Hey All, Help Me With an Class Feature

[wayfare]

Hey All:

I'm designing a tier 3 Evocator for a homebrew game. Please help me clarify this class feature:

Overchannel: When casting a spell that inflicts damage, the Evocator may take damage to enhance the damage inflicted by his spells. Every 2 points of damage the Evocator takes increases the damage dice applied by 1 step, up to a maximum of d12 damage dice. When a spell inflicts damage in this way, half of the damage inflicted is Force damage.
For example, a Fireball cast by a 5th level caster inflicts 5d6 fire damage to all foes within a 30 foot radius. Using Overchannel, the Evocator could take 4 points of damage to increase the damage inflicted to 5d10 points of damage. Half of this damage is force and half is fire damage.

[NeoSeraphi]

Well, actually, that sounds perfectly clear and well-worded to me. You should probably insert this though:

"The damage taken by this feat cannot be prevented by damage reduction of any type, nor can it be shared with spells such as shield other. The evocator takes the damage before he casts the spell, and if taking such damage would cause the evocator to become disabled or dying, he may not use this ability."

[wayfare]

Well, actually, that sounds perfectly clear and well-worded to me. You should probably insert this though:

"The damage taken by this feat cannot be prevented by damage reduction of any type, nor can it be shared with spells such as shield other. The evocator takes the damage before he casts the spell, and if taking such damage would cause the evocator to become disabled or dying, he may not use this ability."

Good idea. I'll add that in.

[Yitzi]

Interesting...at low levels it's not worth it, but at high levels it's extremely worth it.

[eftexar]

Why not make the cost equal to 1/4 your level (to a minimum of 1) per raise in die? This might make the ability scale better.

[wayfare]

The game only goes to level 10.

[wayfare]

Any other thoughts?

[DracoDei]

Typed this up, public terminal I am on unexpectedly failed. Short version follows.

You need to specify if this damage forces a Concentration check to avoid losing the spell. Usually such abilities DON'T force a check, but you need to spell it out either way. On the off chance that it does see below:
Assuming 14 Con to start with, high enough level to bump that up to 16 with an item, and maxed Concentration ranks (unless for some VERY odd reason you didn't give them that as a class skill). This gives a number you need to roll equal to or above on the d20 itself of 4+(die SIZE increase)-level. For a needed result of 1 (IE don't bother rolling you automatically succeed), this gives an ability to increase die size by 2 (1 step) at 6th level with impunity, 4 (2 steps) at 8th, and 6 (3 steps) at 10th. Combat Casting lowers this by about 4 levels, and Skill Focus [Concentration] (often considered a better choice than Combat Casting) by 3. Variations in the magic item boosting Constitution or starting Constitution produce small variation in these levels, and custom magic items that boost Concentration checks directly can drop these like a stone if you go by the RAW pricing recommendations. The same 4,000 GP that would get you that +2 Constitution item would get you a +6 to concentration checks, for a net gain of +5. Of course, that doesn't help out your hitpoints (important if you are going to be using this ability much) or fortitude saves.

This is just data, not an opinion. Better heads than mine may correct my assumptions, and I am not personally drawing conclusions from this data. I would leave out the concentration checks, since they are more work and, Blasting needs nice things.


At 5th level (same level they probably get Fireball, one of the best spells to use this on in Core) the damage can be erased with a single Cure Light Wounds without even needing to roll. This isn't completely trivial, since you are still down those hitpoints for the rest of the fight (barring in-battle healing, which isn't good in terms of action economy), and the clerics 4 to 5 (depending on if they have boosted their wisdom to 20 yet, which they probably haven't QUITE).


The damage is trivial by 10th level, letting you squeeze 30 damage (save halves) to multiple targets out of Fireball or Cone of Cold for a mere 6 points of damage to yourself. This makes it a pretty good ability, but Blasting needs Nice Things.