Hey there,
we just finished one of our Zeitgeist sessions and we got a bit of discussion about the Spirit Medium theme feat in the process.
The original question was: If the feat lets you cast Speak with Dead as a spell-like ability, then how would that work mechanically when the original spell allows a will saving throw to resist?
Meaning, if the spell is on different spell lists with different corresponding spell levels (2 for the medium, 3 for the rest) and the feat suggests no corresponding casting attribute, then how would one determine the DC?
As, personally, I didn't think that a mechanical solution would be the best approach to this problem (even if CHA + 3rd level could seem appropriate albeit punishing for non-caster mediums), I decided to look up the 4e and 5e versions of the theme feats to get a bit insight into the possible author's intention behind the feat.
And not only do the 4e/5e feats simply allow you to speak with the spirit without a saving throw, the PG also suggests that the DM is encouraged to let the medium speak with longer dead spirits who have not yet passed on. Which is how our DM occasionally used the feat anyway (and which resulted in some very memorable exchanges!), but he felt like he was bending the rules quite much and both DM and my other player do have their rules-lawyery phases.
And boy, was I blown away when I saw that these feats actually progressed with character level. All of them feel so much more meaningful than their very basic PF version. (I mean... telepathy? How awesome is that?)
Which leads me to the question: Should the PF theme feats be revised? And, if yes, how should we do that? For our PCs, we'd only need the Spirit Medium and Vekeshi Mystic feats. We'd really be grateful for any suggestions.
regarding the spell Speak with Dead and PF: I guess I know why the spell allows a saving throw etc. in PF as many groups seem to avoid diplomacy or other social solutions to gather information and rather prefer to rip it from dead bodies (why ask when you can slay and cast a spell?). But I guess that Zeitgeist wasn'twritten with groups like these in mind.
we just finished one of our Zeitgeist sessions and we got a bit of discussion about the Spirit Medium theme feat in the process.
The original question was: If the feat lets you cast Speak with Dead as a spell-like ability, then how would that work mechanically when the original spell allows a will saving throw to resist?
Meaning, if the spell is on different spell lists with different corresponding spell levels (2 for the medium, 3 for the rest) and the feat suggests no corresponding casting attribute, then how would one determine the DC?
As, personally, I didn't think that a mechanical solution would be the best approach to this problem (even if CHA + 3rd level could seem appropriate albeit punishing for non-caster mediums), I decided to look up the 4e and 5e versions of the theme feats to get a bit insight into the possible author's intention behind the feat.
And not only do the 4e/5e feats simply allow you to speak with the spirit without a saving throw, the PG also suggests that the DM is encouraged to let the medium speak with longer dead spirits who have not yet passed on. Which is how our DM occasionally used the feat anyway (and which resulted in some very memorable exchanges!), but he felt like he was bending the rules quite much and both DM and my other player do have their rules-lawyery phases.
And boy, was I blown away when I saw that these feats actually progressed with character level. All of them feel so much more meaningful than their very basic PF version. (I mean... telepathy? How awesome is that?)
Which leads me to the question: Should the PF theme feats be revised? And, if yes, how should we do that? For our PCs, we'd only need the Spirit Medium and Vekeshi Mystic feats. We'd really be grateful for any suggestions.
regarding the spell Speak with Dead and PF: I guess I know why the spell allows a saving throw etc. in PF as many groups seem to avoid diplomacy or other social solutions to gather information and rather prefer to rip it from dead bodies (why ask when you can slay and cast a spell?). But I guess that Zeitgeist wasn'twritten with groups like these in mind.
