Thelemic_Noun |
This one has really puzzled me.
At 10th level, is an at-will 2d6 ray with a 30 ft range all that overpowering, even given being a supernatural ability?
A wizard with Staff-Like Wand arcane discovery can do almost as much, and essentially for free (40 silver per point of damage), with a bonded wand of magic missile. No save, long range, auto-hit, no AoO. Only relative downside is SR, which is much less of a concern with the Staff-Like Wand discovery.
David knott 242 |
There already exist cantrips that deal 1d3 damage on a ranged touch attack at will. I could see a case being made for either scaling this damage with caster level or providing specific damage figures for cantrips cast with this feat -- or both. Maybe every 5 caster levels boosts the damage, and this feat lets you either deal the cantrip damage without the specific cantrip or boost the damage by +5 levels or 1 step.
Cyrad RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16 |
Arcane Blast is not very good. I'd personally like to rework it so it's available at earlier levels, deals typed damage, and has damage and scaling comparable with a spell. Have the damage scale with caster level and have it capped by spell level, like a spell SHOULD do.
However, letting you arcane blast at-will is not something I consider a good thing.
Tiny Coffee Golem |
Just make a crap ton of Pearls of power 1 (or higher). You're AB will only be limited by your first level spell slots. Plus it's fairly cheap. Of course it's a standard action to "recharge" those spell slots, but you can't have everything.
Though I'm in the camp that thinks arcane blast isn't very good.
zagnabbit |
I've made fairly heavy use of this feat.
For specific builds the ability to deal damage is invaluable when that's something you devote no slots too.
As a house rule we've allowed it to work at half strength (1d6), it occasionally gets used this way. At 10th level, damage based cantrips are basically useless. This modification offsets that loss of utility. However Cantrips exist to offset the low-level caster's old "One Shot magic item" stigma. Cantrips aren't intended to be combat usefull at higher levels.
It does somewhat simulate the old Reserve Feats like this.
I agree that the RAI was to prevent Nova Casting. Conservation of resources is intended in Caster Design and it's a good thing. This feat is for utility in spell selection variance not as an augmentation to Blaster Casters.