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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Shift Subschool ( New Feat, please PEACH)



Southern Cross
2014-07-10, 10:34 PM
After reading Kolbold-Bard's Compassionate Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?172365-Compassionate-Mage-3-5-Wiz-Sor-ACF&highlight=Compassionate+mage) ACF, and becoming concerned that Conjuration had too many powerful subschools, I began developing the Shift Subschool feat listed below.

Shift Subschool (Arcane, General)
Your arcane training has taken an unusual turn. You can cast Conjuration spells, but they are treated as belonging to a different school. Not only does this enable you to cast Conjuration spells even if you have it as an opposition school, but any special abilities you have with that school also apply to the new subschool!
Prerequisites: At least one level of a class that casts arcane spells.
Benefits: The Shift Subschool feat provides one of the following benefits as soon as you meet the prerequisites in parentheses. Note that you can take the Shift Subschool feat multiple times: each time it affects a different subschool. Note that Conjuration [Summoning] is considered to be the core function of the Conjuration school, and cannot be affected by Shift Subschool.

Arcane Caller (Must be able to cast enchantment spells, Spell Focus (enchantment)): Your mastery of enchantment spells enables you to cast spells of the (calling) subschool as if they were enchantment spells.

Arcane Creator (must be able to cast evocation spells, 1st level only): You can cast spells of the (creation) subschool as if they were evocation spells

Arcane Healer (1st level, must have access to the [Creation] subschool ): You can cast spells from the Healer subschool as if they were evocation spells. Unless you have another Shift Subschool feat, you lose access to one Conjuration subschool (excluding Conjuration [Creation]).

Arcane Warper (Must be able to cast transmutation spells, Spell Focus (transmutation)): You can warp space itself, enabling you to cast [teleportation] spells as if they were transmutation spells.

jiriku
2014-07-11, 12:23 AM
I could see this being especially useful to specialist mages. If you're primarily an enchanter, evoker, or transmuter and you're mostly interested in the Conjuration spells you could get from this feat, you could select Conjuration as one of your barred domains to still be able to cast the selected subschool. An evoker with Arcane Healer would be especially interesting, since you both gain the ability to heal, which wizards can't normally do, and you mitigate the cost of the feat by losing access to a subschool from a school you're planning to bar anyway.

It's not an extremely powerful feat by any means, but really, not every wizard needs to be a campaign-breaking monstrosity. This feat opens up the opportunity to do some things with wizards that don't get done very often.

gr8artist
2014-07-11, 01:13 AM
Make each subset into its own feat. You have to take it multiple times to get each benefit anyway, and it clears up some clutter regarding primary and secondary prerequisites.

Shifted spells should be treated as one level higher. So the wizard casts CLW as a second level spell.

Also, rather than converting two subschools into Evocation spells, consider changing the healing spells to Abjuration, or perhaps necromancy (which seems weird at first, but it's basically manipulation of health and well-being anyway).
Yeah, go with healing -> Necromancy. Which, I believe, is the category it fell in back in the old days.

Now, as has been mentioned, this makes wizards a good bit more well rounded. The top tier class just got a buff. Consider making the caster choose a handful of spells to apply the benefit to. For example, when he takes the feat, he chooses up to 3 conjuration spells from the primary subschool to add to his spell list as spells of another school. This choice cannot be undone or changed, and these spells are treated as one level higher than their original level.

So, a 7th level wizard could take arcane healer and add CLW, CMW, and CSW to his class spell list as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spells of the Necromancy school. He still has to copy those spells from some source, as normal.

jiriku
2014-07-11, 01:51 AM
I wouldn't agree with casting them at a higher level. Most spellcasters have the native ability to cast these spells anyway. By itself, this feat doesn't actually provide any benefits at all (except in the case of healing, for which it offers a corresponding drawback). Applying your existing school specialty features is a small benefit, which is just about right for the cost of a feat. On the other hand, if the spells were prepared as one level higher, that would be a bad deal even if you got the option for free.

Southern Cross
2014-07-16, 07:50 PM
Actually, I decided to put the spells gained from Arcane Healing into Evocation because (a) that's where they were put in Arcana Evolved, my favorite d20 sourcebook ,(b) I thought evocation needed the boost and (c) I don't like necromancy spells.

Southern Cross
2014-08-09, 01:28 AM
Here are the variations of Shift Subschool as different feats:

Arcane Caller (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: Must be able to cast arcane enchantment spells, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Benefits: Your mastery of enchantment spells enables you to cast spells of the (calling) subschool as if they were enchantment spells.

Arcane Creator (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: Must be able to cast arcane evocation spells, 1st level only
Benefits: You can cast spells of the (creation) subschool as if they were evocation spells.

Arcane Healer (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: 1st level, must have access to the [Creation] subschool
Benefits: You can cast spells from the Healer subschool as if they were evocation spells. Unless you have the Arcane Creator feat, you lose access to one Conjuration subschool (excluding Conjuration [Creation]).

Arcane Warper (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: Must be able to cast transmutation spells, Spell Focus (transmutation)
Benefits: You can warp space itself, enabling you to cast [teleportation] spells as if they were transmutation spells.

Southern Cross
2014-08-13, 05:26 AM
OK, if I turn the various forms of Shift Subschool into seperate feats, I get the following:

Arcane Caller (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: Must be able to cast arcane enchantment spells, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Benefits:Your mastery of enchantment spells enables you to cast spells of the (calling) subschool as if they were enchantment spells.

Arcane Creator (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: Must be able to cast arcane evocation spells, 1st level only
Benefits:You can cast spells of the (creation) subschool as if they were evocation spells.

Arcane Healer (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites:1st level wizard, must have access to the [Creation] subschool
Benefits: You can cast spells from the Healer subschool as if they were evocation spells. Unless you have the Arcane Creator feat, you lose access to one Conjuration subschool (excluding Conjuration [Creation]).

Arcane Warper (Arcane, General)
Prerequisites: Must be able to cast transmutation spells, Spell Focus (transmutation)
Benefits:You can warp space itself, enabling you to cast [teleportation] spells as if they were transmutation spells.