Spell Mastery

[Li Shenron]

IMHO Spell Mastery poses some moral dilemma to the DM. If a PC takes it, the DM is somehow motivated to threat the PC's spellbook, otherwise it is simply a wasted feat by the player's choice. If a PC Wizard never takes it, to threat its spellbook is kind of punishing the player for not taking the feat.

I was first tempted to give out a few Spell Masteries for free to Wizards, something like one every 4 or 5 levels. And I mean TOTALLY free.

Now I was kind of toying with the idea of instead having Spell Mastery to grant another bonus for the chosen spells, so as to make it an attractive choice for the Wizard. If the Wizard has reasons to take it, other than being able to prepare those spells without the spellbook, then as a DM I would be very relieved that if I threaten his spellbook the player feels satisfied by his choice of having chosen SM (or otherwise can complain only with himself, since there were other reasons to take it), while if I don't threaten his spellbook he is still satisfied by other advantages.

Now my question: what would you think it makes for a good extra to the chosen spells with Spell Mastery?

My obvious choice number 1 is +1 DC. Given the lowered bonus by 3.5 Spell Focus, another +1 DC would be definitely welcome by the Wizard.
pros: it would stack with SF and GSF and the spells don't have to be of the same school
cons: it will apply only to the (few) chosen spells, which are as many as your Int bonus, and perhaps you may want to choose a few spells with no save (such as a Mage Armor exactly for the time when you'll see your spellbook disappear)

Do you think it would be a good house rule? Otherwise I was also thinking of giving +1 caster level instead of DC, that could be even better overall (since it benefits almost all spells, especially at lower level). But since it is more difficult in 3.5 to increase DC, perhaps the first one is better?

Do you think it would be too little bonus in 3.0?

 

[AeroDm]

I wouldn't give it out for free because that is senselessly empowering the wizard. Wizzys aren't super powered at low levels, but around 4-5 (when you plan to give them their first) they start to hold their own and later on (when you give them subsequent SMs) they are very powerful.

The +1 DC would make it an attractive feat but would encourage people to only take certain types of spells with spell mastery. I like SM for invisibility, teleport, and other spells that don't really have DCs, which would make this version useless IMO.

You could always consider allowing them to gain an additional slot that must be used from their spell mastery (sort of like a domain spell). Every time they take SM they gain another slot that can only be filled by their SM spells. That is pretty powerful, but perhaps not overpowering. Additionally, it has the added on benefit of being easy to remember. I always forget those +1 DC to these 4 spells type bonuses, but granting one more spell slot is easy when you are preparing a dozen or so per day.

 

[the Jester]

Though underused, Spell Mastery is very powerful under the right circumstances.

Evil Baron: "Bwahaha, without your spellbook, you're helpless! Throw him in the dungeon!!"
Wizard: (thinks) "Just wait til I charm all the guards..."

 

[Li Shenron]

Though underused, Spell Mastery is very powerful under the right circumstances.

The point being that it is utterly unuseful beside those circumstances.

It is somehow kind of the Ranger's favored enemy bonus: if a player chooses Gnolls, the DM can decide to sometimes drop Gnolls into an adventure to make his player satisfied by his choice; if a DM just dislike Gnolls and never use them, the player will be frustrated by completely wasting something about his character. But the case of the Ranger is not so serious: after all, a Ranger has really a lot of stuff, and many favored enemies, and therefore it's not so terribly frustrating.

But the "stolen spellbook" is in my opinion a terrible cliche'. DMs have the Wiz's spellbook stolen only to challenge the Wiz to retrieve it before running out of the spells still prepared. You can do it ONCE within a gaming group, because if you do it a second time to the same players they get pissed off.

A player who burns a feat in SM is like begging you "please stole my spellbook" otherwise he has totally wasted a feat. A player who ignores SM (the majority) will hate the DM if he takes his spellbook away. So what happens most of the time? That almost nobody takes Spell Mastery. I have seen already quite many Wizards and none had SM at all. I was very surprised that the authors of 3.5 claimed to have spent so much attention on nerfing what was too good and bumping what was too rarely used: they even justified the changes to Haste because "it was making Quicken Spell less useful"... how didn't they notice that nobody cares about Spell Mastery? IMHO it is a very sensible matter.

Anyway, I don't want to give it for free. I want to add some reason to take Spell Mastery beside the fear of having the spellbook stolen, so that even if it doesn't get lost the player doesn't get the feeling of having wasted a feat.

 

[dvvega]

Just a quick thought ... why would a Wizard carry his spellbook with him all the time?

He risks it getting lost/damaged, has to carry the stupid thing around with him, etc.

I remember the old Unearthed Arcana with its Travelling Spellbook concept. That would lend itself perfectly to the Spell Mastery feat. You know 3 or 4 spells without a Spellbook, and you carry a smaller spellbook with spells you don't know.

Personally I don't believe the risk Wizards take carrying their books with them.

Fall into a river - book gets wet and damaged.
Fail a saving throw with a 1 - items must save.
etc etc

 

[dvvega]

Messageboard timeouts causing double submission.

 

[Li Shenron]

Just a quick thought ... why would a Wizard carry his spellbook with him all the time?
...
Personally I don't believe the risk Wizards take carrying their books with them.

Slightly off-topic but this is another interesting point. I think there are a lot of adventures (basically most of all) that bring the characters far from home. Almost all are in an area different from the PCs' home, and it happens frequently that they either have to travel or at least they have to spend a few nights away. If the PC Wizards need to prepare spell to replenish their slots, they need their spellbooks with them.

 

[dvvega]

And where does the Wizard carry his spellbooks? Most Wizards cannot boast a large strength. Can they actually carry their own books? Especially when they get higher level spells and fill up their initial books.

If they leave the books on mounts, at a campsite, or somewhere not on their person they run the risk of losing them.

"Oh but they can use bags of holding and Heward's Handy Haversack!" I hear. Yes they can. But a nasty Disjunction, Dispel Magic, Disintegrate, or other nastiness will neuter that Wizard.

There are a lot of things that can happen to those books.

Of course all of this means nothing if you don't enforce the spell book capacity rules, and you allow a Wizard to lug around a bag of holding and not actually drop it in combat when he's casting spells. If I saw a Wizard type drop his sack, I'd sacrifice a kobold or two to grab it and run.

 

[Li Shenron]

Ok, I see your points... but let's go back to Spell Mastery: how do I make this feat useful to take without compelling the DM to make it useful by threatening the PC's spellbook?

 

[dvvega]

That's just it, you don't have to.

You don't have to intentionally make it happen, players tend to get themselves into situations that inherently screw them over.

In the long run, I have found that players choose feats organically if they are playing in campaigns. If they start characters at high level they tend to focus on a character type since they have the ability to preplan.

If it isn't chosen it isn't. Don't stop or warnt he Wizard when he swims. What if that Green Slime falls on him ... so what ... you didn't plan on it.

Just design your adventures/gaming nights, and let things happen. If you hurt his spellbook then it happens.

The feat is attractive to players depending on their desires.

Example: I have a Dwarven Wizard who wears Full Plate and has high CON ... he makes Wands of all spells he knows, and has Spell Mastery of a few basic spells so he doesn't have to carry his books with him on adventures.