Homebrew feat to increase spell slots for Uncanny Forethought

[Nezkrul]

Uncanny Thought Enhancement

Prerequisites- Uncanny Forethought, Int 18

Benefit- Double your intelligence modifier when determining how many spell slots you can leave unprepared in order to use Uncanny Forethought.

Special- You can take this feat multiple times, its effects stack (a double double is a triple, etc). However, each time after the first it is taken, the prerequisite Intelligence score increases by 2, so in order to take this feat a second time you would need to have a 20 Intelligence.



So, what do you think? Too strong or weak? Feel free to make suggestions.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Uncanny Forethought is ridiculously strong as it is. This feat is way too strong. It might be okay as an Epic feat, but still seems somewhat strong in that context.

 

[Nezkrul]

I don't see how it is ridiculously strong when you are restricted to 4 spell slots at levels 1 to 7, and 5 slots from 8 to 15, 6 slots from 16 to 23 (assuming no +int items of course)

but even then, it will likely only be 6 or 7 slots from 8 to 15, and 9 or 10 slots from 16 to 23. I don't see how that is "broken" or "ridiculously powerful" unless the DM allows 15 minute adventuring day

 

[Empirate]

If you don't see that, look harder !!!


Seriously. Wizards are already arguably the strongest class in the game. The only thing that keeps theorywizards (i.e., that kind of wizard that often gets touted in fighter-vs.-spellcaster debates, the kind that always has the right spell ready at all times) from overrunning the (game) world is the largely practical issue of memorization. Take that away, and they not only blow Sorcerers out of the water, but everything else as well.

Uncanny Forethought ought already to be on all sane groups' ban list. It's hideously powerful even apart from the "standard action to cast whatever you took Spell Mastery for" cheese that lets you e.g. summon, scry, planar bind, or contact other plane as a standard action, where it would normally take much longer. The part where you get to cast any spell you know (not limited to Mastered spells) as a full-round action is downright ridiculous - you now never have to prepare situational or utility spells in advance! Because how many of those will you probably need in a day? A couple? And do you care that it's a full-round action to cast them? How about no!

All in all, Uncanny Forethought is probably the more problematic feat here. But using a homebrew feat to make it even stronger is still not something I'd ever consider.

 

[Nezkrul]

All in all, Uncanny Forethought is probably the more problematic feat here. But using a homebrew feat to make it even stronger is still not something I'd ever consider.

You do realize that you can only use Uncanny forethought on a number of spell slots = your intelligence modifier, right? You realize that, even if you started with a 20 intelligence (grey elf) at first level, that you have more spell slots than you can contribute to the UF pool starting at level 1 (if you count 0's) and level 3 (2nd level slots don't help if all you have is 1st levels with spell mastery)? That, unless you take spell mastery at level 3 or 5 or 6, NONE of your spells higher than level 1 will be standard actions when utilizing UF (can't UF nerveskitter if you don't spell mastery it, and even then, you just spent one of your 5 slots for UF on +5 initiative)

How about this change then:

Add a number of spell slots to your UF pool equal to your wisdom modifier. Can only take it once.

 

[Empirate]

You do realize that you can only use Uncanny forethought on a number of spell slots = your intelligence modifier, right? You realize that, even if you started with a 20 intelligence (grey elf) at first level, that you have more spell slots than you can contribute to the UF pool starting at level 1 (if you count 0's) and level 3 (2nd level slots don't help if all you have is 1st levels with spell mastery)? That, unless you take spell mastery at level 3 or 5 or 6, NONE of your spells higher than level 1 will be standard actions when utilizing UF (can't UF nerveskitter if you don't spell mastery it, and even then, you just spent one of your 5 slots for UF on +5 initiative)

How about this change then:

Add a number of spell slots to your UF pool equal to your wisdom modifier. Can only take it once.

ONLY int mod spells per day can be cast spontaneously? Are you sure you know what the word "only" means? Because it usually refers to amounts of stuff that are considered rather too much on the small side.

4+ spontaneous spells per day is huge for wizards (that's about 6+ at 8th level plus, and can easily reach 10+ at the highest levels even for non-Grey Elves), even at the cost of two feats. In a recent PF campaign, I was stoked to get one spontaneous spell per day via Bonded Object. That option saved my life, or at the very least made things a lot easier, on multiple occasions. Having that Knock or Comprehend Languages or Levitate or Daylight or Ropetrick at your fingertips at all times makes for easy, sweet adventuring - not to mention higher level options. You don't even have to take these with Spell Mastery, since casting them as a full-round action is usually sufficient. And for 'downtime spells' like Identify, Legend Lore, Major Creation, Symbol of X, or Planar Binding, you can now use them as a full-round action whenever you like, even in the midst of a dungeon crawl.


Now Nerveskitter isn't really a good example, because casting it as a standard sucks hardcore, so you should memorize it rather than UFing it. But suppose it works; then your wording "even then, you just spent one of your 5 slots for UF on +5 initiative" just begs for the retort "you just spent one of your feats to get a better version of Improved Initiative, which is not a bad feat in itself, and 4 spontaneous spells per day".

Sure, with UF a lot depends on your Mastered spells (i.e. the timing of your taking the Spell Mastery feat). But the option of spontaneously casting anything in your spellbook as a full-round action is still extremely good. Not to mention that you can take Spell Mastery multiple times, or even retrain it for Spell Mastery of different spells via feat retraining.