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View Full Version : [3.5e] Arcane Spell Failure



SurvivorX
2009-12-21, 02:48 AM
Normally this is where I launch into a great big explanation of where my crazy idea came from (cuz that's just how I roll), but in this case I just came out with it totally out of the blue:

Would it be terribly imbalancing to house-rule that you can reduce the arcane spell failure chance of your armor by 5% if you take a full-round action to cast the spell instead of a standard action? (or negate it altogether if you take a full minute to cast it?)

Would it be balanced if this required a metamagic feat with no level adjustment? Or perhaps if it required a feat to use, would a 10% reduction be more fair?

What sort of ruling would you guys put on this sort of thing?

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-21, 02:53 AM
ASF isn't a great balance tool anyways. It is designed to prevent casters from having AC, but things like Greater Luminous Armor beat that into the ground, and Bracers allow armor enchants. I'd just allow Practical Metamagic to work on Still Spell, allowing them to ignore ASF completely for 2 feats.

SurvivorX
2009-12-21, 03:01 AM
Oh yeah, still spell. Totally forgot about that, hehe.

Nevermind then XD.

Aquillion
2009-12-21, 03:45 AM
Honestly, you could discard ASF completely and it wouldn't unbalance the game.

Not that you should, because casters don't need even that small buff. But if you look at the game's progression, you can see WotC putting a steadily lower and lower value on ignoring ASF, until now most warrior-mage classes get it almost for free.

Optimystik
2009-12-21, 07:47 AM
I'm in favor of the Practical Metamagic solution. Two feats instead of three (four?) for Automatic Still Spell sounds like what you're looking for.

Cyclocone
2009-12-21, 08:06 AM
Runesmith already does this (for Dorfizards anyway), and I don't think anyone has ever called that OP.

Yuki Akuma
2009-12-21, 08:07 AM
Several classes give arcane spellcasting in light or medium armour - and with a feat you can boost that to heavy if you can even wear it.

It wouldn't be completely unbalancing but no one would bother, what with Still Spell being so cheap anyway.