Is this feat as broken as it looks?

[Cuddly]

Arcane Shaper
You can shape a prepared spell into another effect.
Prereq: Quicken Spell
Benefit: You can change any prepared spell into another spell you know (but do not necessarily have prepared). The new spell must be at least two levels lower than the spell you are shaping.


From a third party splatbook, Path of Magic.

[RyanM]

Looks pretty broken to me. On the other hand, Great Cleave + Flurry of Blows...

[Zincorium]

It doesn't seem especially overpowered considering the existence of anyspell and shadow evocation (and similar).

Moreover, it's fairly rare that a wizard not only doesn't have a spell memorized but also doesn't have a scroll, wand, or other magic item capable of standing in for it.

And even in those situations, losing a spell two levels higher is a pretty big cost.

I personally wouldn't take it even if allowed, it's a waste of a feat slot in 95%+ of the situations you'll run into.

[tyckspoon]

Nah. Trading down a spell two full spell levels is almost always going to be a loss unless you're swapping something that really, really blows for a broken spell of the lower level, in which case you have learned not to prepare that suckspell again. It would give a wizard a lot of immediate versatility that you may prefer to leave in the realm of spontaneous casters, but it's got a hefty penalty.

[Cuddly]

Incantatrix+earth spell = killer gnome on crack. Add in easy metamagic. Now you can turn any spell into a spell one level higher than it.

Make that a 0 level spell, and arcane thesis it. Use energy sub on it. Now you can apply any metamagic feat of 3 levels or less on it for free.

[tyckspoon]

Incantatrix+earth spell = killer gnome on crack. Add in easy metamagic. Now you can turn any spell into a spell one level higher than it.


.. ok, if you're worried about it making an already broken option *more* broken, then it might do that. That's not the question your thread title asked, tho.

[Emperor Tippy]

Incantatrix+earth spell = killer gnome on crack. Add in easy metamagic. Now you can turn any spell into a spell one level higher than it.

Make that a 0 level spell, and arcane thesis it. Use energy sub on it. Now you can apply any metamagic feat of 3 levels or less on it for free.

I would rule you can't meta the spontaneous spell.

[FlyMolo]

Arcane Shaper
You can shape a prepared spell into another effect.
Prereq: Quicken Spell
Benefit: You can change any prepared spell into another spell you know (but do not necessarily have prepared). The new spell must be at least two levels lower than the spell you are shaping.


From a third party splatbook, Path of Magic.

No, not really. It would be really broken if it was any spell you know of that level. That two level penalty is really what makes this a good feat. I like it.

For example, instead of dispel magic, or explosive runes, or Hold person, you can cast Animate rope, or Sleep, or color spray, or charm person. Deep slumber/sleep. control undead, finger of death, hold person/invisibility, mass, traded for cone of cold, phantom hound, cloudkill, dominate person.

The main problem with this feat is the unclear definition of know.

[FlyMolo]

I would rule you can't meta the spontaneous spell.
Actually, you can. It takes a full-round action to do so, though(except quicken:smallyuk: ). Ruling out meta-casting for all spontaneous casters is a pretty serious nerf. Don't do it. There are classes based around the idea somewhere, I think.

[Emperor Tippy]

Actually, you can. It takes a full-round action to do so, though(except quicken:smallyuk: ). Ruling out meta-casting for all spontaneous casters is a pretty serious nerf. Don't do it. There are classes based around the idea somewhere, I think.

No. I meant ruling it out for use of this feat.

[brian c]

No. I meant ruling it out for use of this feat.

I would agree. It says you may replace it with "a spell you know" and technically speaking you may know a spell called "Fireball" but you don't know the spell "Maximized Fireball" (etc)

Also, the rules for a spontaneous caster applying metamagic is I believe really a rule for sorcerers, so letting a wizard apply metamagic to this sort of spell by making it a full-round action is entirely a DM ruling, not RAW; correct me if I'm wrong though.

[Rad]

Incantatrix+earth spell = killer gnome on crack. Add in easy metamagic. Now you can turn any spell into a spell one level higher than it.

Make that a 0 level spell, and arcane thesis it. Use energy sub on it. Now you can apply any metamagic feat of 3 levels or less on it for free.

Since you have an homebrewed feat I assume that your DM is able to make a reasonable (non-RAW) ruling there like, you know, no application of a metamagic feat can decrease the spell level...

I like the feat actually, I would even allow metamagic (total modified spell level equals to two less than the lost spell, nothing can be a <0 net reduction to it as above).

[Closet_Skeleton]

You should be able to metamagic it, just not above the level -2 thing. Swapping a level 6 spell for an enlarged fireball should be fine, since you're not breaking the "swap for a spell of level 4 or lower" part of the feat.

[nargbop]

Alacritous Cogitation from Complete Mage. Allows you to swap out a prepared spell for any spell you know. My DM allowed it because I was playing a Factotum and had fewer spells per day than fingers.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Alacritous Cogitation from Complete Mage. Allows you to swap out a prepared spell for any spell you know. My DM allowed it because I was playing a Factotum and had fewer spells per day than fingers.

Or you could allow it because it takes a feat to give you spontaneous casting of one single spell a day. And therefore is so far from overpowered that it makes me cry to think that anyone actually thinks it is.