How should I scale magic damage in my RPG for balance and wow factor?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Should it scale linearly with spell level, so "Fire 2" should be exactly twice as powerful as "Fire 1", or what? How would you do it?

Example:

Fire 1 might do 25 dmg plus your Intelligence Attribute plus 2d6.

Fire 2 might do 50 dmg plus twice your intelligence plus 4d6.

In this case, the projected Fire 2 damage is probably more than enough to kill most enemies in one hit. I'll need to test it, I guess.

[AI Opinion]

For balance and wow-factor, pure linear scaling gets boring fast and breaks late-game fights ⚔️🔥

Use a mix of factors instead of just “double everything”:
Let higher-tier spells add utility (burn, stun, armor shred, bigger AoE, combo effects) more than raw damage.
Make scaling slightly sub-linear with level, but boosted by gear/Intelligence and rare synergies, so enemies don’t melt in one hit yet upgrades still feel epic.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Okay, that's more like Chrono Trigger, where level 2 spells hit multiple enemies, but only do around 25% extra damage. I think that makes sense, and then I could have cold spells slow enemies, and lightning spells stun enemies, and stuff like that.

[Anonymous]

Remember the good old games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Vandal Hearts, Suikoden? Follow their example.