For example, you can roll/select "Born out of Time," in which you were born at some distant time and some event has magically displaced you from your home era. The first chapter (Character Background) presents a set of tables to use (via random die roll or deliberate selection) that open specific traits. Taking them for their mechanics and then reskinning them is completely backwards to my way of thinking - plus if that were the intention there would be no need to actually print most of themįWIW, that's also the official use as presented in Ultimate Campaign. Ryric wrote: See, I'm completely opposite when it comes to traits and flavor - IMO the original intention for traits was that you take them for their flavor, and the small mechanical bonus is a bribe to get your to think about your character's background. I mean, I can't stack +1 bonuses to a single skill because they would both be from Traits, but I CAN stack these two? Hardly seems RAI. Most of the time, traits include language (like ' trait bonus to.') that keeps such things from stacking. I'd definitely only allow one or the other, as I would in any case where two traits replicated the same effect. I honestly don't think they were written (separately and likely by different designers) with the ubiquitous generic copy-cat builds in mind that we're seeing which double up on them as a matter of course. It just seems like they distort the game, is all. I just think it's weird that something people base entire builds around is supposedly on the same mechanical level as an extra class skill, to the point where they can essentially pick up the same effect twice for low-level spells via Wayang Spellhunter (allowing auto-Empowered fireballs by level 5/6). Not that I'm complaining about player power blasting things into oblivion is less useful for casters than using control magic, and Dazing Spell and Persistent Spell would be pains in the ass with or without level reducers. But that's just because high-level play is kind of silly. Only the fact that Intensified Spell can't be applied twice to increase the damage cap to 20d6 keeps this from getting kind of silly, at least compared to the CRB.Īnd yes, it is technically better to just throw around maze spells while the martials buff up and prepare to murderdeathkill the monster when it reappears. Dazing Intensified Quickened fireball with a 6th-level slot, plus Dazing Intensified Empowered fireball, also as a 6th-level slot. Alternately, it can be a -1 reduction to any one spell, and you can pick a combat trait like Reactionary for the all-important initiative boost.Īnd the reductions would perhaps be fine, if it weren't for Spell Perfection (which I know doesn't show up in PFS, but is still a part of the core rules). Now, the Magical Lineage + Wayang Spellhunter combo permits a continuous -2 reduction for a specific spell of 3rd level or lower, and is available to any class. So, given that feats were much harder to come by in 3.5 than Pathfinder, it is telling just how difficult metamagic reduction effects actually were.Īnd while the existence of Persistent Spell (the "make a personal-range spell last 24 hours for a +6 level increase" version of CoDzilla fame) showed that not all of their design choices in this region were well-thought-out, the fact is that it was relatively difficult to get a continuous -2 reduction for a given spell (and even then, only for a spontaneous caster and only for one specific metamagic feat applied to that spell), and impossible (at least through feats alone) to get a continuous -3 reduction to an arcane spell. This feat was available with no level restrictions, so a 1st-level specialist wizard could theoretically take it, which might help explain the daily use limit (though another explanation may be that the design team was aware of the other metamagic-reducing feats and didn't want to permit shenanigans like Quickened 7th-level spells. It also required that you be 6th level to take it and have the metamagic feat in question.Īnd finally, there was a feat that allowed you to reduce the level cost of a metamagic feat (chosen by you when you prepared or cast the spell) by 1, but only 3 times per day, and only for spells of a single school of magic, for which you either needed the Spell Focus feat or be a specialized wizard. This feat required either the expenditure of additional feats to qualify, or else be restricted to certain races. There was also a feat (specifically for spontaneous casters) that allowed you to reduce the spell-level increase of one metamagic feat by 1, to a minimum of 1, when applying it to any of your spells. But you needed to have reached 6th level, and also had to be able to cast the spell that was to be modified. There was a feat in 3.5 that did exactly what magical lineage does (only for arcane spells), but with the added bonus of +2 caster level to that spell.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |