Assess: "Studied Spontaneity"

[Rassilon]

Hi Guys,

What do people think of this feat - too tough, not tough, just plain boring ?

I envision it as a counterpart to that feat that allows spontaneous casters to prepare a spell.

Version A:
Studied Spontaneity [General]
Pre-reqs: Non Spontaneous Arcane Spell Caster.
Benefit: You can "prepare" one spell slot each day in a special manner. When you use this spell slot you can cast any spell you know spontaneously.
Normal: You're a wizard - if you want to cast spontaneously you should have picked sorceror!
A character may gain this feat multiple times: each time it allows an additional spell slot to be prepared as a spontaneous slot.

Version B:
{Add to Benefit Text: Only spells which normally have casting time of 1 action or less can be cast from this slot, though the actual casting is a full round action}

Not the most professional write up, but I hope the idea is clear.

Rassilon.

 

[DreamChaser]

uh...no.

to even be near balanced, IMO, it would have to be cast any spell of 2 levels or lower spontaneously.

You said it yourself, spontineity is the role of the sorcerer.

DC

 

[Ferret]

Yeah you need some penelty. Why not have a feat that letys you swap out a spell for one specific spell?

 

[Rassilon]

There already is one - I believe it is called Signature Spell.

Maybe if Spell Mastery was a pre-requisite, and only mastered spells could be used in the "spontaneous" slot.

What sort of penalties would you suggest were appropriate ? (bearing in mind that this is a feat that gives you one spell, once per day, cast spontaneously in palce of a memorised spell)

Rassilon.

 

[DreamChaser]

I like it with the spell mastery requirement. It would read something like this:

Studied Spontaneity [General]
Pre-reqs: Spell Mastery
Benefit: You can "prepare" one spell slot in a special manner. When you use this spell slot you can cast any spell for which you have mastery spontaneously. Only spells with a casting time of 1 standard action, 1 free action, 1 immediate action, or 1 swift action can be cast spontaneously but no matter the original casting time, the spell requires a full round action to cast [not to be confused with casting time of 1 round].
Special: A character may gain this feat multiple times: each time it allows an additional spell slot to be prepared as a spontaneous slot.

DC

 

[Creeping Death]

Man, when I first read the title of this thread, I thought the first word was plural for something. Sorry, my bad.

However, I believe Rassilon is correct, there already is one.

 

[Rassilon]

Dream Chaser, I like your writeup a lot, and it does express a form of the feat that I am happy with, and consider 'appropriate' with respect to the games I run and participate in (which may of course be different to 'balanced' as a general rule for all games).


Cheers,

Rassilon.

 

[the Jester]

Let me preface this with imho, YMMV and so forth. I don't want this to sound harsh. That said:

Umm- hell no.

It takes a feat for a spontaneous caster to be able to prepare one spell, which is significantly worse than a wizard's ability to prep a spell (based on spells known).

To balance this, I'd beat it up, throw it out the window and kick it while it was down. Because the only thing that balances spontaneous casting in 3e is the fact that spontaneous casters only know a few spells. A wizard who can spontaneously cast a slot gains a major advantage.

Instead, I'd use the 'prepare a spell later' option that's already in the rules.

Think about it for a second: if a wizard can prep one slot for spontaneous casting, he simply chooses to use one of his highest level slots, and he can spontaneously cast any spell he knows. He gains far more flexibility than a sorcerer has from a feat like this. Yeah, it's only one slot per day, but so what?

Maybe if you make it so that the prepared slot can only be 1/3 the level of the highest level spell that the caster can cast and add harsh prereqs, but even then, I wouldn't allow this in my game, no way, no how.

Now, in a variant with only one arcane caster class I would feel significantly different...

Also, I'm curious to know where the Signature Spell feat Rassilon refers to is, and what its actual text is.

 

[Rassilon]

Also, I'm curious to know where the Signature Spell feat Rassilon refers to is, and what its actual text is.

Signature Spell first appeared in Magic of Faerun, and then in PGtF. It basically states that you pick a spell that you have (spell) mastered, and you can then spontaneously convert any prepared spells to that spell (the example given is clerics spontaneously converting cure/inflict).

So Signature Spell vs. Studied Spontaneity = 'one spell many times', vs. 'many spells once'
(does no one care about the beautiful almost oxymoron of having a 'studied spontaneity' ?)


Rassilon.

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, now Signature Spell sounds fairly balanced.