Magical Apprentice - gaining spellcasting via feats.

[nonsi256]

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Ok, for a long time now, I've encountered quite a few complaints how the Mystic Theurge - despite of its increased versatility - just “doesn't make the curve” crunch-wise.
I've also encountered countless homebrew alternatives to the Duskblade/Hexblade/Paladin/Ranger. To be honest, that quatro never sat well with me.
Also, I sometimes encounter a question in the line of "why can't a wizard ever heal" or "why can't a cleric cast Fireball".

Well, I've come up with 2 feats that could resolve all the above, and on top of that provide a bunch of other benefits.

At 1st glance, it would seem like 2 feats grant quite a lot, but read on and you might find that I’m on to something here.


The idea was to find something that wouldn’t make melee/skillmonkey casters an obvious choice, but if someone wanted to go that route, it would definitely be viable – and the power scale would be gradual, and in accordance to how many feats you put into it.
I also wanted to allow players who took this feat (or at least the first) at a later stage of their character development, to eventually catch up.
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[nonsi256]

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The feats:

Magical Apprentice [general]
Requirements: 3 levels in any class or class-combo, 13+ in either Int/Wis/Cha (see below).
Benefit: You gain all the spellcasting knowledge of a 1st-level full spellcasting class of your choice.
When you gain 5th level (or If you already have 5 levels or more) in any class-combination, then every time thereafter, when you gain a level, you also gain all the spellcasting knowledge of the next level of the class you chose for this feat - up to a maximum of 1/3 your total class-levels.
Your CL equals your magical knowledge.
Special: a character that took this feat will benefit from Practiced Spellcaster feat, just like any full spellcaster.
Special: This feat doesn’t count (ever) for CL prerequisite for PrCs.

Devoted Adept [general]
Requirements: Magical Apprentice, 6 levels in any class or class-combo
Benefit: Your spellcasting knowledge gained as a Magical Apprentice advances to the next level.
Special: This feat may be taken multiple times. The benefits stack. But you cannot take this feat before at least 3 levels have passed since the last time you took it.
Special: Instead of enhancing your spellcasting gained via Magical Apprentice, this feat may be used to enhance the spellcasting of an actual spellcasting class of which you have levels, capped by your total class levels. If used in this manner, this feat is viable for CL prerequisite completion for PrCs. If used for that purpose, Magical Apprentice is omitted from the requirements list.
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[nonsi256]

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And what was accomplished (in my view) with these feats ?

1. With a single feat, you gain all the spellcasting capabilities of a spellcaster of 1/3 your character level (rounded down). Not that impressive, but useful if you go for buffs & utility (especially the latter).

2. Putting all your [HD-feats post-1st-level] into your chosen apprenticeship can push you as far as CL 11th by character level 18 – for the price of 6 feats, of course. It’s not OP, but it’s not negligible either. Retraining your 1st HD general feat for the sake of Practiced Spellcaster feat would make your spell effects count as being cast by CL 15.

3. The power/utility progression is steady, balanced and depends directly on how much resources you put into spellcasting.

4. This could make a decent alternative to multiclassing, for a player that so wishes. You could be a custom-made gish without compromising BAB, without the need of multiclassing or prestige classing, and without the need to invent additional rules/feats/features/classes.

5. You could become a MT by advancing as Wiz 4 / Cl 2 and putting a feat instead of a level, to count as Cl 3 (one could make it Wiz 3 / Cl 4, but the other way around seems more intuitive to me).

6. This gives, a GM who so desires, the option of doing away with PrCs. Any archetype that suddenly became unobtainable due to the loss of PrCs can be made available via specialized feats.

7. This gives, a group that so desires, the option of reducing that number of base classes dramatically. For instance, if you wish to use a fighter to role a forest warden (Ranger-esque), you could practice divine magic, TWF & archery, and take the Wild Cohort feat (maybe also Natural Bond). I also see no reason to disallow a feat that would grant Turn Undead as a cleric of 3 levels below your character level. And if you wanna role an arcane warrior, just go arcane and select a handful of useful swift-action-casting combat spells (there’s also nothing to stop you from taking Obtain Familiar). The point is that the combination of Wild Cohort, Turn Undead and custom-made spellcasting unfold s hundreds of different warrior types.

8. These feats are applicable even if vancian spellcasting is replaced with spellpoints, strain & tolerance or anything else that comes to mind – as long as CL are a factor.



So, what do you think ?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I don't know how to critique Homebrew stuff very well, I'll leave that to others.

However, there are a number of existing feats that do simmilar.

-Eberron's Least, lesser and Greater Dragonmarks.
-Complete Arcane has a series of spell-like abilities that replicate a set of zero and/or first level spells.
-Kobolds have a ritual to gain a level 1 spell-like ability.

As for being a skillmonkey with a little spells, that's what Factotum and Psychic Rogue are for.

 

[nonsi256]

I don't know how to critique Homebrew stuff very well, I'll leave that to others.

However, there are a number of existing feats that do simmilar.

-Eberron's Least, lesser and Greater Dragonmarks.
-Complete Arcane has a series of spell-like abilities that replicate a set of zero and/or first level spells.
-Kobolds have a ritual to gain a level 1 spell-like ability.

As for being a skillmonkey with a little spells, that's what Factotum and Psychic Rogue are for.

Well, the CArc feats are so underwhelming that no one would ever take them except as prerequisites to something else.
Dragonmarks & Kobold rituals are tailor-made rules.

My suggested feats cover all of the above and much more - and they're proportionate to your level and investment. You'll never get shafted for taking them, but they're written to not let you abuse them (haven't yet found any loopholes).