Pact Magic, Quick and Dirty

[ShiningStarling]

Please add on and critique as you see fit.

Pact Magic
You have learned that magic can be more powerful if both the caster and recipient have great investment in its outcome.
Prerequisites: Able to cast 4th level spells
Benefit: You may engage in Pact Magic with a recipient, here defined as any entity who willingly (not under any compulsions) deals with you. They agree to a payment, and you agree to cast a beneficial spell upon them, and in doing business this way, your magic can be more powerful than normal. Both parties must agree to the payment before the spell is cast. Payments rendered to you grant a certain number of points, which can then be spent to amplify the spell, as seen in the table below. At least one payment is required.
Note that you do not have to use all possible amplification for the payment rendered, so long as the recipient agrees to the arrangement. If the recipient feels they are being cheated and you contest this, you may make a Bluff Check opposed by their Knowledge (arcana) or Sense Motive, whichever they possess the greatest bonus in.
Regardless as to whether the spell would normally target multiple creatures or only the caster for its benefit, the spell with affect only the recipient.
You may not use this feat to strike a bargain with anyone whom you regularly provide your services to freely (aka no party members)

Promised Payment			Magic Amplification
Payment	Points Gained		Amplification	Point cost
Material Components and Foci for the spell to be cast upon them	+1, only if they are costly components		Increase duration by 1 step (rounds > minutes > hours > days > weeks > months > years > permanent)	-1, may be applied multiple times
XP cost for the spell to be cast upon them	+2, only applicable to spells with XP cost		Apply a Metamagic Effect (Disguise, Extend, Persistent, Quicken, Repeat, and Twin Spell not applicable)	-1 per spell adjustment of the feat, may be applied multiple times (even for the same feat, effects stack where applicable)
Wealth	+1 per 250 gold equivalence per spell level (magic items, money, and gems count for full, others for half)		Increase Caster Level of the spell	-1, can be applied multiple times
Recipient accepts a Lesser Geas (but no HD or penalty cap, if task has definite end must complete that task ignoring duration)	+5, +7 if potentially dangerous		Effect does not register as magical (still dispellable and subject to AMF)	-1

Special: A Wizard may select this feat as one of their Wizard bonus feats

[rferries]

Please add on and critique as you see fit.

Pact Magic
You have learned that magic can be more powerful if both the caster and recipient have great investment in its outcome.
Prerequisites: Able to cast 4th level spells
Benefit: You may engage in Pact Magic with a recipient, here defined as any entity who willingly (not under any compulsions) deals with you. They agree to a payment, and you agree to cast a beneficial spell upon them, and in doing business this way, your magic can be more powerful than normal. Both parties must agree to the payment before the spell is cast. Payments rendered to you grant a certain number of points, which can then be spent to amplify the spell, as seen in the table below. At least one payment is required.
Note that you do not have to use all possible amplification for the payment rendered, so long as the recipient agrees to the arrangement. If the recipient feels they are being cheated and you contest this, you may make a Bluff Check opposed by their Knowledge (arcana) or Sense Motive, whichever they possess the greatest bonus in.
Regardless as to whether the spell would normally target multiple creatures or only the caster for its benefit, the spell with affect only the recipient.
You may not use this feat to strike a bargain with anyone whom you regularly provide your services to freely (aka no party members)

Promised Payment			Magic Amplification
Payment	Points Gained		Amplification	Point cost
Material Components and Foci for the spell to be cast upon them	+1, only if they are costly components		Increase duration by 1 step (rounds > minutes > hours > days > weeks > months > years > permanent)	-1, may be applied multiple times
XP cost for the spell to be cast upon them	+2, only applicable to spells with XP cost		Apply a Metamagic Effect (Disguise, Extend, Persistent, Quicken, Repeat, and Twin Spell not applicable)	-1 per spell adjustment of the feat, may be applied multiple times (even for the same feat, effects stack where applicable)
Wealth	+1 per 1,000 gold equivalence (magic items, money, and gems count for full, others for half)		Increase Caster Level of the spell	-1, can be applied multiple times
Recipient accepts a Lesser Geas (but no HD or penalty cap, if task has definite end must complete that task ignoring duration)	+5, +7 if potentially dangerous		Effect does not register as magical (still dispellable and subject to AMF)	-1

Special: A Wizard may select this feat as one of their Wizard bonus feats

Looks fun! Some questions:

0) Is this a feat? If so, I assume it's aimed primarily at NPCs who sell their services to PCs? Or roleplay-heavy campaigns e.g. a "fairy-godmother" benign PC? :)

1) Perhaps specify that the spells have to be spells with ranges of "personal" or saves of "harmless"? Or is the idea to allow the partner to be able to cast a fireball or two as well, in their hour of need?

2) I'm not sure providing the material/XP costs of the spell should be worth points - you're still basically casting a spell "at cost" for your partner. NPC casters already include a markup for spells with extra costs, so I feel like your partner should have to pay these costs at minimum if they want a spell. However, that's very much open to personal opinion.

3) The wealth payment might need a sliding scale. 7,000 gp or less can make almost any spell permanent - death ward, fire shield, fly, freedom of movement, protection from evil (almost as good as mind blank), etc. are all available at lower levels, albeit dispel-lable.

This makes permanent Pact Magic more expensive than my Brew Potion revision, enough so that if they're dispelled it'll really annoy PCs, yet so much cheaper than a continuous Wondrous Item of the same effect that the DM might HAVE to dispel them to prevent the PCs from becoming overpowered. However if the spells are being cast by an NPC the DM can just rule out certain spells or certain duration enhancements.

Overall I like it very much. I love feats, spells, prestige classes etc. like this that explain why NPCs can do things otherwise beyond the power of PCs. Yours is also better than my black magic bargain in that it allows for both benign and malevolent NPC spell "outsourcing" :D

[ShiningStarling]

0) Is this a feat? If so, I assume it's aimed primarily at NPCs who sell their services to PCs? Or roleplay-heavy campaigns e.g. a "fairy-godmother" benign PC? :)

Das the idea :3

1) Perhaps specify that the spells have to be spells with ranges of "personal" or saves of "harmless"? Or is the idea to allow the partner to be able to cast a fireball or two as well, in their hour of need?

I put 'beneficial' so it would be broad, and since only the recipient receives the effects, i don't think Fireball is very beneficial (though if you have some sort of 'Imbue with Spell Ability' then you could give them that sort of ability I guess, though the normal Cleric spell wouldn't allow Fireball or similar).

2) I'm not sure providing the material/XP costs of the spell should be worth points - you're still basically casting a spell "at cost" for your partner. NPC casters already include a markup for spells with extra costs, so I feel like your partner should have to pay these costs at minimum if they want a spell. However, that's very much open to personal opinion.

I'll put that the base cost of the spell is included in the first payment.

3) The wealth payment might need a sliding scale. 7,000 gp or less can make almost any spell permanent - death ward, fire shield, fly, freedom of movement, protection from evil (almost as good as mind blank), etc. are all available at lower levels, albeit dispel-lable.

Yeah I was just kinda throwing a number down, think I'll make it 250 or 500gp per spell level counts as a single Wealth, we'll see. Also, Permanency is a bit of a different thing... costs a lot of XP, never liked the spell much myself, plus I could never tell if you had to dispel both it and the base spell, and there's a line at the end that makes it seem like permanent spells on yourself can't be dispelled? I'd prefer a system like this for making thing's permanent... actually I might revise metamagic in a bit here. Probably not but maybe.

This makes permanent Pact Magic more expensive than my Brew Potion revision, enough so that if they're dispelled it'll really annoy PCs, yet so much cheaper than a continuous Wondrous Item of the same effect that the DM might HAVE to dispel them to prevent the PCs from becoming overpowered. However if the spells are being cast by an NPC the DM can just rule out certain spells or certain duration enhancements.

I did make a point of not allowing this to work on party members (can't affect anything with same or more HD, can't affect anyone you regularly use magic on anyway)

Overall I like it very much. I love feats, spells, prestige classes etc. like this that explain why NPCs can do things otherwise beyond the power of PCs. Yours is also better than my black magic bargain in that it allows for both benign and malevolent NPC spell "outsourcing" :D

Glad you like it :3

[faustin]

Mmmm.... not bad. However, I would include "extended possesion" and "services" in the payment department.
Vestiges long for the touch of the material world, and want to delay the inavoidable return to the void as much as they can. Also, they still have interests and agendas to follow.
Same for any outsider or entity in position for offering such kind of deals.

[Goaty14]

Mmmm.... not bad. However, I would include "extended possesion" and "services" in the payment department.
Vestiges long for the touch of the material world, and want to delay the inavoidable return to the void as much as they can. Also, they still have interests and agendas to follow.
Same for any outsider or entity in position for offering such kind of deals.

Not a vestige though, despite the title.

This is for ye olde archmage granting a PC a permanent Bull's STR if they go out and run him some errands.