In my D&D 3.5 campaign, one PC just got a ring of mystic fire, and I'm trying to figure out how the ring works with the spell scorching ray.
The Magical Item Compendium says
A ring of mystic fire provides a boost to your fire-based spells. When casting spells with the fire descriptor, you gain a +1 competence bonus to caster level. This is a continuous effect and requires no activation. The ring has 3 charges, renewed daily at dawn. Spending 1 or more charges grants a bonus to the amount of damage you deal with the next fire spell you cast before the end of your turn. (If the spell doesn't normally deal fire damage, this expenditure has no effect).
- 1 charge: +2d6 fire damage
- 2 charges: +3d6 fire damage
- 3 charges: +4d6 fire damage
My player intends to use all 3 charges for +4d6 fire damage with the scorching ray spell, which says
You blast your enemies with fiery rays. You may fire one ray, plus one additional ray for every four levels beyond 3rd (to a maximum of three rays at 11th level). Each ray requires a ranged touch attack to hit and deals 4d6 points of fire damage.
The rays may be fired at the same or different targets, but all bolts must be aimed at targets within 30 feet of each other and fired simultaneously.
My question is this: Does the ring of mystic fire grant the character a +4d6 fire damage per ray? I'm inclined to rule that the ring does add its damage to each ray, but that risks making the spell overpowered, even though it is only once per day. And, even if overpowered, I prefer to rule in favor of what makes sense.
Best Answer
The ring of mystic fire only affects the upcoming spell once
The ring of mystic fire (Magic Item Compendium 125) (7,500 gp; 0 lbs.) does, indeed, grant "a bonus to the amount of damage you deal with the next fire spell you cast before the end of your turn," but the ring only grants that bonus once. Each ray of a scorching ray spell isn't the spell; instead, the whole spell creates multiple rays. The ring improves the spell's damage only once by a maximum of +4d6 no matter how many effects result from the ring-modified spell.
(Ruling that each ray of the scorching ray spell benefits from the ring multiplies the power of the ring by the number of rays—with rather extreme consequences at low levels, especially given that the ring increases also the wearer's caster level for fire spells!)
Although the DM has several options available to adjudicate the ring's effect—allowing the player to distribute the total number of extra dice damage the ring grants among the rays before (or even after) the rays're launched, for instance—, this DM would keep things simple and have the player add the extra damage to his PC's first ray in a volley from the spell scorching ray, in much the same way that precision damage applies to the first attack in a similar volley (Rules Compendium 42). (In fact, I have a fire wizard in a current campaign who's eyeing this very item, and that's how I'm ruling it works.)
Hence, for example, under such a ruling, a level 6 caster wearing a ring of mystic fire can take a swift action to spend 3 of the ring's charges. Then the caster can cast scorching ray, creating 2 rays (because of the increase in caster level granted by the ring) and making 2 ranged touch attacks. If the first ray hits, it deals 8d6 points of fire damage. If the second ray hits, it deals 4d6 points of fire damage.