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I have been toying with a summoner wizard build and this feat is awesome if you can manage the Fort saves. The way I see it, the most important levels are early on before you can provide yourself a steady stream of lesser restorations to relieve fatigue.
So here is my question: In a situation where you had no way to mitigate fatigue, it would be obvious that you should just go for the highest Fort Save possible. But since I can get 5x Lesser Restoration scroll after my first PFS mod (need someone else to cast), and I will probably pop for a wand when I can afford it, what is a good save percentage?
I can get a +8 Fort Save at first level for a 65% save chance. With gear, I can get a +18 Fort Save at level 12 for a 90% save rate on level 6 spells. Given that I can almost get a save on all but a 1 eventually, do I go all the way, or does the opportunity cost get too high eventually?
I'm running summoner wizard myself, but I agree the saves are a weak point... Ah well. Cant have everything.
I am not sure if this feat is legal for PFS, i say this because this feat is in a 3.5 module.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Its legal.
Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide
Equipment: all equipment on pages 12–13 (except hide shirt); Feats: Acadamae Graduate, Crossbow Mastery
Makes me want to play a Korvosan summoner...
Make sure the divine caster hits you with guidance for an extra +1 to your save. Or hang out with a paladin with the remove fatigue mercy.
What you really need to ask yourself is what you loose by being fatigued.
No charging - who the heck cares
-2 Str - don't care about that either
-2 Dex - loose 1 AC and 1 init
Overall fatigued is kind of an easy condition to live with as a spell caster. So I recommend that you don't spend anything extra just to prevent it. If you make the save, awesome, if not, so what.
What you really need to ask yourself is what you loose by being fatigued.
No charging - who the heck cares
-2 Str - don't care about that either
-2 Dex - loose 1 AC and 1 initOverall fatigued is kind of an easy condition to live with as a spell caster. So I recommend that you don't spend anything extra just to prevent it. If you make the save, awesome, if not, so what.
The problem is that if you fail a second time in one day you become exhausted. That increases the penalties to -6 each. Losing 3 AC and 3 Init can be significant, and the -6 to strength is large enough that encumbrance could be an issue.
It's not so bad if you use your standard action summons sparingly and don't mind laying off them for the rest of the day after the first time you fail a save. But if you want to spam them like a Master Summoner can, the Fort saves are important.
If you fail pop a potion of lesser restoration between encounters and move on.
Edit: Spamming summons is kind of a waste. You only have so many of them and you have access to a lot of other great spells too. You may be able to standard action summons but you are no where near the master summoner in capacity. Pop a summons first round as a standard and the support it with some battlefield control.
I honestly think you are spending way more resources than you need to. I think a starting Con of 14 is enough and you can invest those points in Dex (for AC and initiative) or Int (For more spells per day and higher saves). The rest is fine (trait, familiar) but I would not grab great fortitude at first lvl. It is a good choice down the line but there are much better feats to grab early. The Con belt isn't a bad idea (I would probably go Dex 2 /Con 2 instead).
you can just buy some allnight, no?
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Allnight...awesome!
Great mechanics and lots of room for good RP. As someone who probably imbibes a bit too much caffeine as it is, it won't be hard to be jittery and unfocused.
Would you say it works on only the first instance of fatigue or does it prevent fatigue? Multiple doses sounds like a recipe for an overdose, but it doesn't seem like you couldn't pop more if you get fatigued again before the first dose is done.
@Lab Rat: Exactly. I don't want to devote this many resources. I was kind of hoping some statistician had figured out a sweet spot for saves.
One of the prereqs is: Specialist wizard level 1st
I took that to mean it needed to be taken at your first level of wizard. Even if that's not the exact requirement, I figure the spirit of these local feats is that they be taken at the beginning of your adventuring career.
I don't think that wording precludes you from taking the feat later on by RAW, but being an enrolled student at the Academae could be kind of an issue for an adventuring Wizard, even in CotCT where you spend a great deal of time in and around Korvosa. They don't really let their students leave freely prior to graduation. So, 1st level makes sense from that perspective.
On the other hand, in order to graduate you need to summon a devil, which a 1st level caster is going to have issues doing without casting from an item/scroll considering there are no devils on the Summon Monster I list. Seems like casting from an item might go against the spirit of an exit examination, but *shrug*, maybe they applaud the ingenuity required to come up with that solution.
Regardless, its not a bad option to have from 1st level. SM I and SM II aren't very powerful, but they can be a bit more useful without the full round cast time. I wouldn't bother getting Great Fortitude at 1st level though, and that's likely what Lab Rat was referring to. Academae Graduate is fine mechanical choice as a 1st level feat IMO.
I'd also tend to agree that you don't need to worry quite as much about the save. Don't ignore it, and be more careful once you fail one (although as noted, its pretty trivial to get rid of fatigue between encounters with minimal investment), but don't go overboard either. +3 Con is too much of an investment IMO unless you're playing very high point buy. I'd rather have a +4 initiative familiar, but using the familiar for fort saves is fine too (fort saves are good anyway after all). Using a feat or two to boost fort is fine eventually, but can certainly wait a few levels.
Take heed of the advice that you don't want to spam summons. You're still a Wizard, and should still be casting BFC, buffs, and even some SoS spells. If you want to spam multiple summons per encounter, just play the Summoner class. If you want tactical use of 1, maybe 2, summons per combat, you'll be fine using AG as a Wizard, even if it means failing an occasional fort save.
Yea, i have a Human(Vudrani) summoner who by back-story "miraculously graduated alive" and took the indomitable faith and resilient traits as to back it up. I attribute his low strength to being mauled horribly by something he was forced to help summon. I did not invest any more into it and find that i usually have time for full round summoning. I use it when things get tight to bring in reinforcements.