Empowered Magic Missile

The Empower Spell feat increases the variable portion of a spell's effect by 50%. So, when a 10th-level caster uses an Empowered Fireball, the damage done is 10d6 * 1.5. Simple enough. (Note: this is not the same as 15d6, but in actual play, the difference is so minor as to be negligible.)

So, what's the damage of an Empowered Magic Missile?

Well, the magic missile spell creates a number of missiles (1-5), each doing 1d4+1 points of damage. Consequently, an Empowered Magic Missile should create a number of missiles (1-5), each doing (1d4 * 1.5)+1 points of damage. (Actually, it creates 3-5 missiles, since the lowest possible caster level is 5, but's that's a nitpick that just confuses the issue.)

Why?

Well, because 1d4 is the variable portion. +1 is not.

The difference that this makes is actually pretty minor. Remember that, in D&D, fractions always round down.

Die Roll: (1d4 * 1.5) + 1 (1d4 + 1) * 1.5
--------- --------------- ---------------
1 2 3
2 4 4
3 5 6
4 7 7

(Sorry about the formatting. I don't have full HTML capabilities here :-))

The funny thing about all of this is that Andy Collins (D&D's current lead designer) disagrees. However he then goes on to say that an Empowered Cure Light Wounds (which heals 1d8 points of damage, +1 per caster level (max +5)) heals (1d8 * 1.5) points of damage, +1 per caster level (max +5). His justification is that the damage healed is expressed differently, and so the Empowering should work differently.

To be honest, I'm leaning towards the view that spells should avoid doing a single die of damage, plus a modifier for caster level. Such spells are invariably really weak at higher level, and tend not to be very good at low levels. Better, instead, to scale the number of dice with caster level.

(So, Cure Light Wounds should probably heal 1d6 points of damage at 1st level, +1d6 per two caster levels (max 5d6). Cure Moderate should do d8's, Cure Serious d10's, and Cure Critical d12's. Each should also have a correspondingly higher maximum number of dice allowed.)

As for Magic Missile, I'm inclined to feel it should either do 1d4 damage, or do 1d6, and require a ranged touch attack roll. Preferably the former, as it better distinguishes the Force attack spells from the energy types.

That said, I'm now at the point that I'd really like to see someone do an entirely new grimoire of spells for D&D, designed to completely replace the existing spells, covering all the same areas, but with evocative names for the spells, new descriptions, and such like. So spellcasters don't use Shocking Grasp, they use Delericho's Retributative Glare. Or something.