Sculpt Spell Feat Question

[Purzel]

I was looking thru my "Tome and Blood" Guidebook, when i stumbled over the "Sculpt Spell" Feat.

With this i can change area spells into

• 10 ft radius, 30 ft high cylinder
• 20 ft radius ball
• 40 ft cone
• four 10 ft cubes

and that at a price for only +1 level increase in the spell slot used.

That's pretty nice so far and reasonable for a lot of spells (fireball, cone of cold, most detect spells) ... but then i wondered how this spell could be abused and i came up with examples, that make me think so:

• Burning Hands, normally a 15 ft. range cone-shaped burst can become 40 ft cone? Or can't the spell leave the built-in range?
• Glitterdust, normally having a 10ft spread can be made 'Glitterball' with twice the radius?
• Detect Poison, only checking a 5ft cube in its original form, can now check LUDICROUSLY larger areas?

Compared to the "Widen Spell" (3.5 SRD) feat, which can alter a burst, emanation, line, or spread shaped spell to increase its area (numeric measurements of the spell’s area increase by 100%.), which costs a +3 level increasement something looks very wrong with "Sculpt Spell".

So i checked the net for any "Tome and Blood" errata, or any other people saying that this feat is broken and needs to be revised. But: Null -- Nada -- Niente -- Nichts!

What to do with this feat in a campaign? Not allow it? Or how to repair it and make it balanced? Do official errata exist and i was just too stupid to find them?

 

[smetzger]

Unfortunately it looks like my poll on this spell from a couple of years ago is gone.

It is an excellent feat at +1 lvl. You are correct about how it can not only change the area of a spell but increase its area.

Perhaps making it +2 lvl or maybe +1 lvl without changing area size and +2 with changing area size.

But alas we are venturing into House Rules here and if you want a fix for the feat you should post to the House Rules forum.

*:> Scott

 

[Hypersmurf]

Burning Hands, normally a 15 ft. range cone-shaped burst can become 40 ft cone? Or can't the spell leave the built-in range?

Strictly, that is indeed the case.

"A spell’s range indicates how far from you it can reach, as defined in the Range entry of the spell description. A spell’s range is the maximum distance from you that the spell’s effect can occur, as well as the maximum distance at which you can designate the spell’s point of origin. If any portion of the spell’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted."


3E:
Burning Hands has an Area of 'A semicircular burst of flames 10 feet long' and a Range of 10 feet.

Sculpted Burning Hands has an Area of 'A 40 ft. cone'... and a Range of 10 feet.

Any portion of the spell's area that extends beyond 10 feet is wasted, strictly as written.

3.5:
Burning Hands has an Area of 'A cone-shaped burst' and a Range of 15 feet.

Sculpted Burning Hands has an Area of 'A 40 ft. cone'... and a Range of 15 feet.

Any portion of the spell's area that extends beyond 15 feet is wasted, strictly as written.

-Hyp.

 

[Pax]

However, the spirit of Sculpt Spell would seem to be that you should be able to exceed the spell's normal range parameter in some way or other.

 

[Hypersmurf]

However, the spirit of Sculpt Spell would seem to be that you should be able to exceed the spell's normal range parameter in some way or other.

Then they should have said so, don't you think?

-Hyp.

 

[TheNameless14590]

Pax, I think the spell was meant to just change the shape of the spells area of effect. I dont think the feat is overpowered as long as there is osme DM supervision.

 

[AuraSeer]

However, the spirit of Sculpt Spell would seem to be that you should be able to exceed the spell's normal range parameter in some way or other.

That's what Widen Spell is for.

 

[Pax]

Auraseer: no, Widen is to increase the Area of Effect. You're thinking "Enlarge" (why they didn't just call it "distant spell", I'll never know ...).

Personally, I'd declare both Widen and Enlarge to be prerequisites for Sculpt, and set Sculpt's cost at +1 or +2 - whichever seemed more balanced, and erring on the side of too high a cost (players will more-happily swallow "I think I've been too hard on this, so I'm making it cheaper" than they'll take "this is too powerful, it's time for me to take the Nerf Baton back off the shelf ...").

 

[smetzger]

Auraseer: no, Widen is to increase the Area of Effect. You're thinking "Enlarge" (why they didn't just call it "distant spell", I'll never know ...).

Personally, I'd declare both Widen and Enlarge to be prerequisites for Sculpt, and set Sculpt's cost at +1 or +2 - whichever seemed more balanced, and erring on the side of too high a cost (players will more-happily swallow "I think I've been too hard on this, so I'm making it cheaper" than they'll take "this is too powerful, it's time for me to take the Nerf Baton back off the shelf ...").

Maybe Widen OR Enlarge but not both.

 

[smetzger]

That's what Widen Spell is for.

You would think that but the most useful shape (10 ft cubes) and the most used area of effect spell fireball means that you do in fact get a larger area of effect.