# Ray of enfeeblement wording

I am running into a semantics issue. Ray of enfeeblement states:

A coruscating ray springs from your hand. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike a target. The subject takes a penalty to Strength equal to 1d6+1 per two caster levels (maximum 1d6+5). The subject’s Strength score cannot drop below 1.

When I read this originally I thought 1d6+1 per 2 caster levels would be 5d6+5 at level 10. But it seems like some wording is missing that has the level apply only to the +1 and not to the die roll.

For instance cure light wounds specifically states

When laying your hand upon a living creature, you channel positive energy that cures 1d8 points of damage +1 point per caster level (maximum +5).

Is ray of enfeeblement just worded poorly?

• It's worded the exact same and has an example though. – gaynorvader Jul 27 '18 at 8:38

It’s ambiguous wording but they pretty consistently use the “per” wording to refer to only the closest thing, rather than the entire expression. That is, given $\DeclareMathOperator{\per}{per}x + y \per z$, you have $x + \left(y \per z\right)$, not $\left(x + y\right) \per z$. (This is arguably consistent with the order of operations in mathematics, if we treat “per” as indicating division—if we have $x + y / z$ we expect the division to be performed before the addition.)