I love Imbue with Spell Ability, but I was surprised to not find higher level versions of it. I was hoping there would be a variant that allowed one to bestow more spells and/or higher level spells. The only variant I have seen is "Spellcasting contract" but that seems to have a totally different feel to it. Before bugging my GM for a homebrew variant I thought I would get thoughts and feed back from you. Do you know why there is no higher level of this spell?
Also, below are my proposed improved versions. It looks like the spells granted by Imbue follow the spell/day progression of an Adept (using the HD as the adept level).
The current 4th level version gives:
[HD] (1st) 2nd
[1-2] (1)
[3-4] (2)
[5+] (2) 1
as a 6th level spell you could get:
[HD] (1st) 2nd (3rd) 4th (5th)
[1-2] (1)
[3-4] (2)
[5-6] (2) 1
[7-8] (3) 2
[9+] (3) 2 (1)
As an 8th level spell
[HD] (1st) 2nd (3rd) 4th (5th)
[1-2] (1)
[3-4] (2)
[5-6] (2) 1
[7-8] (3) 2
[9-10] (3) 2 (1)
[11-12] (3) 3 (2)
[13+] (3) 3 (2) 1
And as a 9th level spells you could imbue
[HD] (1st) 2nd (3rd) 4th (5th)
[1-2] (1)
[3-4] (2)
[5-6] (2) 1
[7-8] (3) 2
[9-10] (3) 2 (1)
[11-12] (3) 3 (2)
[13-14] (3) 3 (2) 1
[15-16] (3) 3 (3) 2
[17+] (3) 3 (3) 2 (1)
Any thoughts?
Imbue with spell ability is not as good a spell as you think. If you read the description carefully, you are limited to spells of the abjuration, divination, and conjuration(healing) schools. This means you can only really imbue protective spells (pro evil, shield of faith, shield other, sanctuary), detect spells (detect alignment, detect undead) and cure light wounds/cure moderate wounds.
Any thoughts?
Game balance element- the spell, right now, does not grant more total spell levels than it takes to cast. That might be the reason there aren't more powerful versions of it- higher-level versions suddenly grant more total spell levels than they took to cast. While it may or may not be overpowered in a game balance sense, it does set a precedent for multiplying relative power, which can lead to terrible things if pursued further in official material. Even Wish and Miracle, which are pretty much "do nearly anything the GM allows" spells, only duplicate a single spell of a lesser level by default.
Outside of that concern, I can't really comment on the balance that easily.
Thanks for your input
Mabven:
I know all about the limitations of Imbue. It can still be very useful to hand out limited healing/protection to non-healers and familiars.
Parka:
I had never thought of that before. I think that Imbue causes you to loose the spell slots that you hand out, in addition to the 4th level slot to cast it, but you might be on to something.