Devil's Workshop II

[RisnDevil]

New Feat:

Name????

Prerequisites: Wizard, Int 21, Skill Focus:Spellcraft, Skill Focus: Knowledge (Arcana), Quicken Spell, Sudden Quicken Spell, Ability to spontaneously cast arcance spells.

Benefit: A Wizard who takes this feat can now cast all his spells spontaneously, like a Sorceror. He can continue to gain levels in wizard, though he no longer gains any new spells. The only way for the Wizard to gain new spells is through the use of feats or high level magics like Wish. He continues to gain all other benefits from taking class levels in Wizard, just no more new spells added to his list. The Wizard still uses his Int mod for all spellcasting related items.

 

[Fieari]

Wow. That's... quite a feat. I'm really not sure how the balance on that would go. On the one hand... no new spells to be learned as a wizard. On the other hand, all those spells already learned are now available for spontaneous casting. Other the OTHER other hand, those requirements are pretty steep as well.

Hm. Once the wizard in question gains access to level 9 spells and learns wish, this seems almost a nobrainer... since wish will enable him to continue to learn spells, and of course epic spells will come with epic levels. It will require that skill focus, which a wizard might not normally want to take, and a level of sorcerer, likewise, but other than that...

So lets say CL19. All those spells learned over all these years, now spontaneously castable. The extendability of the wizard is supposed to be compensated by the fact that he gets few spells/day to cast, and also that those spells must be memorized. That compensation is now taken away. That's a HUGE power boost, I think. And by this level, he likely has the majority of the spells he wants anyway (and any he really needs in the future, well, that's why he waited until he grabbed Wish).

I think it may be too powerful, and I'm not sure what could be done to weaken it. It seems to me that wizards should remain having to cast from memory, and if they want spontaneous, that they should choose Sorc instead.

Perhaps a feat to allow a sorc to use Int as the primary casting stat? That might be more balanced.

 

[the Jester]

Why?

Blurring the boundary between the wizard and the sorcerer is a bad idea, imho; you'll make both feel cheated when they see the feat. The pc sorcerer will be like, "You mean he cast all his spells spontaneously, but he knows tons? And even though he's the same level as me, he knows spells one level higher than me??" And the wizard will either be like, "Tcha! Like any wizard pc would ever take that before they could cast 9th-level spells" or like, "Dude, that totally sucks- if I'd known about that I'd have taken it four levels ago! You cheated me all this time!!!"

 

[reanjr]

New Feat:

Name????

Prerequisites: Wizard, Int 21, Skill Focus:Spellcraft, Skill Focus: Knowledge (Arcana), Quicken Spell, Sudden Quicken Spell, Ability to spontaneously cast arcance spells.

Benefit: A Wizard who takes this feat can now cast all his spells spontaneously, like a Sorceror. He can continue to gain levels in wizard, though he no longer gains any new spells. The only way for the Wizard to gain new spells is through the use of feats or high level magics like Wish. He continues to gain all other benefits from taking class levels in Wizard, just no more new spells added to his list. The Wizard still uses his Int mod for all spellcasting related items.

It's overpowering, even with the requirements. (And a requirement for a feat should never require you to be a particular class. If you want you could require the ability to prepare arcane spells). Think about it this way: you are allowing the wizard to basically take all of his levels and transfer them to sorcerer levels. But he keeps all the benefits he has already gained of being wizard, including bonus feats and wide spell selection. Since the character has already taken a level in sorcerer (as per the requirement of being able to spontaneously cast spells) they could simply continue on that road if they like.

The only way this could possibly be balanced would be by allowing the wizard to only cast spells spontaneously that he had spell mastery for. And that might be pushing it.

You've also got the whole issue of removing the sorcerer's raison d'etre.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Make it 9 feats. The first one lets a wizard cast 0 and 1 level spells spontaneously. The second one with 2nd level spells, etc.

This way, if a wizard really wants to do this, he can, but it'll cost him.

(Or, if 9 feats is too many, make it four: Feat 1 (0-2), Feat 2 (3-5), Feat 3 (6-8), Feat 4 (9+).) This way he can even cast his heightened maximized meteor swarm as a spontaneous spell.

 

[RisnDevil]

I like the idea of making it nine feats, and I think that is what I will do.

 

[Fieari]

You could also consider making it one feat per spell, and I'd say that's even quite powerful. Wizards are extendible... finding scrolls adds to their permanent power. This feat would thus get even more powerful with the more spells known.

 

[RisnDevil]

That is partially why they can no longer learn new spells without feats or other high level magics (Wish or Miracle.)

 

[Fieari]

Yes, but the counter to that is to gain the spells you want first, then flip them over. You can collect a LOT of spells as a wizard.

 

[Galethorn]

How about a feat that lets you choose a single spell that you can cast spontaneously in place of any spell in a spellslot of the same or higher level?

And how about a feat that lets sorcerers learn any one spell that they would otherwise qualify for?