I assume you can, much in the way that Point-Blank Shot applies to rays. As far as balance, wizards have a poor enough BAB that any hit penalties hurt -- although the fact that it's a touch attack ameliorates that somewhat. Still, evokers are in many ways the weakest of the school specialists; giving them an extra trick doesn't seem like too outrageous an abuse.
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it may not seem like much, but the DM for the current game im playing in says that the at-will ray attacks are the single biggest game changer (we are playtesting the Jason posted Paladin, and only using Beta material, no extra books) now, he probably is aready use to the game changing nature of turns (we last ALOT longer now) BBEG go down alot quicker with the wizard doing around 6 damage per turn to things with too-high ac. we could probably block a hallway and full defense, letting the evoker "ping" it to death.
I will later give a full playtest of our Forgotten King modules we are playing (it WONT be heavy on the Wizard vs Fighter argument because the Wizard is well built, and the Paladin, because no one will play a Fighter, has a mediocre build. Its not a balanced example.
then again the wizard is barred from enchantment, so his build cant be too good...
Note: Rogues sneak attacking undead is the best thing Paizo has done for the rogue. a SERIOUSLY annoying module for the Rogue became a totally awesome module for them!
I assume you can, much in the way that Point-Blank Shot applies to rays. As far as balance, wizards have a poor enough BAB that any hit penalties hurt -- although the fact that it's a touch attack ameliorates that somewhat. Still, evokers are in many ways the weakest of the school specialists; giving them an extra trick doesn't seem like too outrageous an abuse.
It's one of those things that I would find irritating at low levels ("Look at me! I do as much damage as the fighter, but I hit more often!"), but would be harmless at high levels. Likewise for the "Hand of the Apprentice/Acolyte" ability that uses Int/Wis for attack and damage. YMMV, of course.
Yeah, at low levels my CotTC group's Wizard made excellent use of the ability to great effect, as did a cleric's Hand of the Acolyte.
At higher levels it rarely saw use, since that would have had to mean that they chewed through an awful lot of spells to get that desperate.
If a wizard wishes to sink a valuable general feat into Deadly Aim, by all means let them. If they wish to sit there and "ping" - and your players are content to sit in front of him given the fixed 30' range of those 1st level abilities - to permit the mage to do so, then hey, if it works out, it works out.
Of course, one could have a burly ghoul toss the fighter behind him to his hungry buddies (bull rush) or something similarly rude... ^_^
It's one of those things that I would find irritating at low levels ("Look at me! I do as much damage as the fighter, but I hit more often!"), but would be harmless at high levels. Likewise for the "Hand of the Apprentice/Acolyte" ability that uses Int/Wis for attack and damage. YMMV, of course.
I always have the "I color spray and end 1 encounter per day all by myself, but am otherwise useless" sydrome for low-level wizards. On the balance, I guess I'd probably prefer to give the wizard something else for low-level combat, and then boost the hell out of the fighter at higher levels, when he really needs it... but that's a topic for a different thread.
It's one of those things that I would find irritating at low levels ("Look at me! I do as much damage as the fighter, but I hit more often!"), but would be harmless at high levels. Likewise for the "Hand of the Apprentice/Acolyte" ability that uses Int/Wis for attack and damage. YMMV, of course.I always have the "I color spray and end 1 encounter per day all by myself, but am otherwise useless" sydrome for low-level wizards.
Sure, but giving wizards another juicy low-level ability on top of that is not improving things (IMO). Of course, Deadly Aim is a non-trivial investment for something that will be mostly useless later on.
Given the fact that Deadly Aim works exactly like Power Attack - but Dex based - , I don't really see the problem here.
page 84:
"Prerequisite: Dex 13, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: Add an amount equal to your Dexterity modifier (or your base attack bonus, whichever is lower) to your ranged damage rolls for 1 round (in addition to the normal damage modifier from a high Strength score, if applicable). Subtract the same amount from your ranged attack rolls for 1 round."
At first level, a Wizard cannot take Deadly Aim at all (BaB =0)
At second to third level, he can add a +1 to his damage (a 13 to Dexterity is easy to manage for a Wizard - especially an Elf Wizard).
Then, the Wizard should 'pump up' his Dexterity to be able to add a +1 to damage every two levels... what can be the average Dexterity of a Wizard/Sorcerer, even with Belts of Dexterity or Potions of Cat's Grace ? 20 ? 24 ? That would mean a +6 to damage at 12th level (or a +7 to damage at 14th level).
IMHO this is not an umbalancing choice...
D'oh! I forgot the "limited to BAB" part. In that case, I have no problem with such a useless feat choice. :-)
D'oh! I forgot the "limited to BAB" part. In that case, I have no problem with such a useless feat choice. :-)
Not exactly useless - but Precise Shot is generally the smarter investment. OTH, this tacks a few damage points onto the disintegrates and what have you ... although the feat is not exactly ... discriminatory, so the wildly-fired ray has at least as good a chance of vaporizing one's fighter as the critter trying to eat said fighter...