I'm surprised no one has addressed your post before me, but honestly you couldn't be more wrong about the Foresight School.
You get a huge bonus to initiative which lets you get off that key spell before anyone else has a chance to go. Oh, wait! The enemy has spell resistance! Good thing I can roll an extra d20 as a free action and use it to replace my roll against spell resistance if it's low.
Now, expand that to everything else. The foresight school is awesome. It's possibly the single best school power, the only thing that it keeps it from being the best without question is that the divination spells generally aren't great, So getting to prepare one of those isn't really very great. Most divination spells are better suited for scrolls, or used at specific instances rather than preparing them every day.
Also, did you seriously just say you played a wizard who took all the archery feats? Serious?
Just because you choose the divination school doesn't mean you only prepare or use divination spells. The only difference between a divination school specialist and another school specialist is what extra spells they get to prepare and the schools granted powers.
In any event, why do you care if the ability granted by the school is useful with divination spells? It's useful with pretty much every other type of spell. You're divination is so powerful it makes you able to predict the future and be better at everything else. If you have some flavor issue with it fine, but mechanically its awesome. So I guess I don't understand your problem.
As far as your archer wizard goes...I wasn't trying to focus on that, but I'll go down this road. What does being an archer have to do with being a wizard? The flavor honestly doesn't match at all which seems to be your concern with the divination school and it's powers not meshing with casting divination spells.
Edit: Perhaps, you are under the misconception the schools powers only work with divination spells. They don't, just to clarify. They work with whatever.
Except that can't be it since you were aware you could use it on attack rolls. Is this really all just a flavor issue to you? DO you think a divination wizard should only prepare divination spells? I'm just really confused by your question.
The school abilities are akin to as if you had a free divination spell that you always cast as an immediate action to let you recognize danger and act first. Usually you do not follow up such a divination spell with another divination spell, you follow it up with something else to act upon the information revealed by said divination.
Yes I understand you can use it with any spell or ability and my issue is similar to flavor.
The archer build really demonstrates my frustration with several things in the game. Look at prescience, foresight, bullseye shot, and focused shot. Why would an archer take these feats? The restrict you to a maximum of one shot per round, which is fine at low levels, but really crappy later on. The archer build was trying to make these things viable.
The prescience ability is nice but it doesn't fit a wizard build. Rolling a d20 twice is great for melee and ranged attacks, but not nearly as useful for spell resistance and ranged touch. The ability doesn't fit and what really highlights the fact that it is mismatched is the extra divination spell per day that most people could care less about. My question is: what were the designers thinking? Were they picturing this ability being used for what you described, or what I am. I think they were picturing a sword wielding jedi knight wizard.
I highly doubt they were envisioning any wizard using Prescience for anything relating to the use of weapons. Mostly cause that's not a wizard. I've tried to be nice, but in the spirit of blunt honesty...if you're building a wizard using a sword or bow you're doing it wrong. Or at least, your doing it in such a way as to be very very very not optimal. Now if you're having fun that is the goal, and if thats the case then it is right. BUT, it is not what most people would even begin to consider a normal wizard. Now, if you went fighter/wizard/eldritch knight or fighter/wizard/arcane archer there would be some credibility and point to trying to wield weapons as a wizard. But trying to play archer as a straight wizard is likely to result in a terrible archer who is ineffective within a normal party composition.
So the use of prescience to do such...is a waste of such an ability. Please also keep in mind that Paizo puts out lots of feats and spells as options. They are not necessarily meant to be good options. The developers try to keep things from being overpowered, but they're not worried about whether all options are equal. They expect that people are smart enough to figure out what options are mechanically the strongest for build they would like to make. And if you have to sacrafice mechanics for flavor you should do so knowingly.
It's seems you have a lack of understanding why some abilities are incredibly good. For instance, Foresight which you mention. Makes you immune to surprise rounds, and you're never caught flat-footed. It also gives you a further an AC and reflex save bonus. While the last part seems a little weak, being magically immune to surprise attacks (that is you get to act in every surprise round) and immune to being flat-footed for 10 min/level (which can easily become all adventuring day) is worth the 9th level spell slot. Especially if you're getting a free one as a divination wizard.
If you don't understand why getting to roll an additional d20 for spell resistance or touch/ranged touch attacks is good I don't know what to tell you. Failing those things are devestating to a wizard. It's pretty much all or nothing. A 20th level melee user doesn't care if he misses a single attack. He's probably got 4 more in the round (if he has haste). Likewise the arhcer doesn't care either with his 7 shots a round. But you know who cares? The wizard. Who just rolled a 1 on his ranged touch attack with his fancy 9th level spell that now just outright misses. Too bad he doesn't have prescience to reroll that.
I'm going to go ahead and apologize for my tone in advance, but I'm leaving my post as is otherwise because I believe what I have conveyed is accurate despite this. Forgive my impertence, but I just don't think you understand how to use the abilities since you compeltely dismiss what they're most useful for.
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First, search the term "God Wizard".
Second, come to the same conclusion as everyone else: that if the wizard goes first, you win.
Third, never, never, neverneverneverNEVER waste another action firing a bow. Seriously? You can alter the very fabric of reality, and you would rather throw a stick?
Yes I understand you can use it with any spell or ability and my issue is similar to flavor.
The archer build really demonstrates my frustration with several things in the game. Look at prescience, foresight, bullseye shot, and focused shot. Why would an archer take these feats? The restrict you to a maximum of one shot per round, which is fine at low levels, but really crappy later on. The archer build was trying to make these things viable.
The prescience ability is nice but it doesn't fit a wizard build. Rolling a d20 twice is great for melee and ranged attacks, but not nearly as useful for spell resistance and ranged touch. The ability doesn't fit and what really highlights the fact that it is mismatched is the extra divination spell per day that most people could care less about. My question is: what were the designers thinking? Were they picturing this ability being used for what you described, or what I am. I think they were picturing a sword wielding jedi knight wizard.
I highly doubt they were envisioning any wizard using Prescience for anything relating to the use of weapons. Mostly cause that's not a wizard. I've tried to be nice, but in the spirit of blunt honesty...if you're building a wizard using a sword or bow you're doing it wrong. Or at least, your doing it in such a way as to be very very very not optimal. Now if you're having fun that is the goal, and if thats the case then it is right. BUT, it is not what most people would even begin to consider a normal wizard. Now, if you went fighter/wizard/eldritch knight or fighter/wizard/arcane archer there would be some credibility and point to trying to wield weapons as a wizard. But trying to play archer as a straight wizard is likely to result in a terrible archer who is ineffective within a normal party composition.
So the use of prescience to do such...is a waste of such an ability. Please also keep in mind that Paizo puts out lots of feats and spells as options. They are not necessarily meant to be...
I am so using the foresight school on my next wizard build! Thanks Claxon for the tips!
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So the use of prescience to do such...is a waste of such an ability.You really don't know what you are talking about. You have demonstrated your lack the ability to think outside the box.
You don't know how to play a wizard, sir.
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Basically my question is, what use is prescience for a divination wizard?
As a foresight specialist who carries with him no martial weapons what-so-ever the answer to your question about what it would be used for is simple, EVERYTHING.
Seriously. using it to overcome SR is my #1 usage. Other than that, I use it for skill checks, touch attacks, saving throws... Basically, If you roll a d20, use prescience... and proceed to count your win.
A foresight wizard is perhaps the strongest of the sub-schools. High Initiative and ability to pre-roll makes them deadly.
I agree with what the others said. An archery based wizard is sub-optimal when compared to one focused on spells. That being said... The ability to pre-roll is great for that build too.
You really cant go wrong with Foresight.
*Edited to emphasize pre-roll vs re-roll.
It's really really powerful no matter what your build is, but becomes even better if you want to focus on ranged touch spells.
Just keep in mind that it's a PRE-roll, not a re-roll.
Prescience is not an extra roll, you can simply choose to use it in place of a roll. If you roll a 15, and then have to make a save, you can choose to use that 15 on that save. If you roll for the save, you use what you rolled.
Edit: Listen to Castarr4
I see nowhere in the description of the ability that says you cant roll your save, then decide which roll result you want to use.
It simply states: You may use the result of this roll as the result of any d20 roll you are required to make.
So, you make your pre-roll, make your roll, then decide which result to use.
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Here's a more in-depth example of what makes prescience so awesome: let's say I want to use dominate monster against a creature with spell resistance. I roll my free d20 at the start of the round, and if I roll well, I know in advance that I'm going to beat its resistance. If I roll poorly, I'll simply spend the round buffing my meatshields or use a different spell. Knowing the outcome of what you're going to try is huge.
So the use of prescience to do such...is a waste of such an ability.You really don't know what you are talking about. You have demonstrated your lack the ability to think outside the box.
Really? REALLY?
Ok, this is the dumbest thread ever. No offense, but your hopeless... YOU are the one who doesn't know what he is talking about, and no, it is not "thinking out of the box." Unless by "thinking outside the box" you also mean doing things like:
1) Having a base fighter (not Lore Warden) With 18 int so you can haz skills!!!
2)Play a Blind Oracle with the Fire Mystery and focus on blasting
3) Playing a Elven Sling user
ect...
No, your build, while it may be fun to you, is HORRIDLY unoptimized in a million different ways and just.... no.
Oh, and if you cannot figure out what to use that d20 pre-roll for, I am guessing you have not had to make a fort save have you?...