Rumors from Player's Guide to Faerun

[Falling Icicle]

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.

Spellcasting Prodigy can only be taken at 1st level also. Yet, unlike many of those other feats that were improved, it was nerfed. Why? Because it boosted your save DCs...

Just another example of 3.5's pointless and absurd crusade against spell save DCs.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Just another example of 3.5's pointless and absurd crusade against spell save DCs.

I've seen how absurdly high DC's could get in 3.0. I welcome the downsizing of that. It may have been overdone, but doing nothing is no solution, either.

 

[Kalanyr]

An archmage prodigy used to have +7 DC for the cost of a 5th,7th and 9th level spell slot and a 1st level only feat, now for the cost of selfsame feat and 3 5th level spell slots he instead gets +3 Caster Level (Ignoring the bonus spells he got both before and after, and the +6 caster level he would have gotten before for overcoming SR which devaluates the caster level slightly).

Although the original was probably overdoing it, the fix is IMO severely overdone the 1st level only feat is rarely superior to the general feat Extra Spell Slot whereas Luck of Heroes is superior to Dodge unless you have a handy supply of Luckstones.

The other curse against spellcasters is that the massive DC build was culmulative so that you could work up +11 DC to one school of magic using the above layout and Greater Spell Focus + Spell Focus, now you get +2 DC for 2 feats married with all the above.

To get +2 to all you spells it now costs 16 feats vs the 8 (or the 7th level spell slot for spellpower +2) it cost before, whereas it still only requires 3 feats to get +2 saves vs all spells (and a rather large bunch of other stuff to) the relative cost of improving offense is far to great compared to defense. And I'm kind of sad to see this trend continue especially in the realms where it seemed you could actually have a decent chance against the monk , with the cloak of resistance +5.

I'm also amused it was the wizard who always copped the brunt of the DC blame in threads considering a Cleric 20/Hierophant 5 lost absolutely nothing and got +10 DC with the right selection of their abilities.

I'm sure there are those cheering the decline of the spellcasters power and I'm sure that suits their play styles and more power to them, I'm just saying that it seems wrong from my perspective.

EDIT =
And to try and bring my mindless divergence back on topic, how where a few of the spellcaster Regional Feats improved compared to the FRCS ? I'd like to see if I consider it an equal boost to something like Luck of Heroes got.

 

[Perun]

Spellcasting Prodigy can only be taken at 1st level also. Yet, unlike many of those other feats that were improved, it was nerfed. Why? Because it boosted your save DCs...

Just another example of 3.5's pointless and absurd crusade against spell save DCs.

Funny bit is, we house-ruled it back in 3.0 to do exactly the same thing as the official version in 3.5 -- i.e. it only gave bonus spells, but not save DC increase.

It seemed very powerful in 3.0, and does even more so now in 3.5. Now it'd be an equivalent of 8 Spell Focus feats feats, plus bonus spells.

In 3.0 we considered another house rule, but eventually decided against it, since it didn't feel right. We though that since Spell FOcus gave a +2 save DC to one school, Spellcasting Prodigy could give +1 save DC to any three schools of player's choice (along with the standard benefit of bonus spells, of course). But with the changes to Spell Focus in 3.5, this version is not viable any more.

 

[Falling Icicle]

It seemed very powerful in 3.0, and does even more so now in 3.5. Now it'd be an equivalent of 8 Spell Focus feats feats, plus bonus spells.

Which wouldn't bother me since, in 3.5, Spell Focus is the most horribly underpowered feat that exists (save maybe Dodge, the two are quite competitive). And that's sad.

 

[Thanee]

Funny bit is, we house-ruled it back in 3.0 to do exactly the same thing as the official version in 3.5 -- i.e. it only gave bonus spells, but not save DC increase.

It seemed very powerful in 3.0, and does even more so now in 3.5. Now it'd be an equivalent of 8 Spell Focus feats feats, plus bonus spells.

Well Spell Focus is probably underpowered in the new version (altho the total of +4 was too much in 3.0). We changed it back to 3.0 version, granting +2 to DC, but in the same run we banned Greater Spell Focus altogether.

Spellcasting Prodigy was on the strong side for sure, but now it's a mere joke and I doubt anyone will spend a feat on this anymore except for fluff reasons, of course.

It doesn't retroactively balance a formerly overpowered feat back to normality if you make it underpowered for a similar amount of time.

The DC bonus to 8 schools is about equal to a DC bonus to only 3 (or maybe 4) schools (which seems roughly equal to a higher bonus to one school, slightly superior probably, but not much). It's unlikely that it will do much more over the course of a campaign. They should have done away with the bonus spells and leave the DC modifier only, that would have been a fair compromise (but impossible when comparing with the new underpowered Spell Focus, of course!).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Li Shenron]

Correct me if I have understood it wrong: the 3.5 Spellcasting Prodigy is a regional feat and therefore can be taken only at 1st level AND if you come from the appropriate region (and you cannot have more than 1 regional feat); it grants the extra slot as in 3.0 but not the DC increase.

I agree that it sounds very weak. There are examples of regional feats in another thread that are very very good, such as giving proficiency to all martial weapons: clearly much better than the PHB Martial Weapon Proficiency feat. If regional feats are now supposed to be definitely better than regular feats, it would have seem very balanced that Spellcasting Prodigy gave +1 DC to all schools (but not the extra slot). At least it sounds in line with the MWP.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

how where a few of the spellcaster Regional Feats improved compared to the FRCS ? I'd like to see if I consider it an equal boost to something like Luck of Heroes got.

Bloodline of fire gives you +4 on saves and +2 on caster level with fire.
Spellwise (former Courteous Magocracy) gives +2 on Know(arc), spellcraft, and saves against illusions
Tattoo Focus practically gives you the same effect as spell focus and half spell penetration (stacking) for your specialized school, and you can participate in circle magic.

There are other feats that can be useful for spellcasters (like becoming a native outsider) but that don't have a direct reference to magic or magic-related skills.

Correct me if I have understood it wrong: the 3.5 Spellcasting Prodigy is a regional feat and therefore can be taken only at 1st level AND if you come from the appropriate region (and you cannot have more than 1 regional feat); it grants the extra slot as in 3.0 but not the DC increase.

Spellcasting Prodigy is no Regional Feat. You can only take it at level one, though (but a human could have a RF and SP at the same time).

 

[Perun]

Which wouldn't bother me since, in 3.5, Spell Focus is the most horribly underpowered feat that exists (save maybe Dodge, the two are quite competitive). And that's sad.

Depends in what kind of game one is playing. If the DM leaves monsters as is from the MM, and the player's use 25 point-buy (or the equivalent), then Spell Focus will be useful. On the other hand, if the monsters are straight from MM, and the players create characters with the 32+ point-buy method, then SPell Focus will be more or less useless.

On a related note, Power Attack has a similar, but reversed, mechanic. With 25 point-buy method, it will be somewhat useful, but with 32+ points, it becomes a very useful feat.

This all is IMO, of course. We're using 35 (!) point-buy method, by the way.

 

[Thanee]

Bloodline of fire gives you +4 on saves and +2 on caster level with fire.

I hope this means +4 on saves vs fire-based spells/effects, not +4 DC.

Bye
Thanee