Reserve Feats and Summon Nature's Ally

[Jack Simth]

The Reserve line of feats require that you have a spell meeting a particular set of criteria available to cast in order to make use of the specific feat - e.g., Fiery Burst requires a Fire spell of level 2 or higher, Dimensional Reach requires a Conjouration(Summoning) spell of level 3 or higher, , Aquatic Breath requires a 3rd level or higher Water spell, Born Aloft requires a 5th level or higher Air spell, and so on.

Well, a Druid who isn't out of spells of a particular level always has a Summon Nature's Ally spell of that level available to cast through the Druidic Spontaneous Summoning class feature.

Summon Nature's Ally III and higher has this sentence:
"When you use a summoning spell to summon an air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, or water creature, it is a spell of that type." - and Summon Nature's Ally gains the ability to Summon Elementals at SNA II.

Suppose, for a minute, I have a Druid with the Aquatic Breath (requires Water spell, 3rd+), Dimensional Jaunt (requires Conjuration(Teleportation) 4th+), Dimensional Reach (requires Conjuration(Summoning) 3rd+), and Born Aloft, but the only spell he has left for today is Tree Stride (Conjouration(Teleportation), Druid-5), can he invoke all his currently listed Reserve Feats (Water spell of 3rd+? Currently capable of casting Summon Nature's Ally V (Large Water elemental) - Water spell, check; Conjuration(Teleportation) - Tree Stride, Check; Air Spell? Summon Nature's Ally V (Large Air Elemental) - Air spell, check; Conjouration(Summoning)? Summon Nature's Ally V - check; and so on) - can he actually make use of the primary function of all of his reserve feats?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Somewhere in the text of Reserve feats, it specifies that a spell that only gains a descriptor at casting time doesn't count.

Cant' remember the exact wording, but I looked this trick up myself when Complete Mage first came out, and it doesn't work.

-Hyp.

 

[Jack Simth]

So does that mean he'd be able to use Dimensional Jaunt (conjouration(Teleportation)) and Dimensional Reach (conjouration(Summoning)) due to the ability to spontaneously convert, or would he need Summon Nature's Ally prepared to make use of the second?

 

[Hypersmurf]

So does that mean he'd be able to use Dimensional Jaunt (conjouration(Teleportation)) and Dimensional Reach (conjouration(Summoning)) due to the ability to spontaneously convert, or would he need Summon Nature's Ally prepared to make use of the second?

Like I say, I can't remember the exact wording. I'll try to track it down tonight if nobody finds the quote for you before that.

-Hyp.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Spells that do not have a descriptor until cast (such as the summon monster spells) can't be used to gain the primary benefit of a reserve feat.

So Hypersmurf is correct (as he normally is). You couldn't use a Summon Nature's Ally spell as a way to retain the use of a Reserve Feat.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Jack Simth]

Like I say, I can't remember the exact wording. I'll try to track it down tonight if nobody finds the quote for you before that.

-Hyp.

Okay - I was looking at the wrong spot - It's under the type description, not the feat descriptions, page 37 - a prepared spellcaster must have the spell prepared, a spontaneous spellcaster must know the spell and have at least one unused spell slot of that level; and the line you were looking for is "Spells that do not have a descriptor until cast (such as the summon monster spells) can't be used to gain the primary benefit of a reserve feat."

Druid is a prepared caster, so the spontaneous summoning doesn't cut it - cool; this means that the Druid needs to have several spell slots bound up to use them all. Perfect. Thanks.