CW Bladesinger - am i missing something?

[Olive]

Ok so the newest bladesinger is kinda cool, but I don't get the Cong of Celerity abilty.

One per day a Bladesinger of 4th level of higher may quicken a single spell of up to 2nd level, as if she had used the Quicken Spell feat, but without any adjustment to the spell's effective level or casting time

Huh? So you quicken it with out it getting faster? So really you're just making it still and silent, and therefore without arcane spell failure chance?

 

[ForceUser]

Huh? So you quicken it with out it getting faster? So really you're just making it still and silent, and therefore without arcane spell failure chance?

Correct.

 

[Olive]

Correct.

Huh. Is this always the way it's been? Why don't they say that rather than introducing quicken into the mix?

 

[Mordane76]

Huh? So you quicken it with out it getting faster? So really you're just making it still and silent, and therefore without arcane spell failure chance?

That's not how I read it. Basically, it's just like using Quicken Spell, but doesn't require any ahead-of-time preparation. Usually, something like this would work like a Sorcerer's application of a metamagic feat (and thus increase the casting time to one full round), but this power doesn't work like that -- you get one free Quicken Spell usage a day, on a spell of 2nd level or lower, without preparation beforehand. Quite useful.

 

[Pyrex]

I belive the 'without adjustment to casting time' clause is there to let it work.

Normally, spontaneous casters can't use Quicken because using metamagic increases casting time to a full-round action. The 'without adjustment' bit means "don't increase casting time to a full-round action before trying to reduce to a free action".

 

[AuraSeer]

Huh? So you quicken it with out it getting faster?

No, you quicken it without getting slower.
When a sorcerer (or other spontaneous caster) uses any metamagic feat, it changes the spell's casting time to one full round. That means Quickening is useless for sorcerers. Song of Celerity is not subject to that effect, so a sorcerer/bladesinger can use it to quicken his spells.

So really you're just making it still and silent, and therefore without arcane spell failure chance?

Quickening a spell does not remove its components. The caster must still speak for verbal components, gesture for somatic components, and so on. He just does it faster.

If you want to cast a normal spell as a free action without suffering arcane spell failure, you must use both Quicken Spell and Still Spell.

 

[Olive]

I belive the 'without adjustment to casting time' clause is there to let it work.

Normally, spontaneous casters can't use Quicken because using metamagic increases casting time to a full-round action. The 'without adjustment' bit means "don't increase casting time to a full-round action before trying to reduce to a free action".

But that doesn't make sense. The whole point of quicken is that it alters the casting time. Given Forceuser's reading it wouldn't ptovoke an AoO either, but it still seems a bit useless.

 

[Crothian]

It seems simple enough. The spell is still cast as a free action. It has wording to allow sorcerers to take advantage of it.

 

[LightPhoenix]

But that doesn't make sense. The whole point of quicken is that it alters the casting time. Given Forceuser's reading it wouldn't ptovoke an AoO either, but it still seems a bit useless.

Sorcerers and Bards always need to use a full-round action to cast metamagicked spells. This penalty is applied after any effects of the metamagic is applied - so Quicken Spell is useless for them.

Song of Celerity gets around this by explicitly saying "do not change the casting time." It's referring, ambiguously, to the sorcerer/bard penalty for metamagic, not to the Quicken effect.

Quicken does not mean Still and Silent. If you're silenced and/or bound, you still can't cast a Quickened Fireball.

 

[hong]

Personally, I'd increase the no. of times they can use song of celerity to either 3/day or 1/day/level. At will, as per the 3E bladesinger, is a bit whacked, but the new version is on the weak side IMO.