Fix Spell Focus

[Gurubabaramalamaswami]

Maybe it's too late in the game for a major overhaul but it seems to me that Spell Focus is only good for certain schools of magic. My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Why does Spell Focus work the same way for every school? Wouldn't it make more sense that for Spell Focus (abjuration) to grant a +1 to the DC to dispel the caster's abjurations?

Spell Focus (conjuration): wouldn't it be better if it made the monsters summoned harder to dispel/dismiss?

Spell Focus (necromancy): maybe it should grant +1 turn resistance to undead animated/created by the caster.

In other words: don't you think that the mechanics for Spell Focus should differ with each spellcasting school?

[JoelF847]

I brought this topic up not too long ago, but the thread didn't get much traction. Hopefully Jason noticed it.

A recap of my thoughts:

I'd like to see spell focus (and greater spell focus) provide a bonus to saving throws as they currently do, but for spells that do not provide a save, to grant their bonus to caster level checks that are part of the spell (i.e. dispel magic), or provide a 5% bonus for spells that have a percentile chance of working (i.e. augury, divination, contact other plane, etc.)

[Archade]

Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:

Maybe it's too late in the game for a major overhaul but it seems to me that Spell Focus is only good for certain schools of magic. My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Why does Spell Focus work the same way for every school? Wouldn't it make more sense that for Spell Focus (abjuration) to grant a +1 to the DC to dispel the caster's abjurations?

Spell Focus (conjuration): wouldn't it be better if it made the monsters summoned harder to dispel/dismiss?

Spell Focus (necromancy): maybe it should grant +1 turn resistance to undead animated/created by the caster.

In other words: don't you think that the mechanics for Spell Focus should differ with each spellcasting school?

I think we should be looking at chain feats for each specific school of magicthat build up from Spell Focus, like Augment Summoning does, and give each school a cool feat to work towards. Augment Summoning covers conjuration, we just need one for each of the other schools ...

[Kirth Gersen]

Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:

My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Iot7V is one of the most powerful prestige classes in any splatbook anywhere. Making the entry requirements any easier is both counterproductive and munchkin-y. The fact that both of those feats are sub-par is intentional, because the PrC is so super-par.

I'd make them prerequisites for Abjurant Champion as well, for those reasons.

[JoelF847]

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:

My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Iot7V is one of the most powerful prestige classes in any splatbook anywhere. Making the entry requirements any easier is both counterproductive and munchkin-y. The fact that both of those feats are sub-par is intentional, because the PrC is so super-par.

I'd make them prerequisites for Abjurant Champion as well, for those reasons.

I'm not as concerned with prestige class enhancements as I am the value of the feats in and of themselves. They should provide a benefit, and each school of magic should have a feat or two that support it, either how spell focus does for enchantment or evocation, or how augment summoning does.

The fact that prestige classes are powerful suggests that those PrCs should be tweaked to be better balanced, not that the pre-requesites for them should be seen as penalties.

[Gurubabaramalamaswami]

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:

My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Iot7V is one of the most powerful prestige classes in any splatbook anywhere. Making the entry requirements any easier is both counterproductive and munchkin-y. The fact that both of those feats are sub-par is intentional, because the PrC is so super-par.

I'd make them prerequisites for Abjurant Champion as well, for those reasons.

The issue is not the power level of the prestige class. It should keep firm requirements in place.

The point is that the two feats in question are virtually useless as written. In my opinion every feat taken should be useful to the taker and not just window dressing or stepping stones to something else.

Raising save DCs is a great mechanic for charms, illusions, and other schools but it doesn't do much for abjurers and not much more for necromancers and diviners.

A goal of any so-called redesign should be: all feats useful to the taker.

[Kalyth]

Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:

My friend was lamenting to me because in order for his wizard to qualify for the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil prestige class (Complete Arcane) he had to take both Spell Focus (abjuration) and Greater Spell Focus (abjuration) and felt that he would be wasting two feat slots this way.

Iot7V is one of the most powerful prestige classes in any splatbook anywhere. Making the entry requirements any easier is both counterproductive and munchkin-y. The fact that both of those feats are sub-par is intentional, because the PrC is so super-par.

I'd make them prerequisites for Abjurant Champion as well, for those reasons.

The issue is not the power level of the prestige class. It should keep firm requirements in place.

The point is that the two feats in question are virtually useless as written. In my opinion every feat taken should be useful to the taker and not just window dressing or stepping stones to something else.

Raising save DCs is a great mechanic for charms, illusions, and other schools but it doesn't do much for abjurers and not much more for necromancers and diviners.

A goal of any so-called redesign should be: all feats useful to the taker.

I would propose a variant of what was already suggested. Spell Focus grants the caster +1 to the save DC of the spell OR +1 Caster level for the spell. Casters choice. Only one can apply at a time and on some spell the caster may flip flop back and forth sometimes casting the spell with +1 DC and other times casting it with +1 Caster level, say to extend duration a bit. This I feel address all school equally and allows all casters to gain near equal benefit from the feat.