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Talya
2007-02-01, 12:18 PM
I have been playing a campaign for quite some time as a sorceress/heartwarder with primarily fire and enchantment spells. Among her starting feats were "Bloodline of Fire." Basically the feat is a 1st level only regional feat that indicates very distant fire genaasi/Efreeti blood. It provides +2 caster level to all spells with the [fire] descriptor, and +4 to all saves vs. fire magic.

Being a sorceror, I realized I couldn't have much versatility, so I took Energy Substitution. I asked me DM how he was going to treat energy substitution with regard to the [fire] descriptor. (So basically I could use it to my advantage.) Does substitution change the descriptor? If you cast a fireball with energy substitution [cold] does it become a [cold] spell instead of fire? Or does it maintain its descriptor?

My point in this, was that if it did maintain its [fire] descriptor, I'd take all fire spells and metamagic them when fire was less than useful. If it changed the descriptor, I'd take energy substitution [fire] and take a wide range of other energy spells which I could convert to fire by metamagic to receive the CL bonus.

How would you have ruled?

Gamebird
2007-02-01, 12:21 PM
I asked me DM how he was going to treat energy substitution with regard to the [fire] descriptor. (So basically I could use it to my advantage.) Does substitution change the descriptor? If you cast a fireball with energy substitution [cold] does it become a [cold] spell instead of fire? Or does it maintain its descriptor?

Yes, it changes the descriptor, which would make the spell no longer a valid target for the modifiers of your feat.

SpiderBrigade
2007-02-01, 12:21 PM
I think it pretty clearly changes the descriptor. So you should take the regular spells, and Energy Sub them to be fire.

henebry
2007-02-01, 12:26 PM
It's not a question of interpretation, as the feat description in Complete Arcane is quite clear on this point:

...The spell's descriptor changes to the new energy type.

So your character would do best to take Energy Subst (Fire), enabling her to cast Lightning Bolt as a [Fire] spell: i.e. a line area of effect version of the more common Fireball. She would get her +2 caster level to both Lightning Bolt cast with Energ Subst (Fire) and Fireball.