Reserve feats

[Little Brother]

Are any of them actually decent? A quick skim made them all look kinda eh. I know the Factotum can benefit from it, but can an actual caster?

[Fenryr]

The one I see more useful is the one of Temporal HP. If I remember correctly, you gain 10 Temporal HP as swift action.

The others? Well, depends on the gaming style or campaign. Not all of them are useful.

[Keld Denar]

Minor Shapeshift is probably the best. Its really really good, primarily because it takes only a swift action to activate, while most of the others are standards. The biggest perk is the one that gives CL temp HP for SL rounds. Thus, if you have a caster level of 12 and you have a 4th level Polymorph spell prepped, it'll give you 12 temp HP for 4 rounds as a swift action. Thats golden for any gish type, and really good for any other type.

Acid Spatter is often cited as being decent for Arcane Rogue builds. Gives you an all-day vehicle to deliver SA damage with. Not bad.

Holy Warrior (CChamp) is great for any melee clerics with the War domain. Its a decent source of bonus damage that can really get the job done.

The Teleport one...it has uses. Its got a short range, but its fun for hopping through doors and walls, breaking and entering, etc. Also a CL boost to teleporation spells is pretty nice if you need to bring extra party members with you.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Some of them are pretty good, others are situational. Summon Elemental lets you Nodwick through traps, Touch of Healing can save quite a few charges from your Wands of Lesser Vigor, and Acid Splatter can deliver sneak attacks.

A Sorcerer with Heighten Spell can always use his reserve feats based on his highest level spell slot remaining. If he also has Versatile Spellcaster and two spell slots of his highest available level, then he can use his reserve feats as though he has that type of spell of one level higher available. It actually makes the damage dealing reserve feats somewhat worthwhile.

A Druid can always use Summon Elemental as long as he has a prepared spell of the minimum level available to spontaneously convert to a Summon Nature's Ally. He too can use Versatile Spellcaster to count as though a higher level summon is available, and it also increases the benefit of a Ring of the Beast.

[sreservoir]

reserve feats are awesome at low levels if you keep in reserve the potential for extreme metamagic reduction cheese.

clerics with DMM (heighten) are great with reserve feats. naenhoon illumians with turn undead from any source are possibly better.

for example: illumian cleric 3 with, with undeath domain and 14 cha. you qualify for summon elemental -- you can easily cast effectively 9th level spells with naenhoon heighten; if you keep a summon holy symbol (CC; cantrip, so the slot is cheap) and eight turn attempts, you can summon a large elemental at will for about a minute at a time. even without undeath domain, you can definitely do the 4th effect and it's not difficult to do 6th if you keep a summon monster.

that is almost certainly more powerful than your 2nd-level spells. druids get SNA V at 9th for large elementals, and SNA IV at 7th for medium.

[Kosjsjach]

A 1st-level human Sorcerer or Wizard with the Precocious Apprentice (CAr) and Fiery Burst (CM) feats can throw around mini-fireballs all day for 2d6 damage. So that's something.

[Big Fau]

The Teleport one...it has uses. Its got a short range, but its fun for hopping through doors and walls, breaking and entering, etc. Also a CL boost to teleporation spells is pretty nice if you need to bring extra party members with you.

It's also severely outclassed by Shape Soulmeld (Blink Shirt), except for the CL boost.

The Damage-based feats are good if you tend to cast Battlefield Control spells or Debuffs, largely because you can still contribute to the party's overall Action Economy and look like a team player instead of just standing around looking for stragglers who escaped your spells.

Touch of Healing and the one that alleviates Ability Damage are both very helpful, but I prefer Blessing of the Godless to ToH.

[Keld Denar]

It's also severely outclassed by Shape Soulmeld (Blink Shirt), except for the CL boost.

Maybe for a non-caster. Blink Shirt has a REALLY short range, especially if you don't have a source of essentia. Your generic human non-incarnum guy can only teleport 10', ever. I think the minimum distance Dimension Step will send you is 40' (due to need to hold back a 4th level spell).

So, while its better for a non-caster, due to the lack of spells to power the reserve feat in the first place, on most casters, Dimension Step is going to give you much better range.

[Andorax]

Cheese aside, Summon Elemental for a constantly-available disposal minion, especially if you can speak terran, can come in very handy.


Really, the big deciding factor about reserve feats is the pace of your games. If your group's playstyle is "detonate 3 rooms and camp", they're probalbly not useful. If you're being hunted and hazed continuously, and get attacked while camping over half the time, you'd probably be well off considering one.

[Big Fau]

Maybe for a non-caster. Blink Shirt has a REALLY short range, especially if you don't have a source of essentia. Your generic human non-incarnum guy can only teleport 10', ever. I think the minimum distance Dimension Step will send you is 40' (due to need to hold back a 4th level spell).

So, while its better for a non-caster, due to the lack of spells to power the reserve feat in the first place, on most casters, Dimension Step is going to give you much better range.

I meant because it can come online as early as 1st level. For pretty much any non-Fullcaster (Bard, Duskblade, etc), that beats the hell out of the Reserve feat.

[faceroll]

I picked up fiery burst on a druid, and it was marginally useful for 2 levels, before I got wildshape. As a druid, casting spells, being a wolf with aspect of the wolf and biting people, and handling animals, all seemed better uses of my time than a handful of fire damage.

I could see the utility of it on a low level wizard where you only have 3 or 4 spells a day.

[MeeposFire]

Blink shirt also has the problem of emulating dimensional door which means it prevents the use of other action afterwords and it provokes AoO. The reserve feat does not limit actions at all and it is supernatural and so no AoO.