round / 2 lvls of caster. Target gets a +1 bonus on random saves (3 different saves getting a +1 bonus, would need to be randomized and timed for the durations.. which can be a lot fo work at editing..), also a 5% bonus on a lot of things (lore, thaco, thieving skills, etc). Spell range set to touch.

Spell range set to touch is probably right, 5% bonus on a lot of things is exactly what it already does, but I don't see a good reason to randomize the save bonuses.

Haste - What is the maximum rounds duration? should decrease casting time by 1 to help mages a little, also the winded thing looks nice but lasts too long, would change to 1 penalty on AC instead of 2 but reduce movement by 20%, make duration of winded based on spell duration.. Like normally it would last 4 rounds, if haste was casted by a lvl 8+ wizard winded lasts 5 rounds, lvl 16+ wizard 6 rounds.

It doubles doesn't affect casting time, and the winded effects are the same that follows the expiring of a rage state (I like it being standardized). Should I reduce the winded duration to 5 rounds?

Lightning Bolt - Cap at 9d6, no penalty on save, your version (10d10) seems too powerful (I cast prot. electricity on myself or wear that robe which deflects it and then start easy killing everyone else..)

Well, SR's Lightning Bolt expires after hitting a single target, what you're describing (like the Cloak of Reflection's exploit) is no longer doable.

Protection From Missiles - Duration: 1 turn each 2 lvls. I like the change you made (protc. from magics) but I think its too powerful, maybe if you would scale the spell it had be better, like: at lvl 12 the spell will aslo deflect +1 projectiles, at lvl 18 it will additionaly deflect Melf's Acid Arrows, Melf's Minute Meteors and Flame Arrows.

I like the idea of making it getting better with levels very much, tough I'm not sure how to handle it. I'll think about it.

Slow - Your description says "Slowed creatures also suffer a +1 penalty to AC and an attack penalty of -1", since the original version of slow was a 4 penalty, does the engine properly recognize the new penalty (1 instead of 4) when it applies haste on slowed creatures? Will these penalties be removed as it should and the creature not end up having a +3 bonus to THAC0 and AC while hasted? Also I would set a 2 penalty instead of 1.

Actually I think vanilla's haste didn't removed the -4 penalties... Anyway I've forgot to add +1 bonuses to haste spell, I'll do it for v2.

Vampiric Touch - Drains (recudes target maximum and increases caster maximum by) 1 HP per level of the caster up to lvl 16, but change this one to be a MUST hit spell (item created at caster hand) and this spell also drains 3 points from the target constitution and adds to the caster, extra HP and constitution gained from this spell lasts for 1 hour/2lvls up to 8 hours (which is pretty useful).

I don't want to change too many things when the originals already work well, thus i'm not inclined to add a constitution draining effect. I'd like very much to it work like the other touch spells, but doing so is very dangerous because it surely leads to broken AI behaviours. Such a change have to be introduced by AI enhancing mods.

Improved Invisibility – readme says "no saving throws bonus", did the original version ever added these bonuses ? (Didn't seemed so), if yes, tell me : what u did to remove them ??

I don't know if Fik Pack restored them or if they already were there, they would make this spell overpowered imo.

Phantom Blade - +3 to hit and enchatmt (+4 enchatmt seems too poweful) readme says "strike temporarily scrambles magic, causing any spells the target casts in the next round to fail" .. I assume this pierces stoneskin and other protections? If so this spell is too powerful.

Even the damage bypasses stoneskins because it's purely magic damage. Is it really too powerful? If it isn't at least a very good weapon who's gonna memorize this spell when there's plenty of very powerful swords in the game?

Carrion Summons - I liked the carrions.. can't you make improved versions of them and scale the magic to summon +quantity AND/OR improved versions based on caster lvls?

I don't like to create non-canon creatures like uber carrion crawlers. Furthmore Necromancers lacked high level summoning spells while Conjurers already had plenty of them.

[Salk]

Detect Invisibility

 

Due to the spell's rationale and level, I'd think a rather quick casting time would be reasonable but I understand you want to balance this spell with regards to Glitterdust so I'd leave both the way they are revised in version 1.

 

Armor

 

I think it's good the way you made it.

 

Blindness

 

Here instead I can't agree about making it permanent. We are speaking of a level 1 spell. If we compare it to the level 8 (!) spell Power Word, Blindness which also has permanent effect well... I understand that you wanted to make Cure Disease more useful but permanency for this spell has to go (I would suggest 1 day).

 

Burning Hands

 

I like your plan for the next version.

 

Chill touch

 

I think it's good the way you made it.

 

Chromatic Orb

 

I agree with you about the instant death being too much for a level 1 spell.

 

Shocking Grasp

 

I like your revision (if Stun has no save) and I would make no changes.

 

Ghoul Touch

 

I think it's good the way you made it.

 

Luck

 

Range touch is a good proposal but that's it. No need for randomizations of the effect because having the effect boost something you would not need would be... well... bad luck and thus against the rationale of the spell itself.

 

Haste

 

The winded duration might actually be tuned down a bit. 5 rounds sound good to me.

 

Lighting Bolt

 

I like your revision as it is and I'd not change it.

 

Protection from Missiles

 

The proposed change about scalability is nice, yes. See if you can code it up.

 

Vampiric Touch

 

I think it's good the way you made it.

 

Improved Invisibility

 

I think it's good the way you made it.

 

Phantom Blade

 

I think it's good the way you made it although we might consider having a shorter duration (1 round + 1 round / level instead of 3 rounds + 1 round / level).

 

Now my own questions:

 

1) why have the Protection from Fire and Protection from Lightning spells been removed?

 

2) one unique feature of the spell Call Lightning was that it could be cast only outdoors and I liked it the way it was. Why change it? On the contrary, I would even make Flame Strike follow the same path making it also outdoors only.

 

3) Summon Insects and Insect Plague should be Druids-only spells (if they are not so already in version 1)

 

That's all for now...

 

Keep it up, Demivrgvs!

[Himself]

I've made it permanent because I wanted to make Cure Disease a little more useful.

 

Have Cure Disease heal some small amount of HP as well, this way it won't be so bad.

 

A 1st level spell that can inflict up to a minimum 54 points of damage is way overpowered. For the next version I'm probably changing it as per Tweak Pack component with a small cone area of effect.

 

Its close range, besides mostly everyone (whos not cannon fooder) has some level of fire resist later on and hardly ever will fail a save, high lvl mage using this spell would be still unusual IMO. Does the small cone area of effect you're going to change to affects more than 1 creature?

 

Chill Touch is a must hit.. I couldn't care less for trying to hit an enemy when I have spells, even more at high levels, even less for a spell which only does ridiculous amount of cold damage, the STR penalty part of the spell still doesn't makes it attractive.

 

Instant death with a 1st level spell is absolutely silly imo. I've removed the save bonuses but the effects now aren't as powerful as before.

 

Liar.. you made the whole spell is less fun

 

Are you kidding? It would deal 175 points of damage on average, enough to instantly kill an epic warrior! Anyway, does anyone else thinks that 5D6 + stun for 1 round still doesn't make it appealing?

 

Completely serious (aside from the hillarious part of a mage lvl50 ever considering to use such), same reason of Chill Touch for hit, and burning hands for damage/resist/save part.

 

Lets picture a mage lvl 20 who instead of casting horrid wilting is trying to hand hit a target for 20d6 elec. damage, from which half are probably going to be saved anyway, nevermind if the creature has some other sort of resistance for it.. makes the thing pretty comic already.

 

As it stands now, rarely ever I would memo Detect Invisibility instead of Glitterdust, only in the case of storming shadow thieves compound or such other event that implies a lot of baddies going invisible, and even in this case there would be the added worry of getting stabbed before I complete such a long casting time

 

Ghoul Touch – Damage 1d8, paralyzes for half the caster lvl number of rounds unless saved, +2 to hit and enchatmt

Paralyze for 10 rounds is equivalent to sure death imo.

 

Again a touch that must hit, high lvl mage doing that in the hope that target would fail the save is comic in any way I can depict it. If that is strong, Hold Person is the most imbalanced spell in the game

 

Spell range set to touch is probably right, 5% bonus on a lot of things is exactly what it already does, but I don't see a good reason to randomize the save bonuses.

 

The reason is a nerf to counter the increased duration, since rarely ever we players use spells that have extremely short duration.

 

 

Haste

It doubles casting time

 

Try casting a spell with long casting time, then haste yourself and try it again, guess what

 

Slow is nerfed too much though, other than to exploit slow movement of opponents there isn't much benefit in casting such weak version.

 

 

Well, SR's Lightning Bolt expires after hitting a single target, what you're describing (like the Cloak of Reflection's exploit) is no longer doable.

 

Ah, that cuts out a lot of usefulness and the whole fun.. again

 

Improved Invisibility – readme says "no saving throws bonus", did the original version ever added these bonuses ? (Didn't seemed so), if yes, tell me : what u did to remove them ??

I don't know if Fik Pack restored them or if they already were there, they would make this spell overpowered imo.

 

I'll ask there, this interests me, anyway going from 4 to none is excessive, leave at +2 bonuses, had be good if we could sort out the mind affecting stuff from the reflexes stuff.

 

Even the damage bypasses stoneskins because it's purely magic damage. Is it really too powerful?  If it isn't at least a very good weapon who's gonna memorize this spell when there's plenty of very powerful swords in the game?

 

Well.. when I picture a fighter mage creating such weapon, drinking potion of haste and attacking spellcasters.. doesn't looks like the battle will last long, nevermind late game having 5 attacks/round.

 

 

But... but.. its sad we disagree on so many points (and some details.. but still sad )

[Himself]

Shocking Grasp

 

I like your revision (if Stun has no save) and I would make no changes.

 

I'm pretty sure it has a save, getting stun/hold/uncouscious without a save should never happen in the game without a damn good reason

[Salk]

 

 

 

Shocking Grasp

 

I like your revision (if Stun has no save) and I would make no changes.

 

I'm pretty sure it has a save, getting stun/hold/uncouscious without a save should never happen in the game without a damn good reason

 

Having high voltage electricity cross my body sounds to me a more than valid reason. If there is indeed a save against it, I'd either give penalty to it or just remove it altogether because we are speaking here of being stunned for just a round.

[Demivrgvs]

Blindness

It won't matter for the AI but I can reduce its duration to 8 hours (resting will "cure" it).

Shocking Grasp

Stun has a save, as Himself says I think an effect like this must allow a save. Does it make this spell too weak?

Lets picture a mage lvl 20 who instead of casting horrid wilting is trying to hand hit a target for 20d6 elec. damage, from which half are probably going to be saved anyway, nevermind if the creature has some other sort of resistance for it.. makes the thing pretty comic already

Well, a 1st level spell shouldn't be compared to an 8th lvl one. I think low level spells should be a sort of back-up and neverending supply of artillery, thus they should be able to shine at high levels too but not be comparable to Horrid Wilting. However you are probably right that something has to be done to provide incentives for using "touch spells".

Detect Invisibility

As it stands now, rarely ever I would memo Detect Invisibility instead of Glitterdust, only in the case of storming shadow thieves compound or such other event that implies a lot of baddies going invisible, and even in this case there would be the added worry of getting stabbed before I complete such a long casting time

l may think about lowering its casting time to 2, though when comparing this spell with Glitterdust you have to keep in mind that the latter now has a quite small area of effect, meaning that it's not even guaranteed that you'll affect the target creature if she has moved in the meanwhile.

 

Ghoul Touch

Again a touch that must hit, high lvl mage doing that in the hope that target would fail the save is comic in any way I can depict it. If that is strong, Hold Person is the most imbalanced spell in the game

Ghoul Touch allows the caster to hit multiple creatures within 1 full turn and it always deals magical damage which probably is the best type of damage, whereas Hold Person is a save-or-else spell (only one successful save is needed).

 

Haste/Slow

Sorry, I was in a hurry, I meant that Slow doubles the targets casting time. I'm quite sure Haste doesn't affect it at all for some reason.

Slow is nerfed too much though, other than to exploit slow movement of opponents there isn't much benefit in casting such weak version.

I find it quite useful instead. A large friendly area of effect, good save, and though its effects (-1 to AC, thac0 and saves vs. breath) aren't extremely deadly it also greatly affects regenerating creatures, counters the use of hasting spells/potions, and shines when combined with spells like Ice Storm, Web and the like. All of this without considering the advantage of being faster than opponents which for some characters (thieves and mages) can be really a bless.

 

Phantom Blade

Well.. when I picture a fighter mage creating such weapon, drinking potion of haste and attacking spellcasters.. doesn't looks like the battle will last long, nevermind late game having 5 attacks/round.

If you install SCS most mages will be protected by PfMW anyway, but I may allow a save against the casting failure effect.

I think it's good the way you made it although we might consider having a shorter duration (1 round + 1 round / level instead of 3 rounds + 1 round / level).

Yeah, even 1 round/level would be good, I've never been a fan of thoes 3 rounds.

 

But... but.. its sad we disagree on so many points

I'm sorry too, and I can assure you I'm trying to please most players' requests. Unfortunately I can't assure you I'll make each spell as you like it the most, but as you can see some of your suggestions are taken into account and I hope that even some choices that you don't like will make spells at least better than their vanilla's version.

 

why have the Protection from Fire and Protection from Lightning spells been removed?

I think you're now referring to their Divine versions cause I haven't touched the Arcane ones. I've temporarily disabled them becuase I felt odd having them without Pr. from Cold and Acid as well. I've been thinking about using Arcane version's bams to create the equivalent 4 Divine spells, but I've yet to decide at which level they should belong (e.g. at 2nd level with +50% res or at 4th with +100% res).

one unique feature of the spell Call Lightning was that it could be cast only outdoors and I liked it the way it was. Why change it? On the contrary, I would even make Flame Strike follow the same path making it also outdoors only.

I've done it to allow Druids to have low level offensive spells, and because I quite like how 3rd edition Call Lightning works. I know it's not the same but you can just avoid castin it indoors. Anyway in next versions I can try to make the lightnings inflict more damage when casted outdoors, or to have the storm last longer. Would something like that make it up for allowing them to be casted indoor? Nerfing Flame Strike too would leave the poor Druid with few damaging spells.

Summon Insects and Insect Plague should be Druids-only spells (if they are not so already in version 1)

I think they already were in vanilla's BG, but surely they are in SR v1.

[Guest Himself on lunch time :)]

Having high voltage electricity cross my body sounds to me a more than valid reason. If there is indeed a save against it, I'd either give penalty to it or just remove it altogether because we are speaking here of being stunned for just a round.

 

Hope you understand if I dont wanna find out what is your taking about what a huge shock should do, stun withOUT save already scares me enough, 1 round or not Of course you may think that stun is not a huge thing, I normally consider it the worst state, right after death and pretty close to petrification, BG doctors call this stunfobia

 

Adding a save penalty to a lvl1 spell that stuns feels a bit extreme, even being a touch spell.

 

Shocking Grasp could be a 10d6 up to lvl 10, then 1d6 added each 2 rounds, and after lvl 20 +1 damage, that had do 15d6 +30 at lvl 50. I wouldn't reduce the damage were it not for the multiclass chars (multiclassing in BG2 needs a serious revision if it is ever going to be prevented from supreme power anyway).

 

 

Reducing the damage from Burning Hands could also be an option, I don't know how useful it would be later in the game though (maybe give a better damage at higher levels? I recall using fire efficiently in ToB was hard).

 

 

Glitterdust

now has a quite small area of effect, meaning that it's not even guaranteed that you'll affect the target creature if she has moved in the meanwhile.

 

I didn't notice you reduced the area of effect, since it was not mentioned in the quick readme (only in the part with all arcane spells full text) my bad, yours too

 

Area of Effect: 10' radius

 

Thats too little

 

I better understand your taking on balance now (whereas I didnt before in this case), though you need to eat more sugar you know, appreciate the sweet aspects of life like a glitter with 20 radius

 

Meaning I stick to my claims (original glitterdust but 3 rounds duration, huge casting time, quick casting Detect Inv. but 6 rounds)

 

I won't bitch about this from now on though so up to you

 

Ghoul Touch allows the caster to hit multiple creatures within 1 full turn and it always deals magical damage which probably is the best type of damage, whereas Hold Person is a save-or-else spell (only one successful save is needed).

 

Thats what I get from commenting about a spell I've never used

 

Anyway, changing it to one time only (hit or miss and be done with it) would be my taking, since again a mage fighting with touch stuff is rather strange.. even for multiclassed that can deal more damage with weapons.

 

 

Slow:

 

I may be mistaken, but the original spell was save at -2, -4 to AC and THAC0, even if you would half all its characteristics I would not complain, but lower than -2 to AC and THAC0 is too weak

 

Phantom Blade

If you install SCS most mages will be protected by PfMW anyway, but I may allow a save against the casting failure effect.

 

Allow them a save spells, if failed disrupts the spell that is actually being casted, that settles most balance issues (though a character attacking 5 times per round which such a weapon is still pretty dangerous).

 

Hey.. I'm a huge fan of the 3 rounds.. spells that end quickly are not much encouraging and often not useful too (PfMW is a good exemple, enemies would not live without it, however not that good on party/player side, still mages are gonna need a good stock of protections to counter the terror of this Phantom Blade).

 

But I've faith that someday all of you can come to understand the supreme beauty and overwhelming perfection of the 3 rounds stuff

 

Either that or the day we become liches using lots of summons (preferably demons), followed by area haste, improved haste and tenser transf. on selfs, and go beat the crap out of each other obviously relying in chains and triggers for further protection while using our bare hands to level drain, paralyze, freeze and yada yada at each hit (lichs do that don't they?) Hurrah! to cheap attacks, gladly nobody has made the monk/lich challenge yet. (or did they ?... )

[Salk]

Shocking Grasp

Stun has a save, as Himself says I think an effect like this must allow a save. Does it make this spell too weak?

It'd not be part of my level 1 spell portfolio if I don't feel the stunning probability is rather high. There are more effective spells if I am just aiming to do damage. Of course stunning is a very strong effect but - again - we are speaking of one round of duration so I would go for a -2 penalty to the save. Well, even if you don't do it, it won't be difficult to change it for my own game.

 

Also, you have not commented about removing the permanency to level 1 spell Blindness (that is overpowered).

[Demivrgvs]

Shocking Grasp

Stun has a save, as Himself says I think an effect like this must allow a save. Does it make this spell too weak?

It'd not be part of my level 1 spell portfolio if I don't feel the stunning probability is rather high. There are more effective spells if I am just aiming to do damage. Of course stunning is a very strong effect but - again - we are speaking of one round of duration so I would go for a -2 penalty to the save. Well, even if you don't do it, it won't be difficult to change it for my own game.

Ok I'll see what I can do. I think pure damage isn't the right solution imo because Magic Missile would still remain a better option. I may think about reintroducing things I've previoulsy decided to remove from the spell system...something like vanilla's Spook save penalty which improves with levels (applied to the stun effect). That also leads to the major thing that has to be tested, save penalties. It would be good if some of the players who already have SR could report about them.

Also, you have not commented about removing the permanency to level 1 spell Blindness (that is overpowered).

Actucually I've done it.

Blindness

It won't matter for the AI but I can reduce its duration to 8 hours (resting will "cure" it).

And Deafness should be toned down the same way.

 

P.S Sorry I was in a semi-unconscious state and I've edited your post instead of replying to it. Now it should be ok.

[Salk]

Shocking Grasp

Stun has a save, as Himself says I think an effect like this must allow a save. Does it make this spell too weak?

It'd not be part of my level 1 spell portfolio if I don't feel the stunning probability is rather high. There are more effective spells if I am just aiming to do damage. Of course stunning is a very strong effect but - again - we are speaking of one round of duration so I would go for a -2 penalty to the save. Well, even if you don't do it, it won't be difficult to change it for my own game.

Ok I'll see what I can do. I think pure damage isn't the right solution imo because Magic Missile would still remain a better option. I may think about reintroducing things I've previoulsy decided to remove from the spell system...something like vanilla's Spook save penalty which improves with levels (applied to the stun effect). That also leads to the major thing that has to be tested, save penalties. It would be good if some of the players who already have SR could report about them.

 

But that's exactly what I mean about Shocking Grasp. It shouldn't be a pure damage only spell. It's great the way you have made it: electricity damage plus 1 round stunned. It's just that perhaps we need to give a penalty to the saving throw so that the chance of stunning an enemy becomes high.

 

Shocking Grasp as pure damage is less effective than others like Magic Missile and also it has a short range. To compensate for that the most logical thing to do is to add the stunning effect for one round (and you did great with it) but we should also make sure to give a penalty to the save. In that case, I would memorize Shocking Grasp if I had an extra slot free (it would not still the best LVL1 spell for offense but it would be much better)...

 

Keep it up!

[Himself]

Maybe giving shock grasp an amount of damage to make it interesting and also the stun effect?

 

I'm against penalty on save but if inserted it should be scaled (like -1 at each 6 levels or such)

 

Theres something I've never actually tried to do, but is there a way to set spell/scrolls that can be used only by pure, not multiclassed mages?

 

If not remember we should set some Stat: Experience Points [104] reduce all xp by 10 or 20 % on multiclassed chars (along with maybe a +1 bonus on enemy saves versus multiclassed mages), if we are ever to make something like the "bg saga revision" mentioned at the items thread

[Salk]

Scaling penalties is a good way to make lower level spells become more interesting for higher level practitioner so I am all favourable to your proposal and I'd even extend it to fit other spells.

 

It'd be good to create a spell system where the choice of the spells memorized would develop together with your character so that some spells considered less efficient at lower levels become instead better than the original choices when the wizard/cleric/druid gain more experience.

 

See if you can implement something like that, Demivrgvs because I'd think that's the way to go.

 

Regards!

[BigRob]

I like the idea of a scalable penalty on a stun save as well. Perhaps the damage might not go up (much) to keep Magic missile a good choice for that, but a steady improvement in a utility portion of the spell would make it like Chromatic orb and encourage one to keep it around.

[Demivrgvs]

I like the idea of a scalable penalty on a stun save as well. Perhaps the damage might not go up (much) to keep Magic missile a good choice for that, but a steady improvement in a utility portion of the spell would make it like Chromatic orb and encourage one to keep it around.

Ok, it seems all of you agree on Shocking Grasp's stun effect having a scalable penalty. If that's the case I suppose Spook too should have it restored. We should decide the penalty cap (-4 or -6) as well as its progression rate (-1 each X level). Personally I'd go with something like this:

 

Shocking Grasp

Lvl 1° 1D6 points of electrical damage, stuns for 1 round (no save penalty)

Lvl 3° 2D6 points of electrical damage, stuns for 1 round (save at -1 penalty)

Lvl 5° 3D6 points of electrical damage, stuns for 1 round (save at -2 penalty)

Lvl 7° 4D6 points of electrical damage, stuns for 1 round (save at -3 penalty)

Lvl 9° 5D6 points of electrical damage, stuns for 1 round (save at -4 penalty)

 

Chromatic Orb doesn't improve with levels at the moment but I'm going to restore it too. Though its effects will still remain random with a slightly chance of getting more than one color at the same time.

 

Chromatic Orb

All colors inflict 1D8 points of magic damage (no save), special effects last 5 rounds (save negates).

Lvl 1° White - Light (Saving Throws: -4)

Lvl 2° Aquamarine - Magnetism (AC: -4)

Lvl 4° Red - Pain (-1 to Strength, and Dexterity)

Lvl 6° Green - Poison (2hp/round)

Lvl 8° Yellow - Blindness

Lvl 10° Violet - Slow

Lvl 12° Blue - Paralysis

 

What do you think?Is it worth to make it scalable?

[Salk]

Personally, like I said above, I think scalabilty is practically always welcome to make some spells a better choice for a specific level range. More than making the spell more effective with higher level (which is anyway generally good), I like better the idea of making a spell objectively less or more preferable at certain levels. So, for example, Spell A (a level 1 Spell) pretty much sucks if cast by a level 1 character while it becomes very valid between (example) level 5-8 and perhaps again a minor choice from level 9+. On the opposite, there might be Spell B (another level 1 Spell) that is really effective for inexperienced mages but later on becomes less good when compared to other options. One good example of this is just the Chromatic Orb spell Demivrgvs mentioned.

 

I know this sounds very generic and I am not really contributing in a practical way but I hope it's clear what I am meaning with this.

 

Your revised Shocking Grasp looks alright to me.

 

Same things about Chromatic Orb. I like it and yes, it is worth making it scalable.