Vision Cascade- the feat

[Elric]

First of all, here is Agar's vision cacade spell, from Piratecat’s story hour (all credit goes to Piratecat/Agar for the awesome spell).

Vision Cascade
Divination
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Vision Cascade relies on gathering echoes of the caster’s personal knowledge which reverberate upon the astral plane. Throughout a 24 hour period, this spell shows the caster fragmentary glimpses of his enemies, allies, and even strangers whose actions may interact with the caster’s at some point in the future. Oracular visions may occur at any point in the 24 hour period (as dictated by the DM), and in any given day the caster may see between zero and his level in number of oracular visions, as determined by the DM. These visions are perceived the caster instantaneously when they are periodically generated by the spell, but may relate events that vary from seconds to minutes in length. The events seen by the caster generally occur in the present (i.e. within the past day), but the unpredictable nature of the spell occasionally relates events that have happened in the past or which have not yet occurred. The knowledge of roughly when the vision took place is communicated by the spell (ie “past,” “present,” or “future.”)

The caster has no method for determining exactly what people are viewed by the spell, although upon casting he can choose one target creature or event. There is a percentage chance equal to the caster’s level that this target creature or event is definitely included in one of that day’s oracular visions. This spell works in spite of most scrying preventions, but is thwarted by mind blank and more powerful spells. Subjects shown by the oracular visions have no way to detect the spell’s observation, as there is no scrying sensor to detect.

In addition to providing oracular visions, this spell provides limited insight into immediate danger. While it is in effect, the caster gains a +1 insight bonus to both AC and Reflex saving throws. This bonus does not stack with other insight bonuses.

Note: This spell is primarily used in campaigns where the DM wishes an in-game method to impart information via “cut scenes.” The player is encouraged to occasionally remind the DM that the spell is active if relatively few visions have occurred on any particular day.



I love seer type characters, but my Psion(Seer) drove my DM nuts with what he called “Legend Bore”, Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions and Object Reading. Tell me the last thousands years of history of this building and the last 25 owners of this object requires the DM to invent a lot of backstory. Vision Cascade struck me as an awesome solution to this problem, since it allows the DM to use cut scenes without requiring him to invent thousands of details.

My current character is an exalted Monk, so I naturally wanted to find a way for him to have vision cascade. Thus, Prophetic Visions was born. I removed the power of being able to focus on someone, which would be too powerful as a feat. DM control over the visions means that this is not scrying, just a really cool way to get some information and convey it to the players. +1 AC would make the numerical benefits of the feat too much, so I changed it to +1 Initiative, which has a similar flavor. The only other thing to do was to create prerequisites (Sacred Vow, Wis 13) and change the flavor to that of an exalted monk.


Prophetic Visions [Exalted]
Your prescience grants you insight into the immaterial structure of the world.
Prerequisites: Sacred Vow, Wis 13+
Edit- added prerequisite, 12 ranks- Knowledge (Arcana or Religion or The Planes)
Benefits: You are so in tune with the harmony of the world that your knowledge echoes with the transcendent. You see fragmentary glimpses of his enemies, allies, and even strangers whose actions may interact with yours at some point in the future. Oracular visions may occur at any point (as dictated by the DM). These visions are perceived instantaneously when they are periodically generated but may relate events that vary from seconds to minutes in length. The events generally occur in the present (i.e. within the past day), but the unpredictable nature of the visions occasionally relates events that have happened in the past or which have not yet occurred. You know roughly when the vision took place (ie “past,” “present,” or “future.”)
Your visions allow you to avoid harm, giving you a +1 Insight bonus to Reflex Saves and a +1 Insight bonus to Initiative.


It seems like it would be relatively easy to modify the prerequisites and flavor for a different character. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[the Jester]

Hm, don't have the BoED but no feat should mimic a 6th level spell.

 

[randomling]

Too cool.

I want it for my Seer/Cleric (Vow of Peace) at 15th level - fits her flavour beautifully, as we were thinking of giving her this as a psi-power anyway. I think that a permanent +1 (and Insight, pretty rare bonus) to two things is probably too good though, even with the RB potential of the visions, and most certainly with such easy prereqs.

At the least I'd ditch either +1 to Init or +1 to Ref saves, and up the prereqs to Wis 17+ or so, with Sacred Vow and perhaps another feat or RP requirement required?

 

[Elric]

the Jester- I removed a couple of important parts of the spell, though. Take:

"Note: This spell is primarily used in campaigns where the DM wishes an in-game method to impart information via “cut scenes.” The player is encouraged to occasionally remind the DM that the spell is active if relatively few visions have occurred on any particular day."

This text in the spell makes it clear that this is divination- the player should learn something over the course of the day, maybe about the target they are focusing on, but certainly something useful. If you notice, I strip out the references to "0-level" visions per day as well. The intent isn't for the character to have as many visions as the Vision Cascade spell, just for the DM to be able to convey information through visions (it is entirely at his discretion)

randomling- I agree that Wis 17+ might be a more appropriate prerequisite. However, in general, I don’t like having prereqs of very high ability scores because it makes it too hard for players to take the feat. Also, my character doesn’t have 17 Wisdom. I could add something like Prerequisite: 12 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana or Religion or The Planes)(and if there’s a psionic equivalent of Arcana, that should be on there too). I like that change, actually- this power feels high level and this change keeps this effect reserved for higher level characters, without being too strict. It also has a similar feel as the wisdom increase, but is more accessible for a wide variety of characters

This feat is half of lightning reflexes plus a quarter of improved initiative. Insight bonuses are worse than unnamed bonuses, but rare enough that it usually doesn’t matter.

 

[the Jester]

Hrmmm...

All right, as far as the mechanical bennies go I'd say it's balanced (as long as you don't have many other nonstandard initiative bonuses available). It definitely adds interesting flavor to a character, too.

However, I'd be very reluctant to add a feat like this to the game.

Abilities like this seem more suited to supernatural prestige class abilities to me. I almost always find supernatural feats too problematic. Constant visions and divinations can also really slow down the game (my epic game has a flurry of divinations before everything they do, so it takes forever for them to actually start doing anything, but once they do it they usually know exactly what to do and they get right to the meat of the matter).

Sometimes I don't feel like thinking too hard when I dm- what if I'm tired and I don't want to mull over all the visions the character will receive? Is it fair for a character to have a feat that only comes up when the dm wants it to? Granted, it has the +1 init and ref bonus, so it will come up pretty much every game, but the visions... eh.

I guess there's nothing wrong with it as a feat, I just don't like it. I suspect it would end up being a huge dm headache from time to time; then again, the dm can drop adventure hooks in via it at will...

I guess it just doesn't suit my style. I have a prc for almost exactly this (the Prophet).

 

[Piratecat]

Hm, don't have the BoED but no feat should mimic a 6th level spell.

Keep in mind that we made it a 6th lvl spell because Agar had squat for good 6th lvl spells. With the mechanical benefits toned down I think it's great as an exalted feat; nicely done, Elric.

Jester, I worked with Agar's player to develop that spell because it is a tremendous help to my DMing. I wanted a reason to drop mysterious plot hooks and clues and cinematic cut scenes without having a goofy excuse, and the spell was the perfect rationale. I agree that it might not be for every campaign, but I find it very useful.