Mage of the Silver Flame

Posted 12th May 2009 at 08:27 PM by Leif
Updated 14th August 2009 at 05:05 PM by Leif

Here's my idea for a New Feat:

Mage of the Silver Flame
(prerequisites: Intelligence 15 & Wizard level 1+, Charisma 15 & Sorcerer level 1+, or Charisma 15 and Bard level 1+)
(May be taken as a Wizard Bonus Feat)

You have been initiated into the mysteries of the Silver Flame, and learned the secrets of harnessing this reservoir of arcane power. You gain a +2 competency bonus to the DC for saves against your [Fire] spells and spell-like abilities. (This bonus stacks with bonuses from other feats.) Additionally, you can use Burning Hands as a spell-like ability once per day, plus one additional time per day for every 2 caster levels above first. Special: All flame that is produced by your spells/SLAs is a brilliant silver in color.

Any/all comments are still invited and requested. It was way too powerful when originally written, but it has been brought under control, thanks to some great suggestions from amethal.

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Views 1205 Comments 7

Total Comments 7

Comments

I take it this is for 3.5 edition?

If you are going to allow bards and sorcerers to take this feat, I suggest changing the requirement to Intelligence 15 or Charisma 15.

Thematically, I don't think I want bards casting burning hands (even as a SLA), and do they actually have any fire spells on their list? If not, the feat is useless for them.

As a general rule, I don't like things that increase caster level, even in limited circumstances such as this. If EL5 encounters are balanced around fireballs doing 5d6 (and I'm not sure that they are!), a 5th level wizard doing 7d6 might be seen as unbalancing.

Posted 13th May 2009 at 02:02 PM by amethal amethal is offline

Good points, all, amethal! Thanks! I guess you're right, Bards probably shouldn't have access to this feat. I'll remove the caster level part of it, too, and just have it apply to save DC. ~~But won't that make it inferior to most other feats?~~ Ok, I guess maybe not.

UPDATE: I finally saw your comment about Charisma and Sorcerers, and fixed that problem. I've now just made the feat give a DC bonus to saves of spells with the fire descriptor, but I kept it as an enhancement to CL for the SLA, since the SLA is only usable once/day and the enhancement is not that great anyway, for a 5th or higher level wizard.

Posted 15th May 2009 at 03:43 AM by Leif Leif is offline

Updated 15th May 2009 at 06:59 PM by Leif

OK, let's compare this feat to some others.

Bloodline of Fire, a regional Forgotten Realms feat raises your caster level for [Fire] spells by 2 and gives a +4 bonus to your saves against [Fire] spells that affect you. Regional feats are often powerful.

Fiery Burst is a reserve feat that raises caster level for [Fire] spells by 1 and also gives you the ability to create a burst of fire in a 10' square an infinite number of times per day as long as you have the right spell memorized.

Draconic Power is a feat that requires Draconic Heritage to be taken first. If gives a +1 to the DC and Caster Level of spells matching the energy type of the dragon you selected.

You have a feat that gives +2 to the save DC of [Fire] spells and allows you to use Burning Hands once per day with a +2 to the save DC. The caster level boost does nothing because you have to be 5th level to take the feat and Burning Hands tops out at 5d4 damage.

I don't see a problem with Bards using Burning Hands once a day. There are magic items that let you sacrifice a spell slot in order to cast spells like Magic Missile and Fireball, even if they are not on your spell list. You could change it to require the ability to cast 3rd level arcane spells, thus forcing the bard to wait until at least 7th level, if they even have a feat then. And by then, Burning Hands isn't as useful.

Is this any help?

Posted 15th May 2009 at 09:37 PM by KerlanRayne KerlanRayne is offline

Yeah, it's quite helpful. Thanks, Kerlan. Gosh, your right about the burning hands thing -- what a screw up! Guess I could make it a different fire effect, or take the CL bonus out. If I removed the CL bonus, how about if I added another +1 or +2 to the save DC bonus? And, yeah, I guess it might work for bards, but burning hands is not really a bardic type spell. For Bards, maybe I could make an adaptation for use in a song? (Do you know the Robert Plant song, 'Burning Down One Side'? hehe)

Posted 16th May 2009 at 03:00 PM by Leif Leif is offline

For fire spells, spell resistance almost always applies. At higher levels, the added DC is much less valuable. How about allowing the caster to add the +2 to the save DC or alternatively to overcome SR, as the caster desires. A Mage of the Silver Flame has learned how to cast fire spells in two different ways, one harder to avoid and another that is more penetrating. That would also make the feat more unique. Perhaps with this added, a +1 would give a more balanced feat. Perhaps +1 to one and +2 to the other.

Posted 19th May 2009 at 04:28 PM by Lou Lou is offline

	Hmmm, interesting options, Lou. Boy, this is getting to be quite a complex undertaking! I have renewed appreciation for the skills and talents of professional game designers!
	Posted 25th May 2009 at 05:40 PM by Leif

	Turns out that this may not have been such a great idea, after all. I'm gonna have to give this some serious thought, but, until then, I'm just gonna leave it the way it is. Additional comments/suggestions/opinions/reviews are welcome, though!
	Posted 11th June 2009 at 08:23 PM by Leif

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