Houseruled Feat for Tome Wizard - Balance Issue?

[Trit One-Ear]

The wizard in my campaign is a Tome of Readiness junkie, taking feats etc to take as many extra powers to pick from at each rest. This is largely a role play decision, but the player has begun to love the variety he can bring, often asking the party each day to help him decide which powers will be most useful.

He has proposed to me a houseruled feat to allow him to choose which daily he has prepared at the time he uses it, instead of at each extended rest. My first reaction was to say no, as this seemed to go against the very design of the wizard class. I tried to back this decision up by researching some other feats that may give a similar effect. This is the only feat I found.

Improved Tome ofReadiness
Paragon Tier
Prerequisite: 11th level, Con 13, Wis 13, wizard, Tome of Readiness class feature
Benefit: After you prepare your daily and utility wizard powers after an extended rest, choose one daily or utility power in your spellbook that you didn’t prepare and store this power in your tome.
Once per encounter as a free action, you can use this stored power by expending another unused wizard power of the appropriate type (daily or utility) of its level or higher. You must still take the normal action required to use the stored power.

First off, we are currently at level 8. This feat isn't even available to him for 3 more levels. Second, his proposed feat would make this one superfluous.
On the other hand, I like to say yes to my players, and want the. To play characters they enjoy playing. The wizard has complained to having never used some powers, even when he's prepared them. I don't want to be a jerk about this, so I'm asking you all. Is this proposed feat (flexible casting) broken?

Trit

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

It's powerful, but it's your table. I don't think it will break things too badly, unless the player is a real powergamer or munchkin.

Other options for allowing this include giving it a cost - perhaps it can only be done after a milestone, or perhaps it costs a healing surge. You could have it trigger on or require the use of an Action Point. Heck, it might be a good Action Point power for a custom-made Tome of Readiness-based Paragon Path. If you're using Themes, you could have it be the level 10 Theme capstone for a custom theme (though I would limit it to once per day, maybe), or even make it a level 10 theme power.

Making it a PP or Theme benefit at least gives the player something to work toward and/or look forward to.

 

[MarkB]

There's also the 6th level daily Utility power Refocus, which allows him to swap out one Daily or Utility power as a minor action.

I'd suggest pointing him at Refocus, and if he still wants more, maybe creating a Tome-based feat which allows him to regain the use of Refocus once per day after reaching a new milestone.

 

[karolusb]

Refocus will most likely do what he is looking for, I would consider lowing the level requirement of Improved tome of readiness as well if needed (though given the existence of refocus, it could probably wait a few levels). I recall there is at least one more way to do this, probably an item, but I don't solidly recall the level (my wife's wizard could do this three times a day at 18th level in a campaign I ran a while back).

I would be leery (without some broad general house rule on the matter) of the feat which is simply improved tome of readiness 7 times a day at high level. You end up with potential for decision paralysis, next level he will have 9 daily attack powers, assuming improved spellbook, available for use at all times. There is also the problem of the other players. If the fighter has to sometimes deal with the fact that the big combat is against many typical foes, and his big shot power is a solo killer, that is occasionally a limitation. The wizard will always have the perfect spell for every scenario, this might over time ruffle some feathers.

 

[Daedrova]

I allowed the Wizard in my game to use the exact feat that your player proposed. I hasn't been a problem, whatsoever. The result - the player enjoys the game even more, and the party is happy that the Wizard isn't left useless in certain situations, even though he should be able to help because of unnecessarily restrictive game mechanics.

The other reason I allowed it in the first place was this: the super-genius intellect of a Wizard would be able to account for more variables and calculate the most probable outcome... I had seen a Wizard NPC write up long ago that stated something to the effect of "[npc] is a very cunning and experienced Wizard; if a particular spell would work best in a given situation, he should have it prepared..."

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I've tried to slate his thirst with the refocus power for the moment. We haven't had a ton of time to talk D&D lately, so I'm not sure if this will do what he wants in the long run.

I'm still leaning away from giving him a feat that does quite that much for his versatility. He's already fairly consistent and effective in combats, making great use of everything from cantrips to grease to fireball. Maybe I'll remove some of the requirements for the feats above. Throw him a bone in some way. He's flying out here tomorrow to visit so I'm sure we'll chat about it soon.

Trit

 

[Blackbrrd]

Houseruled stuff like this is something I don't see as a big problem. I would add a cost of it. For instance that he looses a healing surge or expends an encounter power when he switches out a daily on the fly.

I don't think it so much increases the "power" of the character as it does make it more fun. If you can think of similarly powered feats for the other characters that fit with their theme, I think it will make the characters feel very unique. I ran a 3e campaign where I added houseruled feats and such as this and really, it added a lot to the characters - and the game.

 

[MarkB]

After thinking about it, in all honesty allowing him to switch dailies and utilities at-will isn't going to be significantly more powerful than the couple of instances he can gain from Refocus and the Improved Tome feat.

He's only ever going to have about six daily and utility spells memorised. Leaving aside a few Encounter utility powers, that's a maximum of six opportunities to switch powers.

But assuming he's a reasonably smart player, he's going to memorise the more useful power more than 50% of the time. So on an average day, he really shouldn't need to actually switch powers more than a couple of times.

I'd still tend towards leaving the full at-will switching option until Paragon tier, just so that it feels earned.

EDIT: I was neglecting Expanded Spellbook in the above analysis. The increased choices would probably reduce that percentage somewhat, but I'd still expect an experienced player to choose right about half the time.

 

[Vhex]

I thought there was a theme or some such that did something similar to this, but I can't seem to find it. For a house rule like this, the important part to think about is how it impacts the other players. You don't want a situation where "always prepared" means "steals the spotlight."

It also matters how often your party rests. The more often the party takes an extended rest, the more fluff this becomes. If the issue is that the party may go through a whole dungeon without resting then that limits the ability of the wizard to "adapt" during rest time and you might be best served allowing him to change after X milestones.

The more perceived power this gives, the higher the cost should be. A feat that lets you spend a healing surge during a short rest to swap out powers has both a feat cost and a resource cost without overshadowing anyone in a battle. But if the other players won't feel stunted in comparison, never let the rules get in the way of the fun.

D&D also has a fairly good system for "playtesting" rules which is to put whatever you want to give him on an artifact that he has to keep happy. Artifacts always leave, but when it does you'll know if the power was too much. If it wasn't, the benefit for having the artifact leave with high concordance is that he retains the ability to change out his spells.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

After the above three posts, I'm thinking of giving him a revised version of the feat, and possibly only once we hit paragon (starting next session we're switching to double xp so that won't take too much longer). My current idea would allow him to switch powers every short rest instead of only at extended. This allows him to change tactics if he feels he has an idea of what's ahead. I also like the idea of being able to swap a power on the fly by spending a healing surge (once an encounter). He has a hit Con for a wizard, but his surges still feel precious to him, so it's a good trade off. Since I'm holding this out until he reaches paragon, I may allow him to replace the action point ability for whatever paragon path he chooses with a free power swap when he spends an action point (which we've simplified to an encounter ability, as opposed to tracking milestones).

Thoughts?

Trit