Diviner's fortune specialist school ability question

[MegaPlasticMan]

Hi

The diviner's fortune ability from the divination specialist school says that it's a standard action to use, giving a +1 to attack rolls, skills, etc and lasts for 1 round. I feel like i'm missing something here in that if I cast it using my standard action then I won't be able to use the +1 to attack/use a skill as the duration will expire before my next turn.

I'm assuming that it's meant to be used on the attacks/skills etc on my next turn, not during the one in which i use it.

Can anyone clear this up for me?

Thanks.

[submit2me]

Clerics, sorcerers, and wizards get all kinds of stupid standard action buffs like this. The idea is to use them on others, most likely front line allies, not yourself. Personally, I don't see the point of my character being able to do something that they can't benefit from, or have to get close to the front line of action to use. All of those kinds of abilities need a good rewrite, in my opinion.

[Quandary]

no, it works as it says: for 1 round, which means UNTIL your next turn.
the bonuses would work on your own AoO's and opposed checks like Perception/Stealth.
but what Submit2me says is true, 99% of the time it is more useful to use on other allies...
i'm not sure why he sees that as stupid, buffing allies is a big part of the game.
i guess if you assumed the ability should be most effective when used on yourself then that would make sense, but it DOESN'T say that, and being a TOUCH ability there is nothing suggesting that it's 'normal' usage WOULD be on yourself (as opposed to a self-only buff ability which doesn't require a touch), touch abilities are designed to be used on OTHER characters.
a diviner using this ability giving scaling to-hit to an ally like an archer specialist can easily be a HUGELY effective use of the ability... really, using it on any ally who is full attacking (especially with iteratives) will be a very strong usage of the ability.

[submit2me]

It's just my opinion. I didn't say the abilities were useless, and of course I see the benefit of buffs (through spells and the bard class). I'd just prefer if my character could immediately benefit from their own class abilities (like the bard can).

[MegaPlasticMan]

Thanks for the clarification. I was hoping that there was some way that I'd failed to spot to use it to buff my own character's skills/attacks, but I do understand the usefulness of buffing others as suggested.

Thanks.