Spell Mastery for a Wizard

[bret]

Do many people take this feat? It seems like it would be heavily campaign dependent. Either the campaign is one where this feat would be priceless (because the GM is always attacking the spellbooks) or it is very seldom used (because the spellbooks are generally safe).


What are other people's experiences here? How many GMs destroy or steal a spellbook, and how many times have you done it over the levels.


The other question about Spell Mastery I have is with regards to the Headband of Intellect.

Assume that a character has a Headband of Intellect +4 and has worn it throughout the past level. If that character took Spell Mastery, would you give them an extra two spells (from the headband)? If not, why not? I'm inclined to allow it, just as is done with skill points.

 

[Darklone]

You don't get more spells each level for higher INT. You only get more bonus spells per day.

 

[Stalker0]

Your right spell mastery as is is VERY dm dependent.

I personally find it to be a crap feat, there's too little bang for my buck, even if I did lose my spellbook.


I changed the feat, so that the spells you pick only have a 1 minute preparation time, instead of the usual 15. Basically, when leave spell slots open for the day, you can fill them later with a 15 min prep time, which I lowered to 1 for spell mastered slots.

But alas, my players still don't use it

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Assume that a character has a Headband of Intellect +4 and has worn it throughout the past level. If that character took Spell Mastery, would you give them an extra two spells (from the headband)? If not, why not? I'm inclined to allow it, just as is done with skill points.

We play that as long as you have the headband on, you can get the bonus spells with spell mastery. But as soon as you remove it, you lose two spells (your choice) which you cannot gain back (even if you put it back on again).

 

[Li Shenron]

You don't get more spells each level for higher INT. You only get more bonus spells per day.

I think he meant for Spell Mastery (select a number of spells equal to your Int bonus)

Basically, the only spells the Wizard really know are Read Magic + the spell mastery spells; all the others he can only prepare them from a source (his spellbook if he doesn't want any penalties).

I have a feeling that no DM really bring menaces to spellbooks as per the rules may happen, otherwise he'll be very hated by the Wiz player... or worse, nobody would play a Wizard anymore (you don't really want to waste feats in Spell Mastery?) . And if the spellbook is never in danger, Spell Mastery is worth nothing, unless it is a prereq for other goodies in your campaign.

I don't think it was a great idea to have this in the game...

 

[DiFier]

It is something I wish I had. mind you my next feat will not be Spell Mastery. but it would have been nice to have. actually on more than one occasion.

two examples: (shamless plugs for drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour)

1. (see Session Ten, Part Two: Di'Fier's Very Bad Day from drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour - Book II: Inheritance http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17841&perpage=40&pagenumber=8)

If you haven't been folloing the storyhour Di'fier a member of Freeport's city watch (A wiz5/fighter2/spellsword2) has just been up for about 30 hours. After participating in the rescue of the daughter of Councilor Marcus Roberts' Daughter (in which he used most of his spells) He is asked to prepare a speach to inform the captains council of Freeport about the new threat to the city. During his speach he is arrested, all his stuff is taken and he is put in a cell. with spell mastery he could have slept for 8 hours awoken and prepared a number of spells. mind you he also didn't have spell components. so he was pulling out eyelashes and searching the cell for gum arabic. luckily he had 2 spells still memorized and not needing material components knock and disapear.

2. (see drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour - Book II: Inheritance begining with Session Thirteen, Part One: A Turn for the Worse... http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17841&perpage=40&pagenumber=9)

I can't go into as much detail with this one cause it is ongoing. lets just say that Di'Fier went about a month with out memorizing a new spell. and was very careful with the ones he had memorized leaving him with only 6 spells memorized when he was able to memorize spells again. (he gets 4 0 level spells and he had only used one of those). Talk about being a less powerfull charachter.

 

[Deadguy]

Hmm... yes, there is a goodly degree of campaign flavour affecting the choice of Spell Mastery for Wizard characters. However, even in a campaign where the wizard's spellbooks are fairly safe, there will still likely be times when the spellbook is unavailable. The classic is always the PC Wizard in prison - his book hasn't been destroyed just confiscated, along with the rest of their equipment. But there are also social functions, or general 'about-town' travelling. Does the Wizard really insist on attending the Duke's birthday feast with the book still jammed in his (greasy) mitt?! So , without any real contrivance, it's possible to see circumstances where having Mastered some Spells could be handy.

 

[Skaros]

My Rashemi wizard has multiple spell master feats.

First, he has them to emphasize his goal of mastery of magic through diligence and hard work.

Second, I intend to take a few spells as signature spells, which has spell mastery as a prerequisite.

I never really considered the spellbook issue, but it could be useful if something bad happens.

-Skaros

 

[Li Shenron]

Spell Mastery wouldn't be just useful in such situations. It would be _everything_

The problem here is that if you expect that one day your DM may bring up a situation where your spellbook is not available, you're in need to take at least 2-3 times the Spell Mastery feat (you may take it even only once if you have high Int and choose few right spells, but after few levels you'd really like to "master" some higher level spells, 'cause the previously "mastered" ones might have become less useful at this level).

If you want to be sure, you're almost giving up all your Wizard's bonus spells for Spell Mastery only, which you're probably going to need once or maybe twice in your PC's career.

Maybe it's not that tragic, but the temptation of taking much more frequently useful feats is so high that I think a lot of DMs feel quite compelled not to bring up such dramatic circumstances. And I know a couple of DM that simply don't use the spellbook rules at all (that is, they basically don't require the Wiz to have the spellbook with her to prepare spells). Now that I think, in our games only NPCs were Wizards, the players always preferred to play Sorcerers when they heard the spellbook rules

 

[bret]

If you want to be sure, you're almost giving up all your Wizard's bonus spells for Spell Mastery only, which you're probably going to need once or maybe twice in your PC's career.

Am I correct in assuming you meant all your wizard's bonus feats?