Rumors from Player's Guide to Faerun

[Liquidsabre]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jgsugden
OOC: Where did this rumor originate? Is it reliable?

The rumor that Persistant is +6 now? That's in PGtF, I've just read it again.

This "rumor" was started on the WotC boards in the Ask Richard Baker thread. I asked him about the feat specifically (as the 3.0 version was quite broken with the 3.5 lower spell durations). Mr. Baker stated it was bumped to +6 spell level.

The strange thing is - the FR-Players Guide shows a remarkable tendency to downgrade caster feats (such as "Persistent spell" or "Spellcasting Prodigy", which looses its meagre +1 to DC of caster's spells ) while beefing up melee-feats at the same time . Examples ?
"Luck of Heroes" now also give +1 luck bonus to AC; "Blooded" now also confers immunity to 'shaken'; "Ferocious charge" raises the charge bonus to attack from +2 to +4, there is a feat (name escapes me atm) that confers the ability to induce "shaken" into everyone within 20' of charged target, at will.... There is a +10' to base speed (!) regional feat ("Fleet of Foot") that stacks with the monk/barbarian bonus.

Keep in mind that these feats are Regional Feats now; may only be selected at first-level and a character may only select one regional feat. As a result such feats are more powerful than standard core feats that anyone may select.

There are also several regional feats available for casters as well:

Arcane Schooling
Artisit
Bloodline of Fire
Mind over Body
Spellwise
Tatoo Focus

 

[uzagi_akimbo]

Keep in mind that these feats are Regional Feats now; may only be selected at first-level and a character may only select one regional feat. As a result such feats are more powerful than standard core feats that anyone may select.

There are also several regional feats available for casters as well:

Arcane Schooling
Artisit
Bloodline of Fire
Mind over Body
Spellwise
Tatoo Focus

Actually the spellcaster-slanted feats are much weaker, most lacking any real appeal for higher level use - except perhaps "Artist", and _that_ is as specific a bard feat as they come, even more aimed towards a very specific niche than the melee-relevant feats.
Also, I cannot really underwrite that a regional feat (because you can only take one ) should be much better than other feats - a clever/crafty player will always find a way to "rationalize" a certain home region to gain access to a feat. And many of these feats are massively stronger than standard feats - just compare "dodge" and "luck of heroes" - were it not for the fact that "dodge" was the key-access feat for the mobility/spring-attack venue, no-one would even consider picking it over "LoHeroes". And just how many characters are going down that specific path of development ? But "LoHeroes" is extremely attractive to almost any character class (it already was pretty good before they boosted it ). In comparison to "Magic in the Blood" which doubles an innate spell-casting ability like a thiefling's or aasimar's it is infinitely better - would you rather have the ability to cast "light" twice a day instead of once or have a +1 Luck bonus to ALL saves and AC ?

Sorry, looks extremely broken/slanted to me

 

[Felon]

Keep in mind that these feats are Regional Feats now; may only be selected at first-level and a character may only select one regional feat. As a result such feats are more powerful than standard core feats that anyone may select.

OK, keeping that in mind, keeping that in mind, keeping that mind.....Processing......

Hmm. No appreciable effect. Even when you only get one it still seems pretty broken.

 

[LightPhoenix]

In my time playing D&D, I've noticed that almost every fighter takes weapon focus and weapon specialization. That doesn't make it broken. It makes it an expected feature of a fighter.

Again, everyone who can use it wanting a feat is a sign of potential brokenness but not prima facia evidence of brokenness. Brokenness is determined by its effect upon game balance and gameplay not popularity.

OOC, I read this and thought... why aren't WF and WS just abilites the Fighter gets then, instead of having to spend feats on them? If it's an expected feature of the class, why not make it a class ability?

If anything, I think popularity is more of a sign that perhaps a certain ability should be a class feature, and not a feat.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

OOC, I read this and thought... why aren't WF and WS just abilites the Fighter gets then, instead of having to spend feats on them? If it's an expected feature of the class, why not make it a class ability?

Several Reasons:

• Giving Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and the Greater versions at levels, say, 2,4,8,12, in addition to the bonus feats would make the fighter too strong IMO
• Giving these at above-mentioned levels instead of bonus feats would rob you of versatility, as you had to take these feats then. (Maybe you'd prefer to get Spring Attack first!)
• Making them abilities instead of feats would rob you of versatility, as many fighters want more than one to specialize in, and other characters want weapon focus, too

 

[Scion]

Giving Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and the Greater versions at levels, say, 2,4,8,12, in addition to the bonus feats would make the fighter too strong IMO

Seeing as how the fighter is too weak right now it would probably take 'more' than this to really help them.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Seeing as how the fighter is too weak right now it would probably take 'more' than this to really help them.

Can't say that I think the fighter's too weak. Lots of feats aren't to turn up one's nose at.

 

[James McMurray]

Fighters too weak? Are you trying to troll?

 

[jgsugden]

There are different evaluations of the power of fighters as a class. Both sides have legit arguments with the actual answer on whether the class is under, over or correctly powered being campaign specific.

As for a reason why the specialization track is presented in a feat format: You can choose how you do it. Do you want to specialize in just two handed sword? Or do you want to specializae in longsword and bow? Do you want to get them right away? Or would you rather get weapon specialization after getting great cleave? The thing that makes a fighter great is the ability to customize it.

 

[Scion]

Fighters too weak? Are you trying to troll?

Between no skills that really matter, and their combat skill being roughly equal to the other fighter types who have many more options, I think I am allowed to say that adding a few feats on them would not overpower them

I suppose my comment earlier was a bit too brief though, penalty for being in a hurry, failed my 'rational but succinct' roll.

like jgsugden said, there are arguements for each side, but personally I feel that the fighter needs more skill points, a couple of more useful skills, and a few more feats to pull them up to the level they should be at.


Still, for the topic of persistant spell I'll just say it again, they should have made a whole list of spells that it worked with and left a few guidelines on how to put new spells on the list. Much like permanency. It would have worked much better, it could scale better (this spell made to 24 hours is worth a +2, while this one is worth +5, etc) and I think people would have much less of a problem with it overall.