Arcane Spell and Sorcerer kit mega suggestion thread

[Vlaid]

Just a bunch of sorcerer kit and arcane spell suggestions. I've had sorcerer/spell changes on the mind lately.

Arcane Spells

Melf's Acid Arrow: The duration should either be buffed to 1+1 round/level or allowed to stack with itself since it's not very good. Also it has two bugs
1) If a target is already affected by Melf's Acid Arrow you can not cast it again on that target, you get an error message. Casting again on the same target should either refresh duration or stack the dot.
2) Currently IG spell description says 1 round+1 round/3 levels. Wiki says 1 round+1 round/2 levels. The latter is correct at the moment but will need updating if it is changed.

Chain Lightning: Change to a level 5 spell. Unless I'm missing something it's just Firebrand but worse so I'm not sure there's a need for it to be level 6.

Ice Dagger: For some reason this spell is worse in every possible way than Burning Bolt. I would suggest just making it a copy of burning bolt but ice (is it possible to .  Right now it's:

Short range
Reflex save
You create a piece of ice that flies toward the target and deals 1d4 points of cold damage per level (maximum of 5d4).

vs

Long range
No save
The caster creates a bolt of fire that is aimed at the target with a ranged touch attack. After level 1, the spell creates 1 additional missile every two caster levels. Bolts do 1D4+1 points of fire damage each.

Ice Burst: This is the last level 3 AoE elemental spell to not have a long range. Suggest just giving it the same range as the other AoEs - Long

Baleful Polymorph: Does this spell need a -4 DC? Feels a bit harsh...even slay living doesn't have a penalty to the DC and  that spell is more deadly. Maybe just allow it to both be removed by dispel AND remove curse (so you can either directly or indirectly remove it).

Bigby's Interposing Hand: Reduce the penalty to -5 but remove the freedom of movement counter. At -10 it is a bit too ruinous to boss balance and results in a lot of Bigby immune NPCs and such. Perhaps for every two rounds the target is under the effect of Bigby's Interposing Hand the penalty increases  by 1 (to the previous -10 cap) which results in a nice boost to GSF Abjuration with the longer duration

Feeblemind: Add the secret brain explosion vfx to targets subdued/killed by feeblemind (if it still exists)

Mage Armor: Change the duration to 24 hours. The advent of the +4 armor cloth throughout COR has made it feel  bad anytime you are any PC who doesn't have +4 passively on their armor. At least this way you can use on potions more reliably.

Ray of Enfeeblement: Change the innate level to 2, there are far too many ways to counter this spell to ever be useful - Ghostly Visage, Negative Energy Protection, low DC due to low spell level, lesser restoration to remove instantly....

Stone Bones: With GSF Necromancy when casting it on yourself you gain the ability to breath underwater. Does not apply when cast on people other than yourself.

Circle of Death: Allow the spell to affect targets up to level 10.

Perks

Bouldermancer
Change to 5% flat DI. In most places rocks, boulders and so on have resistance to bludgeon, not weakness. Just a sort of EFU strangeness that we have a few places where it is the opposite.

Dream Eater
Update the kit to work with Slumber as well as Sleep.

Hematologist
Grant Devastating Bodyswap 1/day with a moderate blood explosion vfx at the target location as a kind of blood teleportation.

Hydromancer
Allow Ice Dagger to apply the same debuff as Burning Hands (25% cold vulnerability) to all targets it hits.
Would prefer the word "Frozen" be replaced with "Chilled" in all places. Chilled implies being slowed, frozen implies a state of being completely immobilized, stunned and unable to act.

Infuser
All spells which deal electric damage now apply a static charge for 3 rounds. Whenever two targets with a static charge get near each other they deal 1d4 electrical damage to each other and remove the static charge. Use the chain lightning VFX for the static charge, should make it look very satisfying! Alternatively this could replace the currently rather lackluster GSF Evocation lightning effect.

Lifestealer
Ray of Enfeeblement
Applies the debuff as a CURSE (with no save) on initial casting (used to fuel strength gain of the perk). The curse lasts 3 rounds (6 with extend) after which the normal Ray of Enfeeblement effect is applied allowing saving throw as normal. This is just to make the draining of strength more reliable and remove the motivation to use friendly summons - you should WANT to use your draining spells on enemies.

Rotbringer
At level 8, when the zombies you create through your perk are killed they explode into a swarm of maggots (some low-mid level insect theme with concealment).

Scion
Remove 2/- from Scion
Grant 2/+5
This perk has gone through a lot of iterations over the years but considering all the other benefits this perk grants the 2/- stacking with other sources of DR no longer seems warranted.

Spellsword
Move 5/+1 to level 5
Add +1 Dodge back at level 8
More of a quality of life change and the removal of the 1 AC probably wasn't needed.

Tribal Shaman+Witchcraft
Both perks seem to be aiming for the same result and overlapping themes a lot so just combine them and take the best of both

Level 1

• Animals don't attack you
• +5 Hide/+5 Move Silently for a PC if medium stature or larger, +2 Hide/+2 Move Silently if small stature or smaller
  Sorcerer Token: One With the Land (7) 1/day
• +5 EFUSS Alchemy
• +5 EFUSS Herbalism
• +2 VS Disease and Poison
• Use Poison feat

Level5

• Tracking player tool
• Sorcerer Token: Alter Self 2/day

Level 8

• Regeneration +1
• +2 Wisdom

Zealous Faith
When casting Flame Weapon on a target with the same Good/Evil axis alignment as you, they gain the same benefits as you do when casting it on yourself. When casting this spell on targets with alignment axis that is opposite yours (along the Good/Evil) they instead are hit with a brief vfx and flash of negative or divine damage indicating the rejection of your ethos (and no buff).

GSF Evocation and damage shields: Not sure if this is a bug but it might be nice if GSF Evo perks applied to their damage shields when struck? Elemental shield doesn't seem to see much love anyway and the acid perk is on the weak side anyway.

GSF Evocation Acid: Feels a bit weak at least for the acid evoker outside of utility for melee allies. Something extra like -2 to  saves vs acid along with the -2 AC would be good.

[Strangeways]

Great recommendations in general. If nothing else I think Melf's Acid Arrow could use the fix recommended. No idea how hard that would be to implement.

[Dredi]

I'd say no to the Zealous Faith one - or at least not to a "You get to tell what this person's alignment is" - I'm all for allowing it to work on same alignment, but he VFX should be the same regardless, even if it has failed and given another element.

We had this same issue with Good Domain not giving evil characters the buff and suddenly everyone knows that the halfling is evil and I think just generally that having surefire ways to identify another persons Alignment beyond Pally Detect Evil is highly undesirable.

[Vlaid]

I'd say no to the Zealous Faith one - or at least not to a "You get to tell what this person's alignment is" - I'm all for allowing it to work on same alignment, but he VFX should be the same regardless, even if it has failed and given another element.

We had this same issue with Good Domain not giving evil characters the buff and suddenly everyone knows that the halfling is evil and I think just generally that having surefire ways to identify another persons Alignment beyond Pally Detect Evil is highly undesirable.

I may be in the minority but I prefer that if you pick evil it is a big decision and you are going to clearly evil because it is who you are so I don't really mind if people can know you are evil, especially when it comes to Faith. At least as long as paladin exists and alignments are meant to be meaningful in anyway in EFU being able to tell someone is evil doesn't seem like a negative.

[Nazey]

Zealous Faith
When casting Flame Weapon on a target with the same Good/Evil axis alignment as you, they gain the same benefits as you do when casting it on yourself. When casting this spell on targets with alignment axis that is opposite yours (along the Good/Evil) they instead are hit with a brief vfx and flash of negative or divine damage indicating the rejection of your ethos (and no buff).

I had a similar idea, except granting the benefits to people who have the same deity as you instead.  A bit more thematic, but also a bit more niche

[Vlaid]

Some more adjustments:

Gas Explosion: No longer has KD but applies both the daze and sleep effects with independent saves
Cacophonic Burst: Remove the stun. Horizikaul's Shout already exists as a level 4 sonic stunning option anyway so seems like excessive overlap (especially when the other option does far less damage).
Frost Blast: AoE seems like it might be bigger than huge despite what the spell description says, should be reduced to huge if so.

(Not an arcane spell but whatever)
Inflict Spells: Reduces healing of target of any target hit by them by 10% per spell level, duration scales to 1 round/level of caster level of spellcaster/trinket, will save halves duration and can be blocked by Negative Energy Protection