Complete Mage - Is it out yet?

Greg K said:
RESERVE FEATS
Ah, this new category of feats is interesting. They explain the reason for it's creation. The purpose of a Reserve feat is, even though you have to keep a spell prepared or a spell slot on hold in order to benefit, the benefits are worthwhile. The higher the spell level you hold, the stronger the benefit. The good thing about Reserve feats is they're usable at will with no limit. They stated that these are good for those spellcasters that like to save their spells for just the right moment or are too worried about running out of spells. It gives them something worthwhile to do other than aid another or use up charges from wands and scrolls.

For example, I'll show you guys one of the reserve feats that looks cools, Storm Bolt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
STORM BOLT: Ability to cast 3rd-level spells; As long as you have an electricity spell of 3rd level or higher available to cast, you can fire a 20-foot line of electricity as a standard action. This bolt deals 1d6 points of electricity damage per level of the highest-level electricity spell you have available to cast. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting electricity spells.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the reserve feats, in fact I believe all of them, run along these lines. I like them, they appear to be very useful and worthwhile to invest in. There's quite a number of reserve feats in the book, 25 in total. As for the other reserve feats, of course there's nondamaging ones. There's Aquatic Breath which lets you breathe water and air normally, Borne Aloft let's you fly 30 feet once per round, Clutch of Earth lets you impede a target's movement, and Shadow Veil let's you obscure a target's sight.

Seems like reserve feats go a ways towards turning casters into warlocks. Cool.

I like the idea that the spells scale with the spells left in reserve, but it soundss like not all of them do.
 

log in or register to remove this ad


Reserve feats sound very cool. Reminds me of an old Dragon article, which talked about how a wizard who can cast fireball should be able to light his pipe with a snap of his fingers. Sounds like it will be easier for wizards to do something cool every round, instead of wondering whether they should cast now or later.

I'm looking forward to picking up my copy.
 

Greg K said:
Here you go.

<SNIP>

Eldritch Theurge: Multiclass warlock/arcane spellcaster.
Preq: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks; ability to cast 2nd-level arcane spells; ability to use least invocations; eldritch blast +2d6
Abilites:gets Eldritch Spellweave, damage reduction cold iron (which stacks with Warlock one), Fiendish Resilience (stacks with Warlock), and two invocations accessible only by this prestige class---Spellblast and Greatreach Spellblast.
Spellblast: Lets you place an arcane spell that affects an area (like fireball) into your eldritch blast so that when the blast hits, the spell takes effect too.
Greatreach Spellblast: Let's you place an arcane spell with a range of touch (like vampiric touch or shocking grasp) into your eldritch blast so that when your blast hits, the spell takes affect too.
Eldritch Spellweave: Not an invocation, but a class feature, it lets you apply any eldritch essence invocation you know into an arcane spell that requires a melee or ranged touch attack. The spell's level must be as high as the eldritch essence invocation used. If the essence requires a saving throw, use the normal save for the essence. If the essence changes the type of damage, it can only be applied to a damaging spell

.

Hi Greg, thanks for posting all of that. Great stuff!!! About the Eldritch Theurge, can you tell us the BAB, Saves (i'm assuming Will good) and whether the Eldritch Blast increases in power?

Thanks,
Rich
 


Greg K said:
FEY HERITAGE FEATS

Fey Heritage: +3 bonus on Will saves against enchantments
Fey Legacy: Gain spell-like abilities usable 1/day (confusion, dimension door, summon nature's ally V, character level=caster level)
Fey Power: +1 caster level and save DC on enchantment spells and warlock invocations
Fey Presence: Gain spell-like abilities usable 1/day (charm monster, deep slumber, disguise self, caster level=character level)
Fey Skin: Gain DR/cold iron

Can you give any more info about these?

Is there a prerequisite for taking fey feats?

These intrigue me alot.

Thanks
Scott
 

Well, I can empathize, but suffice to say it sucks big-time to want a product that I know the owner has on-hand and be told to come back in a week because they're "playing by the rules". The publisher gets paid, the distributor gets paid, the retailer gets paid, and I'm the one doing the paying--yet these rules aren't in place to serve me. In light of that, I gotta applaud the guy who breaks the rules.

While not every book sold has a strict on-sale date, it is not uncommon for them to do so. This practice usually happens with bigger titles by more popular authors. Publishers set these dates, and once set they expect retail outlets to adhere to them; the retailers can be required to sign an affidavit legally binding them to the onsale date.

(Remember all the big to-do about a store selling the latest Harry Potter book early? And how many stores had midnight sales? That's because of the strict onsale dates.)

Onsale dates are ostensibly set so that everyone can begin selling their copies at the same time; this levels the playing field for stores who are subject to distribution channels that can take longer to ship product to them. For some types of books -- mysteries, memoirs, the latest Harry Potter book -- it's also done so that secrets revealed in the book can't become news content -- spoiling the secret -- before the book can be sold. That's kind of like walking out of the first screening of a film and telling the people who are waiting in line to see it next how it ends. Or like illegally downloading a new album before its release.

Incidentally, I have noticed that WotC books are generally available through larger brick & mortar retailers 2 weeks after the release date, though I don't know if this is a conscious decision or if that's just the way it works because of existing distribution channels.

The "guy who breaks the rules" can be subject to fines levied by the publisher for breaking onsale dates, and in some cases the publisher/distributor will make sure that the guy who routinely breaks the rules will not receive copies of new titles before the onsale date in the future.
 

I'm mildly concerned about the reserve feat. I'd like to see what all the choices are and some number crunching. I don't know that most preparation casters use up ALL their spells in a given day, so the sacrifice is a mild-to-non-existant one.

I like the idea in theory, but I think it might be a bit too good. I might double the spell requirement or something.
 

So far as we've seen, a reserve feat seems to require a certain level of spell to be retained. To get stormbolt, you have to keep an electricity spell of at least 3rd-level available. If they keep that trend up, and characters aren't reaping big rewards for keeping trivial spells unused, then they should be in good shape.

If a mage reaches a point where he can afford to keep a lightning bolt uncast, then he's probably at a point where a 3d6 attack is no big whoop, eh?
 

spectre72 said:
Can you give any more info about these?

Is there a prerequisite for taking fey feats?

These intrigue me alot.

Thanks
Scott

If they're like the other heritage feats, I imagine you have to have a sorcerer to take them.

The reserve feats sound like they're meant to address the issue Monte Cook had brought up a while back regarding spell casters.
 

Remove ads

Top