Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hashmalum" data-source="post: 584232" data-attributes="member: 9450">Of course the idea of a mage having a particular theme type of damage that they prefer to use is a cool idea. But there are other, better ways to do it than the T&B feats.First of all, the way the feat treats the 5 "basic" damage types as if they are interchangeable is a bad idea for balance reasons. Second, the way the feat is written with the inconsistent secondary effects (as I mentioned earlier) is horrible.It's almost as bad if you just negate all the secondary effects, because it seems rather strange and inconsistent for some acid (Melf's acid arrow) to have lingering effects, and some (acid fireball) not to, some sonic effects deafening people (shoutand some not (sonic fireball, etc. It's bad enough that you have certain core spells doing things like arbitrarily dealing double damage to undead (wall of fire) while other fire spells don't and so on. That's one reason I bar not only the T&B feats, but Mastery of Elements from the Forgotten Realms archmage. Another reason I don't like the spell damage-type dealing mechanic is that logically certain changes ought to change the school of the spell. Conjuring up physical substances, such as acid, is conjuration magic (see Melf's acid arrow). Conjuring up energy, such as fire, is evocation magic.Personally, I'd prefer Energy Focus feats similar to the Spell Focus feats, although for balance reasons they shouldn't stack with the latter (Spell Focus (evocation) + Energy Focus (fire) + Greater Spell Focus (evocation) + Greater Energy Focus (fire), for example, would be a real nightmare).And if it's personality you want your mage to have, the lack of spells of certain damage types is actually an opportunity. Why settle for just a sonic version of fireball when you can create something like Mostin's howling wind from beyond?Eh, it doesn't seem to fit him all that well to me. Sonic damage just seems weaker thematically than fire, cold, electricity, or even acid. "I AM THE MAGE WHO MAKES A LOT OF NOISE! FEAR ME!"The other thing I don't like about Mostin's use of Energy Substitution (sonic) is the gamespeak with characters referring to their metamagic'ed spells in D&D game terms.IMO Mostin is a cool character with one somewhat munchkin-ish ability, which in his case is partly justified by the fact that as a mage who specializes in dealing with outsiders he needs something to bypass their energy resistance.</blockquote>

Verification