Spell Mastery

[Videssian]

I know it's pretty lame to reply to yer own post, but I was just glancing back over this brainstorming list.....

What if the feat Spell Mastery looked like this (changes in yellow):

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SPELL MASTERY [SPECIAL]
Prerequisite: Able to cast arcane or divine spells with preparation.

Benefit: Each time you take this feat, choose a number of spells equal to twice your Intelligence modifier that you already know. From that point on, you can prepare these spells without referring to a spellbook.

Even if you don't use a spell book, you may "take 10" when making concentration checks with these spells, even if threatened.

Normal: Without this feat, you must use a spellbook to prepare all your spells, except read magic, and you may not "take 10" on spell casting concentration checks.
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Would you take it now? How 'bout that cleric or druid out there?

I'm not sure it makes sense to add divine spells into your suggestion. Divine casters don't use spellbooks in the first place, and even if they did, their primary stat is wisdom, not int, so it would be much weaker for divine casters. You could balance it by making it based on wisdom for divine casters and giving an alternate benefit of being able to spontaneously convert one or more spells..

 

[KarinsDad]

I have a different house rule in my game that gives Spell Mastery slightly more utility without changing the feat.

Spell casters (non-Bards, non-Sorcerers) can use a full round DC 20 + spell level Concentration check to swap spells in my game. If you miss the roll, you lose the slot for the day.

But, in order to swap a spell, you must have a spell in the spell slot to begin with.

So, when combined with Spell Mastery of at least one spell per spell level (and/or at least one spell per spell level of specialty school for specialty wizards), this means that a Wizard might be able to cast any spell in his repetoire if he can make the Concentration roll.

Of course, this is a little harder to do in combat (with other potential modifiers to the Concentration check), but out of combat, a Wizard could study a significant percentage of his spells. However, although the Wizard gains the ability to not carry his spell books around with him, he often does lose some spells per day on average due to missing the Concentration check on some of them (e.g. losing 75% of his best spells at low level down to maybe 20% of his best spells at high level).

And, this does not require that a Wizard take Spell Mastery, it just means that if he does take it, he always "makes the roll" for some slots (those with SM spells) and always fills his slots with something that can be swapped. He is incentivized to take it, but not required. He could instead just take a spell book with one or a few spells of each level. But, then he runs the risk of losing that book and still being in virtually the same boat (i.e. no spell book, few spells in slots, no Spell Mastery). Or, he could play normally and carry his spell books with him.

So, with my house rule here, I have no problem zapping a spell book. I don't go out of my way to do it, but if it comes up (e.g. rolling a one on a saving throw), so be it. The Wizard has multiple ways to avoid the loss. His choice on whether he wants to take the risk.

 

[anon]

[B]Spell Mastery[/B]

Spell Mastery feat
You may Master a number of spell levels equal to the sum of your caster level and your Int modifier, doubled. These spells may be prepared in advance without need for a spellbook. Mastered spells are chosen once and may not be changed.

For example, a 5th level wizard with 18 Int (+4) could learn 18 spell levels ((5+4)x2). He might therefore Master the following spells: Magic Missile(1), Sleep(1), Charm Person(1), Blur(2), Invisibility(2), Alter Self(2), Fireball(3), Fly(3), Dispel Magic(3). Or any other combination of spells which have a total of 18 spell levels.

After some time, our wizard is now a 10th level wizard with 20 Int (+5) and would be able to prepare from memory a total of 30 spell levels ((10+5)x2). His additional 12 spell levels are spent on: teleport (5), dimension door (4), with 3 levels open for a new spell.


Allows a wizard to have his utility spells and maybe a few others. Useful, but too strong?

 

[dvvega]

That version of Spell Mastery is a bit 'iffy' in my opinion.

A 1st level Wizard with 18 INT will have 7 spells in his/her spellbook. He/She can Master 10 spell levels - all her 1st level spells.

You have essentially created a sorcerer which will carry the Wizard until 2nd level. Then goes to 3rd level and choose Mastery again, etc etc. This sorcerer is inferior because the real sorcerer gets feats while the Wizard must use them in Mastery.

 

[FireLance]

Spontaneous casting is too powerful for one feat. I like KarinsDad's idea on swapping spells, though I'm not too hot on the Concentration check. How about giving the wizard the option to "re-prepare" spells to those that he has mastered with Spell Mastery?

Currently, a wizard has the option to leave some spell slots open whenever he prepares spells and spend 15 (or more) minutes to prepare spells in those slots later in the day. If a wizard has Spell Mastery, why not give him the option to convert any prepared spell of equal or higher level to a spell that he has mastered? As with preparing a spell in an open slot, he would have to spend 15 or more minutes to do so, so he cannot spontaneously cast spells like a sorceror. However, it does increase his flexibility to deal with occasionally-encountered obstacles like locked doors (Knock), high walls (Spider Climb) and foreign languages (Comprehend Languages) -- after 15 minutes of preparation, of course.