Potency + Enhance Signature Spell

[Ken]

Based on https://alliancelarp.com/forum/threads/alliance-2-0-prerelease.39024/#post-307276, potency appears to boost spell level by 1. How does this interact with Enhance Signature Spell, which doubles damage?

It seems like ESS should work the same way in the sense that if I double a "10 Spell Flame" to "20 Spell Flame" the recipient should treat it as 4th level.

What order do the operations apply? If I combine the two on a 9th level spell, do I get out a 20th level spell, or a 19th level spell?

 

[Sage of Legaia]

Short answer: you don't get any level of spell out of combining them, unless the total damage stays below 45 points AND you're storing the effect somehow, which is the only time the effective spell level of a spell enhanced with either ability would matter.

Long answer: That post says you should treat the Potency spell as if it were an attack of the new amount, and in the cases of Counterspell and Spell Store it should be considered as a spell of the appropriate level; it doesn't actually change the spell level outside of those and other similar instances.

Enhance Signature Spell should, I think, follow the same rule: treat the spell as an attack of the new amount, and if you can Counterspell it (or whatever) at the appropriate level, more power to you, but if it goes over 45, then the effective spell level no longer matters.

As far as how they interact... Potency reads as though it's automatically applied to any spell of the appropriate element, while Enhanced Signature Spell is a Times Ever High Magic ability that is applied on cast, so I believe Potency would be applied first for 5 extra damage, and then the new total would be doubled by Enhanced Signature Spell. If this is the right way to combine them, you can hit as high as 100 with a 9th level spell, but any spell of 4th level or higher can't be Countespelled or Stored because the damage goes over 45 points.