Question for the author of the Force Missile mage

[Temmogen]

I have a question for Jishuo Yang, about the requirements for becoming a Force missile Mage.
What is the reasoning behind the feat requirement of Combat Casting?
Also, in light of the new feats released in the PHB 2, would replacing that feat with Arcane Thesis be acceptable to the esteemed members of the message boards...

Thanks in advance.

[The White Toymaker]

Well, since Arcane Thesis requires 9 Ranks in Knowledge (Arcana), that would make it impossible to take levels in the class before seventh level. If you're comfortable with that, I say go for it. Switching out Combat Casting for a feat that's actually kind of cool might throw the balance out a little bit, but I doubt it'll be anything that shocking -- if I were a Force Missile Mage, I'd take Arcane Thesis (Magic Missile) anyway, just so that I could metamagic my favorite spell more easily. Then again, I've considered permanently burning an eight level spell slot and my 18th level feat just to get Prestidigitation (also known as Minor Wish)as a spell-like ability usable at will, so maybe I'm not the one who should be answering that question.

[Jishuo Yang]

Ah, sorry for the belated response (I rarely frequent these boards, unfortunately...), the thing is, I wasn't the guy who thought Combat Casting would be a good prerequisite feat for the Force Missile Mage anyway.
It was my original intention to include Spell Mastery (Magic Missile) as a prerequisite (I have this stigma against sorcerers. :P), however, the editors wished to refrain from restricting the FMM to one class only, so they substituted Combat Casting instead. I would wager a guess that the editors' justification would be that since the FMM is already an offensive-spellcasting class, its members should have considerable experience in casting in the midst of battle.

That said, your suggestion would be fine as long as your DM agrees with it. It is my personal opinion that Combat Casting is a waste of a feat, since the +4 bonus to Concentration check while casting on the defensive is practically useless (any spellcaster who's maxed his or her concentration skill should be able to make the defensive casting check most of the time), and with the advent of the Spell Compendium, grappling a mage successfully is nearly impossible (Benign Transposition, anyone?).

So by all means, replace the Combat Casting requirement with something else, although I would lean toward the feats in the PHB (not the PHB2) just to be safe.

[Temmogen]

Groovy, Thanks.
Actually I'm the DM in question, and was just wondering if you orginally had another feat in mind. Because, I agree with you about the Combat Casting feat, waste of ink.
I had oginally changed the requirements to Arcane Thesis and Spell Mastery, but reduced it to just Arcane Thesis because you only had one feat as a requirement in the original text.

[Doc_Outlands]

Interestingly enough, when I first read the article, I thought Combat Casting prereq was ... odd, and was going to swap it to Spell Mastery (Magic Missile) until I realized the would screw-over Sorcerers...