Rage Casting

[troqdor1316]

So one of my characters wants to play a really ****ed up build in a level 10 campaign:

Barbarian1/Duskblade 6/Bear Warrior1/Warshaper2
Race: Human
Feats:
B: Extra Rage
Flaw1: Iron Will
Flaw2: Combat Casting
L1: Power Attack
L3: Cleave (retrained to Leap Attack later)
L6: Rage Casting
L9: Multiattack

The only big problem is that he can't cast Duskblade spells (and therefore can't Arcane Channel) while raging. So I got bored and made a feat I'm thinking about allowing him to use.

Rage Casting
Prereqs: BAB+6, Iron Will, Combat Casting, ability to rage or frenzy, access to 2nd level arcane spells
Benefit: A character with this feat can cast spells while raging that have a casting time of 1 standard action or less. He can also make Concentration checks while raging, but only in order to prevent loss of a spell from taking injury.

So, overpowered? Underpowered? Stupid? Lemme know.

[Sir Chuckles]

You took a little more than the whole requirement section of a prestige class (http://dndtools.eu/classes/rage-mage/) and turned it into a feat that does the whole point of taking the prestige class.
I'd recommend either saying "pick up Rage Mage" or use a Rage Mage fix (dat half casting) and use that.

Aside from that, I don't see anything terribly wrong with the feat.

[Jeff the Green]

You took a little more than the whole requirement section of a prestige class (http://dndtools.eu/classes/rage-mage/) and turned it into a feat that does the whole point of taking the prestige class.


This is entirely appropriate. Rage Mage is bad not just because it's half casting, but because the thing it does is so weak. It should really be a feat akin to Swift Hunter.

Personally, I'd drop Iron Will as a prerequisite, make your arcane class stack for determining access to greater, tireless, and mighty rage, and add in that you can expend a spell to go into rage for a number of rounds equal to that spell's level - 1.

[DR27]

This is entirely appropriate. Rage Mage is bad not just because it's half casting, but because the thing it does is so weak. It should really be a feat akin to Swift Hunter.

Personally, I'd drop Iron Will as a prerequisite, make your arcane class stack for determining access to greater, tireless, and mighty rage, and add in that you can expend a spell to go into rage for a number of rounds equal to that spell's level - 1.Yes and no. Adding anything to casting is overpowered - because casting is so OP to begin with. However, since this is in relation to Duskblade (and has BAB requirements) - I'd say that Jeff is spot on. Bolting rage onto partial Duskblade casting isn't going to break anything. Just because there is a published option to do something doesn't mean that it's balanced (either overpowered or underpowered). If you can balance out your own game, more power to you.

[Jeff the Green]

Yes and no. Adding anything to casting is overpowered - because casting is so OP to begin with.

Depends on what you're adding. If you add on the ability to swing a sword, well, a caster has more effective ways of dealing with enemies. By pushing him into a gish role, you're encouraging him to avoid the most overpowered and campaign-breaking things a caster can do. There's also opportunity cost; at a minimum, this costs two feats and a level that doesn't progress casting.

[Eldest]

This is entirely appropriate. Rage Mage is bad not just because it's half casting, but because the thing it does is so weak. It should really be a feat akin to Swift Hunter.

Personally, I'd drop Iron Will as a prerequisite, make your arcane class stack for determining access to greater, tireless, and mighty rage, and add in that you can expend a spell to go into rage for a number of rounds equal to that spell's level - 1.

I would put the spell-expending for raging into a different feat, like Arcane... Blow? Arcane something, adds damage per spell slot used. I forget the name. But yeah, the improvements to rage would also be a good idea.

[Larkas]

If you're feeling bold, you can always tweak and backport ACG's bloodrager...

[Jeff the Green]

I would put the spell-expending for raging into a different feat, like Arcane... Blow? Arcane something, adds damage per spell slot used. I forget the name. But yeah, the improvements to rage would also be a good idea.

I based it on Ascetic Mage. And considering that A) Only levels in your casting class (not PrCs) stack, B) You don't get any more rage uses unless you take more levels in Barbarian, and C) Spells are almost always better than a shortened rage, I'd be pretty comfortable allowing it as-is.

[Flickerdart]

If you want opinions on homebrew, we have a forum for that.

The best way to cast spells in a rage (and thus channel them) is Champion of Gwynharwyf. It doesn't natively have much in the way of touch range damage spells, but it's a prepared divine caster, so standard tricks apply for getting more spells known.