new D&D 3.5 feat idea

[Baby Gary]

Hi All,
I have a wonderful idea for a feat. I find the one big problem with staffs is that if the super powerful Wizard of Doom has a super powerful Staff of Doom but it only has 50 charges so the wizard lost all that XP and money that is required to make a staff. I thought of a solution for that problem, to create a feat, and here it is


Everlasting staff
Prerequisite: Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (religion) 12 ranks, ability to cast 5th level divine or arcane spells
Benefit: You can bond with one staff to be able to recharge that staff. To bond with a staff the staff must be fully charged and the caster must spend 16 undisturbed hours meditating with the staff. Then the caster can meditate with the staff while he is preparing his spells for the day and get 10 more charges for the staff (maximum 50 charges) or meditate with his staff for 8 undisturbed hours to fully recharge the staff. You can only be bonded to one staff and you can break you bond with your staff be doing a 1 hour ceremony that consumes 15 of the staffs charges. You must wait at least a week after breaking you bond with one staff before you can bond another staff.


I am wondering if you think that this feat is balanced, if the prerequisites are fair, and most importantly is there already a feat that does this exact same think.

Thanks, Baby Gary

[Kaskus]

This feels off to me. Basically it gives a spellcaster +10 spells per day. That's a LOT more firepower for very little investment (Combined with time studying spells once bonded = free once bonded).

Pathfinder has a built in mechanic for recharging staves by giving up a spell slot equal to the level of spell for which you are adding a charge. In PF, the spellcaster must be able to cast the spell in question. Perhaps that ability without the spell knowledge requirement would be appropriate? That way, if the staff can be used to both convert and bank spell slots.

You might also consider a version that replicates the creation of the staff originally (gold, xp and time) but only for the portion needing to be restored and with some sort of discount for having the item already created.

[gooddragon1]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#masterStaff


Master Staff [Epic]
Prerequisite

Craft Staff, Spellcraft 15 ranks.
Benefit

When you activate a staff, you can substitute a spell slot instead of using a charge. The spell slot must be one you have not used for the day, though you may lose a prepared spell to emulate a staff charge (you may not lose prepared spells from your school of specialty, if any). The spell slot lost must be equal to or higher in level than the specific spell stored in the staff, including any level-increasing metamagic enhancements. You cannot emulate a charge for a staff function that does not match a specific spell.

Never sure on balance things, but something does exist to allow you to use staves more than normal.

[Solaris]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#masterStaff



Never sure on balance things, but something does exist to allow you to use staves more than normal.

I think it's also worth pointing out that many, many 'Epic' feats are in fact weaker than feats that came along later in 3.5's run, and even when they first came out a lot of us (myself included) wondered why they were even tagged Epic to begin with.

[gooddragon1]

I think it's also worth pointing out that many, many 'Epic' feats are in fact weaker than feats that came along later in 3.5's run, and even when they first came out a lot of us (myself included) wondered why they were even tagged Epic to begin with.

Perhaps for a similar reason to why people think ToB is OP and yet a 20th level core druid is fine. Not much of a grip of what is balanced at the time. But that's what homebrew is for. Personally, I don't know whether this is balanced or not, because I've never really had a good grip on it having only DM'd a handful of times. I guess it might depend on the DM.

[Kaskus]

Master staff would be just fine as a non-epic feat IMO.

[Seerow]

Besides the epic feat already linked, there's a couple of non-epic feats that do similar things.



Prerequisite: Caster level 12th, Craft Staff, ability to imbue a staff
Benefit: You may, as a standard action, expend any of your prepared spells or unused spell slots to add charges to your imbued staff. For every five spell levels expended in this way, add one charge to your imbued staff. Cantrips cannot be expended in this way. Your imbued staff must be enchanted with spells that consume charges for this feat to have any effect. Your staff cannot exceed 50 charges through this ability.
Special: If the imbued staff is ever destroyed, the ability to use this feat is lost until a new staff is imbued

Requires an ACF (basically give up your familiar) and spend a feat, but allows you to spend your own spell slots to recharge a staff during downtime. Very useful, and can make your staff last basically forever unless you get pushed ridiculously hard on resources for an extended period of time.


Prerequisite: Use Magic Device 5 ranks, ability to cast 4thlevel spells,
Benefit: When you use a spell trigger magic item with charges (such as a wand or a staff), you can make a Use Magic Device check (DC 15 + the item's caster level). If you succeed, you can sacrifice a spell slot or prepared spell instead of using a charge. The spell slot or spell sacrificed must be one level higher than the level of the desired effect from the item. If the check fails, both your spell slot (or prepared spell) and 1 charge from the item are expended.

Basically gives the option to turn your staff into a weak runestaff, cast staff spells spontaneously from your spell slots, but you have to cast at a level higher.

Personally, I'd consider Recharge staff the more powerful option, but since it requires an ACF and another feat, while Channel Charge just requires some UMD, there's an argument for either.

[Southern Cross]

And remember, Recharge Staff also requires the character to be 12th level. It should be the more powerful option, even if it's just for game balance purposes.