I'm giving an NPC the following spell, out of the 1001 Spells book:
Scoundrel's Guidance
School: Necromancy Level: Sor/Wiz 3, Mag 3, Clr 5
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S, M (a piece of flesh from a dead rogue)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will half; see text Spell Resistance: YesDescription: When you cast the spell you channel the spirit of a dead rogue in order to enchance your combat ability. You can proficiency with all simple weapons and your attacks inflict 1d6 points of precision sneak attack damage per three caster levels whenever your opponent is flanked or denied a Dodge bonus to AC. Channeling this spirit is taxing, however; when you cast the spell you take 1d4+1 points of damage to your primary casting stat. A Will save halves this damage.
As for why I'm giving an NPC this spell, I've spoilered the reason in case any of my players happens to read this thread:
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Two schools on this typically. One school would only allow material that anyone can use and not just an NPC. Another might sneak it in and not tell the players for sake of making the encounter challenging for all involved. Some players care others are more forgiving.
Personally, if I was conflicted with a spell I'd look elsewhere. Maybe somebody can provide you with a better answer.
Two schools on this typically. One school would only allow material that anyone can use and not just an NPC. Another might sneak it in and not tell the players for sake of making the encounter challenging for all involved. Some players care others are more forgiving.
Personally, if I was conflicted with a spell I'd look elsewhere. Maybe somebody can provide you with a better answer.
That particular splatbook has too many problematic spells for me to simply allow everyone to freely pick spells from it. However there are certain spells I feel are interesting and balanced, and if I include them in the game then the PCs will have the theortical ability to get them - If the PCs find this guy's spellbook, they'd be able to copy it to theirs just like any other spell.
Ah, third party.
Hey, sometimes you have to reach deep into the well in order to make underpowered archetypes viable.
Bladebound is pretty tasty. Why do you call it under powered?
Spellblade he said is UP, not Bladebound.
But he's both... so I don't get how the combination is under powered.
No Spellstrike is a pretty significant loss in my book.
Contributor
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This spell gives you an ability that requires you to be up close and personal with an enemy (which is probably okay for a character with the classes in question, but still a point of consideration). I'm not sure what the NPC's caster level is, but assuming he's at caster level 5 (minimum for most 3rd level spells), he can do this for 5 minutes. Even at CL 10th, he gets 10 minutes, which means he can cast it as part of preparations to attack the party, but not too long beforehand. Not too strong, not too weak.
The biggest balancer I see here is that 1d4+1 damage to the primary casting stat. If this is a character that is trying to balance fighting ability with spellcasting, his primary casting stat is probably not going to be astronomical (compared to a full caster). Losing 2-5 points (Will save for half) from that stat means he's potentially giving up the ability to cast his highest level spells in exchange for the sneak attack and dodge.
A spellcaster with resources can get some good use out of this spell. (A potion of lesser restoration can offset that ability damage, but it's something to consider.) But preparation or greater resources make a lot of other attack options viable, too, so I don't see this as being a particularly bad spell to use.