Is Dual Spells Feat balanced?

[Crothian]

This feat is from AEG's Feat book. I'm not sure if it's balanced, it's a little on the odd side. So, I'll type it in here and tell me what you think and why.

Dual Spell (Metamagic Feat)
You can cast two spells at once
Prerequisite: Any two Meta magic feats
Benefit: You may cast two spells in the same round. These spells are cast at half your normal casting level. For example, if a 10th level wizard casts magic missile and web in the same round, he would be casting these spells as a fifth level wizard. This half level casting ability only effects numeric varibles dependant on level for the the spell, including what spell level is availible for casting. A 10th level wizard can normally cast 5th level spells. When using this feat he would only be able to dual cast spells up to half his normal caster level, third level spells.

 

[trentonjoe]

My gut response is no.

I think throwing two prep spells around may be a little to good.

Maybe a limitation should be it is a full round action and no move action can be made.

 

[Crothian]

But that half caster level is really limiting. At high levels and epic levels the feat gets really strong, but at medium levels it might be okay.

 

[trentonjoe]

But that half caster level is really limiting. At high levels and epic levels the feat gets really strong, but at medium levels it might be okay.

I am guessing a wizard isn't going to take this until 10-12th level anyway.

At 12th level you could throw two 3rd level spells, say haste and displacement. That is a good round of prepping!

At 14th level you could cast: stoneskin and fire shield.
Even worse would be getting hit with an enervation AND a bestow curse in the same round by only one person.

Is that worse than being finger of deathed? or prismatic sprayed? I don't know probably not.

 

[James McMurray]

Even at just 6th level it means you can do some stuff to get around 3.5's many nerfs. You can:

- effectively be 3.0 hasted
- speed the buffing process by casting those minute per level buffs two at a time

For offensive spells it may not be too nice, especially against critters with SR. But for buffs, summons, and no-SR spells its way too nice.

Here's a feat I offered players in my game.

Spell Splicing:

Benefit: You may combine two spells into a single spell slot in order to cast them simultaneously. The spell slot occupied is equal to the sum of the two spells' levels plus one.

The prerequisites involved the Mana Weave skill, which is another house rule (that isn't used in my current campaign, but got a little bit of pay in my prior one). For a normal game, a prereq of caster level 7+ and one other metamagic feat might not be bad.

Nobody ever elected to use the feat though, so it didn't get any playtesting. Maybe I'll give one of the upcoming bad guys the feat for the next session.

 

[Master Psion]

I can't see how that is balanced. In some ways it seems ok such as throwing a fireball at half the caster's level and a magic missile at half the caster's level. But the feat could be easily exploited. I'm not the greatest metagamer out there but I could see where a conjurer could use that feat to cast 2 summon spells (possibly 3 with a quickened spell) per round and be overpowered. Unless I'm reading the feat wrong, all that it does is cause the spells to be cast at a lower caster level. So a 10th level wizard could cast two 5th level spells in a round with durations or effects as a 5th level wizard. Or was it intended that the wizard could cast two spells as if he was 5th level (which would be two 2nd level spells at that level). If it's the latter, then there's nothing overpowering about it at all.

 

[Crothian]

Unless I'm reading the feat wrong, all that it does is cause the spells to be cast at a lower caster level. So a 10th level wizard could cast two 5th level spells in a round with durations or effects as a 5th level wizard. Or was it intended that the wizard could cast two spells as if he was 5th level (which would be two 2nd level spells at that level). If it's the latter, then there's nothing overpowering about it at all.

He can only cast two spells as if he was 5th level caster.

 

[Master Psion]

Right on. I don't have the book to look at it so I wasn't sure how it was exactly spelled out. I don't see that it's unbalanced. Sure, at high levels it can seem powerful but so can all the epic feats.

 

[jgsugden]

Flat out NO!!!!!!!

This feat is not balanced. The most valuable commodity in D&D is an action. Being able to do more things in a round is very powerful. Anything that increases the number of actions in a round beyond the norm should have a huge cost that always is meaningful. Does anyone recall the issues with 3.0 haste?

Take, for instance, a 10th level wizard with this feat facing an evil barbarian. Before the fight begins, the caster has two choices: 1.) Cast a charm monster on the barbarian, or 2.) Cast 2 charm persons on the barbarian.

If that barbarian has a will save of +7, the DCs for the CPs are 16 and the DC for the CM would be 19, bring able to use 2 CPs instead of 1 CM reduces the chance that the barbarian will resist the effect from 45% to 36% - a significant improvement. This improvement could be greater with heightened charm persons, as well (heightened up to 3rd level, the barbarian would only have a 25% chance to make both saves).

In addition, the wizard has wasted 2 1st level spells instead of 1 4th level spell. Low levels spells are far mroe useful if you can toss out two in a round. This increases the utility of something that is normally an unused commodity for wizards: low level spells. Normally, f wizards have spells left over at the end of the day, they tend to be low level.

A lot of spells are not significantly reduced in power by a reduction in caster level. Being able to toss off two of these spells in a round is an effective doubling of the caster's power during that round.

My advice: Outlaw this feat.

 

[Darkness]

At high levels and epic levels the feat gets really strong

Yah, apart from the reduced duration (since duration so often depends on caster level) it's quite handy for buffing, divination, some healing spells, stuff.

But not if you use it for attack spells; very many foes have spell resistance at these levels and half caster level won't help much against that.