Draconic Power and Spelllike ability

[Herzog]

The Feat Draconic Power :

Your caster level increases by one,
and you add 1 to the save DC of all arcane
spells with the descriptor or subschool​

associated with your draconic heritage.

Does this also apply to spelllike abilities?

 

[frankthedm]

The Feat Draconic Power :


Does this also apply to spelllike abilities?

is that all of the text? And is that the Feat's actual text or is it the 'Quick description' on the list of feats. The Quick descriptions of feats and spells are often wrong and should not be used as if the were the text of the feat.

Any Arcane spell you cast that has the same Energy Type as your Draconic Heritage (even if it is because of applying the feat Energy Substitution) is cast at +1 Caster level and has a +1 bonus to DC.

 

[Ahnehnois]

A strict reading of the text, which only mentions spells, would exclude SLA's.

However, I don't think it would be unreasonable or unbalancing to apply the bonus to other abilities (especially in the case of a dragonfire adept or warlock).

 

[Herzog]

@frankthedm:
No, it's not the complete text (as you knew since you posted the remainder of the text)

it is, however, the text from the feat, not the text from the table.

To be complete, here are the two official versions of the feat, one from Complete Arcane, one form Races of the Dragon:

DRACONIC POWER

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DRACONIC

You have greater power manipulating the energies of your heritage.

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Prerequisite: Draconic Heritage.​

Benefit: Your caster level increases by 1, and you add 1 to the save DC of all arcane spells with the energy descriptor of the same energy type as determined by your draconic heritage.

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Special: If the Energy Substitution feat is used to modify a spell, this feat will work if the new type of energy matches the energy type of your draconic heritage.​

DRACONIC POWER

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DRACONIC

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You have greater power when manipulating the energies of your heritage.
Prerequisites: Draconic Heritage, sorcerer level 1st.
Benefit: Your caster level increases by one, and you add 1 to the save DC of all arcane spells with the descriptor or subschool associated with your draconic heritage.
Special: This feat works in conjunction with the Energy Substitution feat ( Complete Arcane, page 79) as long as the substituted energy matches the energy type associated with your draconic heritage.​

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@Ahnehnois:​

It happens to be the spelllike ability you get from performing the Draconic Rite of Passage as a Kobold (Races of the Dragon, p.43)​

 

[Ahnehnois]

It sounds reasonable then at face value that a draconic feat should grant bonuses to SLAs based on innate draconic magic.

 

[Runestar]

I would say it works similar to spell focus. So they should only apply to spells.

No harm in letting them apply to SLAs though. Are we talking about a dragonblood sorc with the SLA substitution feature?

 

[Shin Okada]

I think the rule text can be read in 2 ways,

1. The CL increase is applied to whatever spells or spell-like abilities you have. But the DC increase is applied only to "all arcane spells with the energy descriptor of the same energy type as determined by your draconic heritage."

2. Both the CL increase and the DC increase are applied only to "all arcane spells with the energy descriptor of the same energy type as determined by your draconic heritage."

As a DM, my take is 1.

Hobgoblin Sorcerers in Red Hand of Doom campaign have Draconic Power feat and the CL increase is applied to all of their spells.

Also, Dragonfire Adept (Dragon Magic) gains Dragontouched feat (also in the same book) as a bonus feat. Which allows a non-sorcerer to take Draconic Heritage feat tree. It seems reasonable that Draconic Power increases their caster level of invocations.

 

[irdeggman]

I would look in Complete Arcane pages 71+ for where it talks about how to apply feats to spells and spell-like abilities and how invocations fit in.

Basically CL works since all SLA have a CL in there somewhere, spell casting level does not since SLA are not "spells".

Also look at how the heritage feats are written in Complete Mage.

Fey Power

Your caster level and save DCs for enchantment spells and warlock invocations increase by1.

So - CL increase applies to all but the save DC does not for Draconic Power. The feat was written in a way that it does not apply and per the rules for SLA and spells presented in CA and cross referencing to how feats are written in CM - nope that that great a feat.

 

[Herzog]

mmm.

So, for my Sorcerer/Wizard/Ultimate Magus with a spelllike ability, the caster level for all my sorcerer and wizard spells, as well as my spelllike ability, would increase by 1.

In addition the save DC for any spell (but not spelllike ability) with the Cold descriptor (ie:silver dragon heritage) would increase by 1.

(also, since it's a draconic feat, any other draconic feat that I have that depend on the number of draconic feats increases)

Not bad at all. I'd take the feat for the CL increase alone.....
The reason I was in doubt was because I was reading the descriptions as Shin Okada's '2'.

Edit:

Then again, reading '1' is unlikely.

There is no other Feat (that I know of) that simply increases Caster Level for ALL spells.
There's always a required circumstance (location, weather conditions, etc) or other restriction (school, subtype, descriptor) to allow the increase.

 

[Shin Okada]

Then again, reading '1' is unlikely.

There is no other Feat (that I know of) that simply increases Caster Level for ALL spells.
There's always a required circumstance (location, weather conditions, etc) or other restriction (school, subtype, descriptor) to allow the increase.

Well, Draconic Power has a prerequisite feat (Draconic Heritage) and thus, it is not so strange that the feat is more powerful than the feats without.

Compare it to Divine Spell Power feat. It spends turning undead per day but it increases CL of any divine spell the character casts, up to +4!

Also, there are magic items such as CL +1 Ioun Stone (works for all the spells and spell-like abilities) and Ring of Arcane Might (works for all the arcane spells and arcane spell like abilities=invocations).

Karma bead in Strand of Prayer Beads is another powerful item, too.