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View Full Version : Alacritous Cogitation - bypasses casting time?



Jack_Simth
2008-04-27, 03:59 PM
I was browsing through Complete Mage, and noticed something I'd previously overlooked on Alacritous Cogitation: it specifies that "Casting the spell requires a full-round action." ... with no regard to what the previous casting time was.

Does this mean that, by the book, a Wizard using this feat could cast, say, Identify with a full-round action, rather than the standard one-hour casting time? Or Sleep/Enlarge Person/Summon Monster as a full-round action, rather than as a 1-round spell? Does it actually bypass casting times longer than a full-round at no level adjustment as written?

Reel On, Love
2008-04-27, 04:10 PM
Yes, it does.

I think you can also make an epic spell with a casting time of a century, and then cast it through Alacritous Cogitation, but whatever, Epic Spellcasting is broken in a thousand ways, what's one more?

Jack_Simth
2008-04-27, 04:27 PM
Yes, it does.

... making the feat even more broken than I initially thought. Thanks.


I think you can also make an epic spell with a casting time of a century, and then cast it through Alacritous Cogitation, but whatever, Epic Spellcasting is broken in a thousand ways, what's one more?
Nah, you're limited to 100 days (and 10 minutes) extra casting time (which gets you to 100 days, 11 minutes, at -220 spellcraft DC) with Epic spells as written. No century-long casting times. It is, however, enough to set up something Contingent to bring you back from the dead when needed. I'm particularly fond of using the Ghost option for that, as it gets a lot of nifties... including (at that level) total avoidance of further death (unless done in an antimagic field... but that would be a tricky one to arrange, what with the whole "winking out" thing in antimagic fields...).

Edit: Oh, hey - errata - "no longer than 1 round" - which means it doesn't work for Identify, but does work for the rest on the list. Hmm.

Emperor Tippy
2008-04-27, 05:03 PM
Link to the errata? Cause the only reason I took it was for those long ass divinations (no I don't want to wait 12 weeks for Legend Lore).

Edit: Never mind found it. Yeah it kinda sucks now.

Illiterate Scribe
2008-04-27, 05:14 PM
Link to the errata? Cause the only reason I took it was for those long ass divinations (no I don't want to wait 12 weeks for Legend Lore).


Eh, I always Planar Ally-ed an elemental weird, and asked it a whole lot of questions. They have a ton of nifty divinations as at-will SLAs.

Jack_Simth
2008-04-27, 05:19 PM
Link to the errata? Cause the only reason I took it was for those long ass divinations (no I don't want to wait 12 weeks for Legend Lore).

Edit: Never mind found it. Yeah it kinda sucks now.

"Kinda sucks"?

Are you joking?

Leave one spell slot at your highest level open and you can cast very nearly any spell you could have prepared that morning. If you come across a situation you haven't prepared for, you're covered (if it can be done with one spell). The feat makes it so that, regardless of whether or not you know it's coming, you have "the perfect spell" available once per day (assuming you know the spell to begin with).

If you're not yet to the point where you can divine everything you're facing (or if your DM doesn't plan things out sufficiently to let you do that, or if you can't afford the resources necessary to do that, or if your opponents put countermeasures in place so that you can't divine out what's coming up, or...) then the fact that you don't know what's coming doesn't matter (once per day). Likewise, if something comes up because of a bad roll, and you need a specialty spell that you wouldn't normally prepare and don't have in scroll form (yet), you can still cast it.

Honestly, I'd have to say it's a fairly broken feat, in that it negates one of the biggest drawbacks of the Wizard class - the need for foreknoweledge.

dman11235
2008-04-27, 06:01 PM
One slot. That's it. It still requires you to have the entire rest of your list prepared correctly. Think of it as an emergency catch-all. And it's a full feat that could have been spent on prereqs or MM or item creation. If anything it's a little weak. Useful, but I'd never take it (I'd never play a wizard though, so meh).

Emperor Tippy
2008-04-27, 06:02 PM
"Kinda sucks"?

Are you joking?

Leave one spell slot at your highest level open and you can cast very nearly any spell you could have prepared that morning. If you come across a situation you haven't prepared for, you're covered (if it can be done with one spell). The feat makes it so that, regardless of whether or not you know it's coming, you have "the perfect spell" available once per day (assuming you know the spell to begin with).

If you're not yet to the point where you can divine everything you're facing (or if your DM doesn't plan things out sufficiently to let you do that, or if you can't afford the resources necessary to do that, or if your opponents put countermeasures in place so that you can't divine out what's coming up, or...) then the fact that you don't know what's coming doesn't matter (once per day). Likewise, if something comes up because of a bad roll, and you need a specialty spell that you wouldn't normally prepare and don't have in scroll form (yet), you can still cast it.

Honestly, I'd have to say it's a fairly broken feat, in that it negates one of the biggest drawbacks of the Wizard class - the need for foreknoweledge.

True. But I never really run into the problem of "I need that spell now".

nargbop
2008-04-27, 06:23 PM
Kind sucks? NEVER!
I'm playing a Factotum right now, and through DM cooperation (not sure it's right by the RAW) was able to take Alacritous Cogitation. Factotums get to cast one, ONE spell at the highest level they have available, and the rest are of lower-level spells. Thus, a 15th-level factotum usually has 5 spells of 5th level or lower, and 1 spell of 6th level. This is per day, and normally once you choose them, you're stuck with them just like regular wizards. Only it's such an incredibly low number of spells that you have to guess and research very thoroughly to know what your challenges will be.
Alacritous cogitation, applied to your high-level slot, allows you to intelligently choose the best spell for the situation, and maybe gives you enough time for the rest of your party to overcome the problem.
For example, I went into a Pelorian temple ruin, expecting to find a number of celestials or semi-friendly guardians, and took utility spells and a couple diplomacy-type spells. Turns out, this temple had a series of moral tests in it, plus a prison for those who failed the tests. The prison had several liches in it. I had prepared no spells against undead. But Alacritous Cogitation allowed me to cast Crown of the Grave and let my barbarian friend bash them silly.

nargbop
2008-04-27, 06:25 PM
True. But I never really run into the problem of "I need that spell now".

You've probably played blasters and specialists thus far, then. I like playing Batman.

Jack_Simth
2008-04-27, 06:25 PM
True. But I never really run into the problem of "I need that spell now".
Well, a well-played Wizard will always have something useful to do, true - but tell me, have you ever thought "this encounter would be a cakewalk if I'd prepared X instead" or something of that nature?

The feat scales perfectly with level (most don't) as it applies to the highest level spell you can cast.

Initially, it lets you pull out the best spell for the situation straight away, when you have few options to work with and can't squeeze much flexibility into your list. Additionally, it lets you avoid that pesky "1 round" casting time drawback of being a walking target.

Later on, it gives you utter flexibility with your highest level spell (if you so choose). As there's very little practical difference between a full-round action casting time and a standard action casting time. If you'd normally be inclined to use Shadow Evocation or Shadow Conjouration, you can skip it with no particular drawbacks. The duplicate Wizard spell option of (Limited) Wish isn't something you need anymore (unless you're trying to get a spell not on your list).

Additionally, if you're stuck away from your spellbook for whatever reason, you can still grab nearly any spell from it (once per day). Better than Spell Mastery in a lot of ways, as it can be very nearly any spell in your spellbook - Teleport, Plane Shift, or Gate, say (Wish includes the clause of "regardless of local conditions" so that's the one you grab if the entire area is dimensional locked)... with a feat that you took at 1st level (when you don't qualify for any of the item creation feats you don't already have).

Okay, yeah - if you're planning on a specific set of PrC's that'll take most of your feats up until a particular level, it's probably non-optimal for your particular build. Otherwise? Dude.

Chosen_of_Vecna
2008-04-27, 06:37 PM
You've probably played blasters and specialists thus far, then. I like playing Batman.

:smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:

If you seriously think you are playing Batman, you have no idea. Don't say things like that about people until you have at least some evidence.

dman11235
2008-04-27, 07:16 PM
Wait, nargbob, did you seriously use potential houserules and a completely different class to prove that it's a powerful feat? Are you familiar with the old robot saying does not compute.

Anyways, the feat is by no means bad, it's just not all that great. The typical wizard will not be caught unprepared, so that's that usefulness gone. Also, it's just one spell, once per day. Once you use it to get out of one mess, you can't use it again until the next day. So two messes in one day, you're screwed. Once again, not bad, just not great. Average.

senrath
2008-04-27, 07:31 PM
"Kinda sucks"?

Are you joking?

Leave one spell slot at your highest level open and you can cast very nearly any spell you could have prepared that morning. If you come across a situation you haven't prepared for, you're covered (if it can be done with one spell). The feat makes it so that, regardless of whether or not you know it's coming, you have "the perfect spell" available once per day (assuming you know the spell to begin with).

If you're not yet to the point where you can divine everything you're facing (or if your DM doesn't plan things out sufficiently to let you do that, or if you can't afford the resources necessary to do that, or if your opponents put countermeasures in place so that you can't divine out what's coming up, or...) then the fact that you don't know what's coming doesn't matter (once per day). Likewise, if something comes up because of a bad roll, and you need a specialty spell that you wouldn't normally prepare and don't have in scroll form (yet), you can still cast it.

Honestly, I'd have to say it's a fairly broken feat, in that it negates one of the biggest drawbacks of the Wizard class - the need for foreknoweledge.

If that problem comes up a lot you shouldn't be playing a Wizard, but a sorcerer.

Jack_Simth
2008-04-27, 08:34 PM
If that problem comes up a lot you shouldn't be playing a Wizard, but a sorcerer.
If you can't build a spell list that will cover 90% of situations you'll find yourself in, you shouldn't be playing a Sorcerer, either. Alacritous Cogitation means you can get the other 10% without needing to specifically prepare for it. A Sorcerer has no such option.

Both can benefit from Mage of the Arcane Order - but for a Wizard, this one feat covers most of what you'd want from the Mage of the Arcane Order PrC, without the drawbacks (Dues, initiation fee, spellpool debt, mandatory quests). And calling a spell from the Spellpool takes longer (one round to call, regular time to cast). The one feat is about 80% of what you'd want from a rather nice PrC, and does it faster, at less cost, and more convenience.

But then, I didn't say it's for when you don't have a usable spell prepared - I said it's for grabbing "the perfect spell" for the job. If you know you'll be facing a golem, but not what type, you're stuck either buffing your allies, controlling the battlefield, preparing for every possible golem, or using no SR direct damage spells. With this, you can spot the golem, make your knoweledge roll, and then just zap with the spell that'll Slow it to a crawl for the next 2d6 rounds... and as it'll only "live" two rounds now that the meatshield and Cleric have an easy target that can barely fight back, you're golden. It gets you "the perfect spell" when you weren't sure exactly what you'd be facing.