Arcane Spell Modification Feats

[ScottyB]

I've been toying with the concept of providing wizards, sorcerors and bards the ability to choose arcane bonus feats that modify signature spells of their spell focus. The following would not be a result of having Spell Focus: X, but rather, be new feats that have a requirement of Spell Focus: X.

One idea I had was "Cowering Fear" with required feat SF:Necromancy, where their Scare and Fear spells also immobilize the frightened target (they can't move but aren't paralyzed, and suffer an AC penalty, instead of the -2 saves/skills/check modifier associated with being frightened).

Another is "Ghost Armor" where a caster with SF:Conjuration becomes ethereal-ish (CutsceneGhost) when they cast Mage Armor, allowing the target to walk through other creatures for the duration of the spell. This could be pretty useful after the 1.69 collision improvement, denying creatures the ability to block passages or exits.

After the work I did for adding new cleric domains, I think arcane casters need some love. Anyone agree, and think this is the right path to take?

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

DEFINITELY

[Maccabeus]

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. One character I tried out in the beginning was an evocation sorcerer, who was completely useless even at level 5. Something like this would have helped him, and would undoubtedly create an incentive to create Wizards/Sorcerers that are more concerned about casting spells on themselves/at enemies than buffing other players.

[ScottyB]

Mmm, evocation gives me an idea, Chain Missile. A single magic missile, but it does a chain attack. Maybe it gets upgraded to two missiles at level 4, and 3 at level 6, and 4 at level 8. (This is one level later than the normal missile progression, and still does less damage than Gedlee's Loop, and without the stun chance, although admittedly in a lower spell slot and doing magic damage.)

[Oskar Maxon]

This sounds awesomly cool, Scotty

[Requiem]

For necromancy, it would be more interesting to be able to use ghoul or vampiric touch as a ranged touch attack instead of melee.

[UnholyWon]

Great ideas!

[Letsplayforfun]

*kisses ScottyB*

[Luke Danger]

I wholeheartidly agree with this, please do so if you can.

[ScottyB]

I can't actually change the spell (as in, make it ranged vs. melee) I can only change the effect of the spell. After one round of spell modifications per school has been added, perhaps a second round could follow, making more spell changes available, and of course, costing a bonus feat to use.

[Kiaring]

This ties interestingly into an idea I had while playing Ovrid, a month or so ago. If you check his journal, you will find inside a large diagram with six circles representing levels 0-5 of arcane casting in the game. On the outer border are symbols representing each of the 8 commonly-accepted schools. My idea was to put in this diagram the symbols for every spell on NWN from level 0 to 5, and convince other mages IC to draw their 'arcane lines' - consisting of those spells they favored above all others, from the outer border (cantrips) to the center (level 5).

Now, while at that time my idea was for this to be some sort of supplementary roleplay element for wizards (which as we know are consistently difficult to portray in a persistent world where DMs can't hold your hand at every second) I sort of entertained a wild notion that through scripting, certain arcane lines (spell sets) could become more powerful than others, if many characters were using/advocating them. Naturally since that whole thing would probably be very difficult to script, this may be an appropriate alternative. It would definitely give each wizard a more unique feel, and help with portraying them by offering each character a reason to stick to certain spells over others, thus enabling them to roleplay those spells to perfection whenever they are cast.

[meow-mix]

Scotty, I am curious...In this proposal, you are suggesting taking away the + to DC effect of spell focuses, right?  In return, you get signature spells from the schools of focus?  Or in addition to?

My two cents!
Meow-mix

[The Crimson Magician]

Can we access it through the crafting menu?

[ScottyB]

These would be new feats, similar to how the Planar Turning feat adds the ability to turn Outsiders to any cleric's Turn Undead ability.

So it would be something like...

[indent]Ghost Armor
Type of feat: Metamagic
Prerequisite: Spell Focus: Conjuration
Specifics: The Mage Armor spell has the additional effect of allowing the target to move through other creatures, similar to an ethereal being.
Use: Automatic, when Mage Armor is cast.[/indent]

This has nothing to do with Spell Focus except as a prerequisite. You would choose it when you level up, and it would be made available via downloadable override. Thus, the changes to spells cannot be significantly powerful, but rather, flavorful (though of course, still worth spending a feat on; or two feats, if you otherwise wouldn't have taken Spell Focus.)

(And most importantly, it doesn't exist yet, but it would be easy enough to do.)

[Cruzel]

This is a pretty sweet idea, IMO.  But changing your spells in such a cool way does seem more like a GSF thing, to me!

I'd definately burn a few feats on this kind of thing, but I would sugest they be item granted feats as well, so DM's can toss these out to rocking casters.