Worst Feat Ever

[argo]

A skill focus character gets this at 8th level while a Combat Caster gets this at 7th level.

The difference between 7th & 8th level is four sessions and for the previous 7 levels the Combat Caster has had a 5% bonus on a life or death skill. The +3 from skill focus is too situational for my liking. (Btw entangle would be treated as grappled, i.e. Combat Casting applies, no?)

Skill Focus is too situational? My friend, I'm afraid you've got it backwards, here is the breakdown.

Combat Casting: +4 bonus applies to
Casting a spell/spell-like ability defensively
Casting a spell/spell-like ability while grappled/pinned

Skill Focus [Concentration]: +3 bonus applies to the above as well as
Damaged while casting (such as by a readied action) DC 10 + damage
Taking continuious damage (such as by Melf's Acid Arrow) DC 10 + 1/2 damage
Distracted by a nondamaging spell
Casting while on a moving platform (horse, boat, etc)
Casting while entangled (thats right, entangled is not the same as grappled/pinned)
Casting in harsh weather

In addition remember that your also have to make concentration checks if the above circumstances occur while you are: concentrating on an active spell, directing a spell or using a skill that provokes an AoO (like using Heal to stabilize a friend). Skill Focus applies to all those situations while Combat Casting does not.

This is why Combat Casting is usually in the running for Worst Feat Ever; you get a piddly +1 bonus over Skill Focus in only two cases and in exchange take a -3 (again compared to skill focus) in many other situations. Readied Actions and Continuous Damage are easily just as common a way to stop a spellcaster as relying on AoO's. Heck I would say that the humble Readied Action to attack the spellcaster is a more common way of neutralizing him than the AoO seeing as how most people are aware that a spellcaster can easily weasel out of an AoO by casting defensievly or using a 5' step. Combat Casting is just not worth it, not while Skill Focus is available.


Of course, Toughness still wins the competition ...

Later.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Skill Focus [Concentration]: +3 bonus applies to the above as well as
Damaged while casting (such as by a readied action) DC 10 + damage
Taking continuious damage (such as by Melf's Acid Arrow) DC 10 + 1/2 damage
Distracted by a nondamaging spell
Casting while on a moving platform (horse, boat, etc)
Casting while entangled (thats right, entangled is not the same as grappled/pinned)
Casting in harsh weather

Only the continuous damage is something that I feel CC misses out on - the others you listed are too situational, I cannot recall them ever happening. Except in the case of riding the horse but my character altered tactics to dismount to get around that limitation and the DC for that was pretty low anyway.

The most used application of the Concentration skill is to cast defensively, grapple is a major threat to spellcasters & CC covers these two bases.

That is what I meant by situational - in a waterworld campaign with lots of rocking boats you could dismiss my argument, likewise if magekilling tactics (the readied shot) were more prevalent.