| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Should Spell Focus & Elemental Focus stack? Too me yes. One affects the Spell School the other the Descriptor, two parts of the spell. And you would take 4 feats (Greaters) to gain a +4 DC to said spell types. Anyone?
yes
Yep. Don't forget Spell Perfection will make it a +8 for one spell. (Fireball?)
Yep. Don't forget Spell Perfection will make it a +8 for one spell. (Fireball?)
Ooh nice! Pretty wicked.
Yep. Don't forget Spell Perfection will make it a +8 for one spell. (Fireball?)
I know it does not state this, but can spell perfection be taken 2x or more, each time picking a different spell?
Definitely and here's why. One reason being its a non typed bonus and things which are non-typed which do not also say otherwise, do in fact stack. Also, as a balance issue this is not a game breaking thing, sure you can make you saves versus different energy types pretty damn high (and with the Admixture Sub-school, for quite a few spells), butnot only are you burning 4 feats but your also not going to be adding this to anything with a save tht will change the game much, sure they dont pass the DC of your fireball but all in all dsave for half it didnt matter if they passed anyway, you still did ok damage. if this was added to say all illusion or enchantment spells or necromancy for that matter it would be a problem because failing those saves can change the game. In Short, its not gamebreaking and by the rules it should work.
Yep. Don't forget Spell Perfection will make it a +8 for one spell. (Fireball?)I know it does not state this, but can spell perfection be taken 2x or more, each time picking a different spell?
Feats can't be taken more than once unless specifically stated.
My opinion is "No they shouldn't stack" and here's my thinking:
Greater Spell / Elemental Focus explicitly state that they stack with their respective counterparts. Implying they don't stack with other feats that increase DCs, unless they too are explicitly referenced (as they are referenced in Spell Perfection).
It depends on how you want to tailor your caster. Either they are an elementally focused caster (which is congruent with other APG variants like Elementalist Specialist Wizards) OR they are a school-focused caster... not both.
However, until an errata comes out, or a Pathfinder officiator chimes in, its really up to the DM to decide.
However, until an errata comes out, or a Pathfinder officiator chimes in, its really up to the DM to decide.
Via rule zero it is, but not by the rules. Untyped bonuses always stack unless they come from the same source. The "this bonus stacks with the one from spell focus" line is probably just there to clarify for people who might mistakenly think that spell focus and greater spell focus are the same source and thus wouldn't stack.
+1 re: Spell Focus/ Greater Spell Focus... Since ´Greater´ versions of things CAN often supersede (replace) the previous version, it is simply repetition for clarity that they do in fact stack... Without that line, they still would stack per RAW. The rules are repetitive in many places where it can be ´helpful´ to do so, so taking such repetition as implication that they don´t stack doesn´t hold up across the entire game.
Re: the point of only appling to elemental damage... I don´t think that is really the solidest basis. For one, Paizo´s Word Spellcasting system blows that out of the water, you can mix in some elemental effect to ANY other spell effect, and voila, you benefit from all bonuses. Why not a Smoke Cloud that does Fire damage, is a Conjuration, but has a Save to be Confused as per Confusion? Or a Cold Spell that also Slows? Etc, etc. When you have Spell Focus: Fire and Spell Focus: Evocation and you cast a Fire/Evocation school spell, the Feats don´t stack because it explicitly doesn´t stack (with itself), but that doesn´t apply for Elemental Focus + Spell Focus.
Per RAW, I¨m pretty sure they stack. I don´t really like that, but I don´t really like uber-DC min-maxing to begin with... Although that is really just a core feature of the game, and so I suspect Paizo was well aware of the stacking issue when they wrote Elemental Focus. As per above, it DOES let you be very effective with multi-effect spells that are Elemental + other effect (which may very well not be evoacation, etc).
Greater Spell / Elemental Focus explicitly state that they stack with their respective counterparts. Implying they don't stack with other feats that increase DCs, unless they too are explicitly referenced (as they are referenced in Spell Perfection).
Or maybe it's there because many feats give bonuses that wouldn't otherwise stack, and they didn't want to imply that these didn't stack by not being specifying the ability to stack.
However, until an errata comes out, or a Pathfinder officiator chimes in, its really up to the DM to decide.
Untyped bonuses from different sources stack. There's nothing to decide.