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Ok, so I conjurer "God" wizard cannon says take Augment Summoning by 5th level, but I'm having second thoughts.
I am in a party of seven characters, so adding one more creature to the mix might slow things down too much.
I just hit level 5, My wizard is already planning to take Improved Familiar (Fairy Dragon) at level 7, so.
My feats so far are:
(human)
1) Scribe Scroll
1) Improved Initiative
1) Spell Focus (Conjuration)
3) Extend Spell
5) Craft Wondrous Items
and Either:
5) Augment Summoning OR Fast Study
Then
7) Improved Familiar
I am NOT interested in losing either craft wondrous or improved familiar. So do I go fast study, and postpone Augment Summoning till level 9 or do I take Fast Study at 9?
What is your experience playing each feat?
If it was me I'd take augment summons, but that's just me.
The reason is that you still need the 8 hours of rest prior to preparing your spells in the first place, and I can't see saving 45 mins being worth a spell slot.
Now this is only coming from my experience, and if your GM is the type where that extra hour is really pushing it, then fast study might be worth it.
So, for what it's worth augment summons gets my vote.
Fast study also lets you fill empty spell slots in 1 minute - so while the party is looting after one slot, you can re-choose a few spells, without slowing down the group.
true, fast study does have it's strong points. I guess, it's just I've never run in a dungeon where the 15 mins was a problem. If you find that happening frequently it might well be worth it for you.
I tend to love summons though. they're good GM therapy. It gives them something to beat the bejezzus out of and not fret at a dead PC.
Fast study also lets you fill empty spell slots in 1 minute - so while the party is looting after one slot, you can re-choose a few spells, without slowing down the group.true, fast study does have it's strong points. I guess, it's just I've never run in a dungeon where the 15 mins was a problem. If you find that happening frequently it might well be worth it for you.
I tend to love summons though. they're good GM therapy. It gives them something to beat the bejezzus out of and not fret at a dead PC.
Summons have always seemed to be more of a GM neurosis to me. The most common complaint I've heard is that they slow down combat to a crawl and drive GMs insane.
Summons have always seemed to be more of a GM neurosis to me. The most common complaint I've heard is that they slow down combat to a crawl and drive GMs insane.Fast study also lets you fill empty spell slots in 1 minute - so while the party is looting after one slot, you can re-choose a few spells, without slowing down the group.true, fast study does have it's strong points. I guess, it's just I've never run in a dungeon where the 15 mins was a problem. If you find that happening frequently it might well be worth it for you.
I tend to love summons though. they're good GM therapy. It gives them something to beat the bejezzus out of and not fret at a dead PC.
I think it depends on the person doing the summoning. I always printed my monsters stat blocks on cards ahead of time. That way when I summoned I had everything right there in front of me.
I could see it being a problem though when you have someone stopping during their turn to look through the bestiary as they decide what to summon. (the cold glare from my GM is what inspired the cards btw :P )
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Summons have always seemed to be more of a GM neurosis to me. The most common complaint I've heard is that they slow down combat to a crawl and drive GMs insane.Fast study also lets you fill empty spell slots in 1 minute - so while the party is looting after one slot, you can re-choose a few spells, without slowing down the group.true, fast study does have it's strong points. I guess, it's just I've never run in a dungeon where the 15 mins was a problem. If you find that happening frequently it might well be worth it for you.
I tend to love summons though. they're good GM therapy. It gives them something to beat the bejezzus out of and not fret at a dead PC.
The reason for that is because those people dont come prepared with the notes of the monsters stats for easy access. I played a Summoner Focused Sorcerer before and brought the notes of all the monsters i would be summoning and the game went fine, group btw consisted of 6 people including my self. Preparation is key to playing caster, more so for summoner focused ones.
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Agreed, Summoned monsters can bog down play, but they don't need to.
I'm an experienced GM, so I can run a monster well enough. I've also got all my monsters statted out on index cards (at least out to 4th level).
the theme I'm working on here is maximum adaptability. This means that getting many actions in a round is good (so summoning helps with this).
As does the improved familiar and the fast study feat.
But I've never played fast study before, so I don't know if it's worth it.
I have a very reasonable GM, so pulling out my book between encounters and learning a new spell seems pretty do-able, but regular 15 min. breaks doesn't.
So, if you've had some experience with this, that would be great.
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Agreed, Summoned monsters can bog down play, but they don't need to.
I'm an experienced GM, so I can run a monster well enough. I've also got all my monsters statted out on index cards (at least out to 4th level).
the theme I'm working on here is maximum adaptability. This means that getting many actions in a round is good (so summoning helps with this).
As does the improved familiar and the fast study feat.
But I've never played fast study before, so I don't know if it's worth it.
I have a very reasonable GM, so pulling out my book between encounters and learning a new spell seems pretty do-able, but regular 15 min. breaks doesn't.
So, if you've had some experience with this, that would be great.
I have had some experience with it but it was with a DM i dont play with any more. The reason i got it because he was fond of dungeon crawls and attacks at night in said dungeon were escaping the way you came from was not an option. You still need the 8 hours rest so sleep is needed be it that your studding for 1 hour or 15 mins. The gold of that Arcane Discovery is the 1 min study for spells on the fly with empty slots.
In the dungeon crawl scenario it is great because there can be options of finding rooms that only have 1 entrance/exit to barricade ur self for quick preparation. I mainly used it for getting the party across hazards like chasms, underwater paths, so on and so forth.
In short its a good thing to get but only with games you know were you dont have much time to prep and face many situational hazards.
I have seen people try to sing me this things praises and for the life of me fast study seems to do nothing.
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Well, here's the "in game" effect of fast study as I see it:
Party enters room, Party encounters monsters. Combat ensues.
As party is looting, the mage re-memorizes a spell that he used, or realizes something important about the adventure (Say, the monsters have fire resistance, or, we need a locate object spell to follow up on a clue)
The party continues on from there. There are several disadvantages to doing this in a 15 min window of time:
1) let's bad guys spend more time rallying troops against you
2) Uses up spell durations on pre-cast buffs
3) Is likely to cause discussion about the amount of time you are spending memorizing spells behind enemy lines, which bogs down play.
The big advantage as I see it, is that it pretty much means that I leave a slot open as a "wild card" utility spell, that I'm much more likely to be able to use, and I can spend it on a combat spell if I need to.
I always liked leaving spell slots open. At high levels I'd leave SEVERAL slots open - it's a good tactic for the extend spell feat. This lets you memorize 1hr/level buffs before bedtime, and extend them up to 2hr/level, so you can wear them into the next day. The price of doing this is that you have several open slots and it might take you an hour during the day to re-fill those slots under the standard rules.
Fast Study lets you keep your slots open for EITHER end of day pre-cast buffs OR mid adventure firepower, making those empty slots even more useful than they were before.
It seems you are pretty set on this feat. I'd go with it and see how it plays out.
There's nothing wrong with it. In fact as you point out there are many times that it would actually help you out. It's a good feat.
I personally just wouldn't prioritize it over augment summons, but to each their own.