Sorcerors no magicals in exchange for spellfire & esch. materials

[Sir ThornCrest]

Our group is debating "Should all Sorcerors receive spellfire and eschew material components, in exchange they will not be able to make magical items?" That is they will not be able to make any magicals but they can still use them, use magic device etc. All spell casting is verbal and gesture no focus or components needed. Would you be willing to do this in your campaign? This is was brought up by a player who thought it to be a good exchange. He also wanted to add in "I dont see why my charisma doesnt effect my spells as a wizards int does"

watcha think?
Sir Thorn Crest

 

[Crothian]

So, they get two bonus feats one of which is so powerful that it actually says check with DM first, and they loose the ability to take item creation feats? Now, allowing the sorcerers and only the sorcerers access to the feats would be okay, but I wouldn't give them the feats for free.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Our group is debating "Should all Sorcerors receive spellfire and eschew material components, in exchange they will not be able to make magical items?" That is they will not be able to make any magicals but they can still use them, use magic device etc. All spell casting is verbal and gesture no focus or components needed. Would you be willing to do this in your campaign? This is was brought up by a player who thought it to be a good exchange. He also wanted to add in "I dont see why my charisma doesnt effect my spells as a wizards int does"

watcha think?
Sir Thorn Crest

I wouldn't.

I've never had a sorcerer make a magic item anyway, and if you assume access to standard levels of magic, it's not like he won't be able to get them from other sources easily enough anyway.

A "drawback" that doesn't have much effect isn't a balancing drawback.

 

[jerichothebard]

OK - a few things here.

1 - In my experience, sorcerers very rarely take magical item creation feats, because they can usually make so few of them - they don't often have all the required spells, so their ability is very limited.

2 - Sorcerers can use magic items without the use magic item skill. They can automatically use any spell-completion or spell-trigger item (i.e. wands, staves, scrolls), so long as the spell it casts is on their class spell list - even if they can't cast it! And, of course, they can use any wondrous item, armor, or weapons for which they make the requirements.

3 - Sorcerer's Charisma DOES affect their spells - they get to cast more per day and the DC goes up for higher CHA, exactly as a wizard's INT. They do NOT, however, get to learn more spells then the table indicates, barring feats or house rules.

4 - Eschew materials is such a negligible feat anyway, in my campaign, sorcerers get it for free. No trade-off required.



Now, to answer your question...

Spellfire is not something I'm familiar with, so I can't really comment, but it seems like, were I playing a sorcerer, I would totally trade magic item creation ability for it, if it does anything cool at all. Something I wouldn't use for something I would? Sounds like a deal to me!

Would I allow this as a DM? Probably not. At least, not for free.

 

[Doug McCrae]

What's spellfire?

 

[Faraer]

Spellfire is a one-off power that Ed Greenwood gave his heroine in the novel Spellfire as a plot device to show what power groups look like as they attempt to seize it, and to keep her alive as we were shown large parts of the Realms. It's among the most powerful of the rare 'wild talent' magical abiities. An AD&D writeup was published in FR7 Hall of Heroes; following 3E dogma, spellfire was further commodified in the 2001 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting into a feat available to anyone (though with 'check with DM' proviso) and the lore distorted so it's no longer a unique blood-inherited trait.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Let us see...

Get two feats for free (Eschew Materials can be a bit lame, but Spellfire more than makes up for it). In return for which I can't take a feat that I wasn't likely to take anyway? And one of the free feats is a munchkin's dream come true?

Sign me up!

Or to put it another way: Would I allow it as DM?

No, not if the blazing tombs of Dis grew cold.

The Auld Grump

 

[kyloss]

I mistook the meaning of this poll, I thought you meant that they would give up spell casting for spell fire access essentialy turing spell levels into spellfire charges and no actual magic so I said maybe -but with the variation of no absorbing spells or atleast not more than your con and can never have more than standard for class per day-like healing cant go over max hit points.-ie no over charging
but if they keep spell casting-NO WAY!!!!!

 

[EricNoah]

I personally don't see it as a big deal. I had a spellfire caster in one campaign and he in no way outshone any other character in that game. And I would house rule Eschew Materials for sorcerers as a freebie anyway.

 

[Paragon]

the problem here is so many people read the spellfire feat and crap thier pants. but for people that use it, and enforce the game application, it is not nearly as powerful as people believe it to be.