Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="coyote6" data-source="post: 63604" data-attributes="member: 1225">Three Answers1) Monte Cook's alternate sorcerer does away with material components (focuses, too, IIRC) for sorcerers, too. So it has been done. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Note that some spells are balanced by having expensive components; you might want to carefully consider whether those spells will get out of hand without the restraint of the components' cost. Monte's sorcerer charges 1/5th the gp value in XP, FWIW. Me, I've considered giving all sorcerers the Eschew Materials feat for free. 2) Yes, that's allowed. It's in the PHB, p. 148: &quot;You always have the option to fill a higher-level spell slot with a lower-level spell.&quot;3) Balance, basically. Dodge bonuses stack with other dodge bonuses, and do so freely. (They also are lost when you lose your Dex bonus to AC, which differentiates them from unnamed bonuses.) Deflection bonuses don't stack with other deflection bonuses. So, they didn't want the master of chain's ability to stack with other deflection effects; they also wanted it to always work (IIRC), even when the master of chains is flatfooted (or even helpless). Ergo, it's a deflection bonus (as for arcanobabble: the chains knock attacks away, thus it's a deflection bonus).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="coyote6, post: 63604, member: 1225"] [b]Three Answers[/b] 1) Monte Cook's alternate sorcerer does away with material components (focuses, too, IIRC) for sorcerers, too. So it has been done. :) Note that some spells are balanced by having expensive components; you might want to carefully consider whether those spells will get out of hand without the restraint of the components' cost. Monte's sorcerer charges 1/5th the gp value in XP, FWIW. Me, I've considered giving all sorcerers the Eschew Materials feat for free. 2) Yes, that's allowed. It's in the PHB, p. 148: "You always have the option to fill a higher-level spell slot with a lower-level spell." 3) Balance, basically. Dodge bonuses stack with other dodge bonuses, and do so freely. (They also are lost when you lose your Dex bonus to AC, which differentiates them from unnamed bonuses.) Deflection bonuses don't stack with other deflection bonuses. So, they didn't want the master of chain's ability to stack with other deflection effects; they also wanted it to always work (IIRC), even when the master of chains is flatfooted (or even helpless). Ergo, it's a deflection bonus (as for arcanobabble: the chains knock attacks away, thus it's a deflection bonus). [/QUOTE]

Verification