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Lactantius
2013-08-30, 03:07 PM
Hi,
the mechanics of the latest supplements of D&D 3.5 allowed wizards to gain some small spontaenous spellcasting abilites.

Whether uncanny forethought, alacr. cogiration, spellpooling or spontaenous divination - there is a good benchmark available to create and compare my own spontaenous casting ability.

The goal is to combine specialist wizards with this ability.

The wording of the ability is still a work in progress, so I would appreciate any input, suggestions and balancing issues.

Here we go:


School Versatility (Ex):
Prerequisites: Int 17, spell mastery

You can spontaenously cast any spell of your specialist school by sacrificing a spell of equal or greater level.
If the spontaenously cast specialist spell is selected for the spell mastery feat, you can cast this spell with a swift action.
You can use this ability times per day which equals to your intelligence modifier.
Foe example, your abjurer could spontaenously cast dispel magic by sacrificing any prepared 3rd level spell (or higher).
If you have selected dispel magic as one of your spell mastery feat, you can cast it with a swift action.

Ok, the idea behind this feat was to give a specialist a special ability which makes him unique and distinctive. I think that specialist wizards should have an easier access to the spells of their speciality school.
Furthermore, spell mastery gains a bit more attention. By rewarding it with quickened spells, taking up this feat (and selecting your speciality school), we get a new approach on playing a specialist wizard.

Comments? ideas?
is this feat too strong since if gives a wizard two valuable features: spontaenity and swift casting?

erikun
2013-08-30, 03:21 PM
You can use this ability times per day which equals to your intelligence modifier.
I'm not quite sure what this means. 3 + Intelligence modifier times per day? 3 x Intelligence modifer times per day? 3 times per day, as long as you have at least a +3 Intelligence modifier?

In any case, granting spontaneous spellcasting to an entire school seems like a bit too powerful. I can just imagine getting access to the entire Conjuration school with this feat - there is far too much versatility available there.

This produces in interesting combination with the Illusion Mastery Illusionist variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#illusionistVariants), which has Spell Mastery applied to all illusions. Free swift anything!


In any case, I would limit it to only granting spontaneous spellcasting to spells memorized through Spell Mastery, and only spells in your specialist school. This means that being a specialist wizard would be a prerequisite. It also means they don't get free access to the entire school, and only get access to spontaneous spells of their own school. (So no using it for spontaneous Dispels for anyone but Abjurers.)

sengmeng
2013-08-30, 04:12 PM
Are you running into problems with wizards being underpowered in your campaigns?

I mean, I heard a rule of thumb that said that a feat is overpowered if it's so good that everyone would take it (and, obviously, underpowered if no one would take it). I'm not sure if this one is so good that every wizard would take it, but I know I always would. If I was DMing and included this feat, I'd make you sacrifice a spell slot 1 level higher (so to spontaneously cast a 3rd level spell of your specialized school, you sacrifice a 4th level slot).

TL;DR version: make it use up a slot one higher, because this is powerful enough that I would never make a wizard who didn't take it.

Edit: to be clear: I really like the idea (since I would still like and use my nerfed version).

Network
2013-08-30, 06:14 PM
I find this feat quite similar to Uncanny Forethought from Exemplars of Evil. Proteus from the same book also gives spontaneous spellcasting to the caster, but is more limited and focused. You should check them out (while they may both unbalance the game, that's really only due to the secondary effect. WotC forgot there are spells with a casting time longer than 1 full-round action).

Lactantius
2013-08-30, 11:31 PM
Well, both uncanny forethought and the spontaenous divination ACF from CC were my inspiration pool.
Also, spellpool from the Mage of the Arcane Order (CA).

INT modifier means that he can use the whole ability as much times per day as his int modifier allows it. So, with IN 20 and +5, you can use the ability 5 times per day.


@erikum: spont. divination does already give the full spontaenity th a whole school - you dont even have to pay something for it.

@rest: i find the opportunity cost a balancing factor (one dead feat as prereq.) and the fact that swift actions would only wotk on your spell mastery selected spells (within your specialty school even more).

Fosco the Swift
2013-08-31, 08:13 PM
The feat is pretty cool but I think is still overpowered. Having a dead feat can be a little complicated but why not changed the feat into two seperate feats? One feat does the spontaneous spellcasting and is a presiquite for the second one, which allows the quickening effect. Sacrificing a spell only one level higher isn't enough though, because then Metamagic Feat: quickening is nearly worthless because its 4 levels higher. The extra feats that are needed slightly offset the gain but not compared to Quickened spell.

Gadzooks27
2013-09-03, 01:56 AM
Are you running into problems with wizards being underpowered in your campaigns?

I mean, I heard a rule of thumb that said that a feat is overpowered if it's so good that everyone would take it (and, obviously, underpowered if no one would take it). I'm not sure if this one is so good that every wizard would take it, but I know I always would. If I was DMing and included this feat, I'd make you sacrifice a spell slot 1 level higher (so to spontaneously cast a 3rd level spell of your specialized school, you sacrifice a 4th level slot).

TL;DR version: make it use up a slot one higher, because this is powerful enough that I would never make a wizard who didn't take it.

Edit: to be clear: I really like the idea (since I would still like and use my nerfed version).

Yeah, I don't even specialize. Ever. But I would, knowing that this feat was available.
...If that's any indication that this should be nerfed like there's no tomorrow.

My personal recommendation is that you take away the "swift action" bit and just say that all spells you spontaneously sacrifice become one of the spells for which you took the Spell Mastery feat. This spell is chosen at the time that the feat is selected. Special: This feat may be taken up to three times, and can be taken as a wizard bonus feat. Drop the int requirement to 15 (int 17 isn't necessary, and it wasn't a difficult requirement for a wizard to begin with, since Int is their thing), and include, "specializes in a school of magic" as a prereq. Because not every wizard does, and I'm sure you could possibly make use of spell mastery without doing so.

Then it would be potentially flavorful as well, and there'd be no worries.