There is so much flavor in the classic Fire mage, or just a great frost mage in general in any type of fantasy story telling with lots of magic... yet it is almost impossible to play a focused element caster in Pathfinder due to the amount of monsters with immunities. Yes, you could just be an admixture wizard and just change things on the fly, but that gets old and doesn't have the same flavor to it.
I snagged the following numbers from a previous thread in the forums, so I am sure they are larger at this point.
319 creatures with resistance/immunity to fire
305 creatures with resistance/immunity to cold
268 creatures with resistance/immunity to electricity
258 creatures with resistance/immunity to acid
The searing spell/piercing cold feats were a great solution to this. It was a feat tax to be able to keep playing the character you had in your head. For those that don't know what the feats were:
"A searing spell is so hot that it ignores the resistance to fire of creatures affected by the spell, and affected creatures with immunity to fire still take half damage. This feat can be applied only to spells with the fire descriptor. Creatures with the cold subtype take double damage from a searing spell. Creatures affected by a searing spell are still entitled to whatever saving throw the spell normally allows. A searing spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level."
So why can't we have something similar to this? Even a tamer version would be welcomed.
because DR and/or resistance is an important balancing tool.
The wizard can always just learn a different spell.
You can also learn Elemental Spell for an energy other than your specialization.
There's also a Penetrating Spell feat from Kobold Press that does what you want.
I thought there was a few class abilities that somewhat replicated this effect.
Am I wrong?
As far as I could tell, the kineticist Fire talent is the only one that comes close.
because DR and/or resistance is an important balancing tool.
The wizard can always just learn a different spell.
You can also learn Elemental Spell for an energy other than your specialization.
There's also a Penetrating Spell feat from Kobold Press that does what you want.
Well Dr is also a lot easier to over come then it was in 3.5 due to overall weapon enhancement bonus.
And yes like I said above, you can learn different spells and change energy in a million ways, but then you aren't playing the fire/frost caster that you set out for, nullifying the flavor.
Unfortunately it's a 3rd party feat which doesn't fly in most games.
Its sounds like a cool idea. Ask for feedback in the home-brew thread.
There is so much flavor in the classic Fire mage, or just a great frost mage in general in any type of fantasy story telling with lots of magic... yet it is almost impossible to play a focused element caster in Pathfinder due to the amount of monsters with immunities. Yes, you could just be an admixture wizard and just change things on the fly, but that gets old and doesn't have the same flavor to it.
I snagged the following numbers from a previous thread in the forums, so I am sure they are larger at this point.
319 creatures with resistance/immunity to fire
305 creatures with resistance/immunity to cold
268 creatures with resistance/immunity to electricity
258 creatures with resistance/immunity to acidThe searing spell/piercing cold feats were a great solution to this. It was a feat tax to be able to keep playing the character you had in your head. For those that don't know what the feats were:
"A searing spell is so hot that it ignores the resistance to fire of creatures affected by the spell, and affected creatures with immunity to fire still take half damage. This feat can be applied only to spells with the fire descriptor. Creatures with the cold subtype take double damage from a searing spell. Creatures affected by a searing spell are still entitled to whatever saving throw the spell normally allows. A searing spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level."
So why can't we have something similar to this? Even a tamer version would be welcomed.
Copyright and Trademark laws most likely.
I, too, would like this. A +1 level adjust just to do half damage really seems fair.
Flavor wise, it's that the element is so pure, so refined, that it almost transcends mundane fire, or even the energy of a fire elemental.
Like, half the fire becomes untyped "arcane" energy in it's purity, but still counts as fire for other reasons.
Then again, I believe an element-focused caster is brutally powerful already. The largest downside by far is that sometimes, they have to resort to spells that they haven't refined into nukes. This feat tax isn't generous though, and I like it would open up more builds being plausible.
I can understand "like drowning a water elemental", but I also understand being so powerful in ice magic that you can freeze solid a creature made entirely of ice. I don't think that's an unjust suspension of disbelief.
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I really liked those feats. I didn't feel like they were OP, costs a feat and +1 to the spell's level, just to make it work consistently. Seriously, why give players the option to build an elemental wizard if they don't actually work in play, past levels 5 to 9?
Why don't they make those feats (or feats that do the same thing but with different names)? Pathfinder doesn't like blaster wizards. If you take a wizard you are supposed to play a conjurer or diviner. Why would you want to play an elementalist or blaster? What are you, a noob?
Also those feats still kept immunity for critters with the actual subtype, so you still can't burn a red dragon or freeze an ice elemental.
I think they make sense. I would actually have preferred that Pathfinder had given more monsters high resistances than immunity in the first place, but it's a tidy little patch.