| Nexo |
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Hi,
Can I know if there is a specific reason why these two feats are treated differently?
Elemental Focus
Benefit: Choose one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, or fire). Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells that deal damage of the energy type you select.
Poison Focus
Benefit(s): The save DC of any poison you craft with Craft (alchemy) and any spells you cast with the poison descriptor increases by 1. This bonus doesn’t stack with the bonus granted by Spell Focus.
The first stack with Spell Focus, while the second no, why?
Also there is Greater Elemental Focus, but there is no Greater Poison Focus, why?
I asked myself if there was any mechanical motivation for which it was possible to increase the DC of a fire spell up to +4 (thanks to Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Elemental Focus and Greater Elemental Focus), but not the DC of a poison spell.
Thanks in advance
| SheepishEidolon |
Poison can be quite devastating. Think about an ancient dragon with CR 16 to 19 - menacing beasts, eh? But they are stuck with Dex 10 or even 8, hence a single dose of a Dex poison with good DC could take them out. Poison DC increases are often forced to scale not (much) faster than 1/2 your level. See Powerful Poisoning, Treacherous Toxin and Insightful Delivery, for example.
There are a few more feats increasing poison DC by a flat amount, though: Natural Poison Harvester (+2, but someone has to harvest from a poisonous monster first), Brewmaster (+1, but you have to be a dwarf) and Poisoner's Channel (-4 to saves vs. poison, but you have to worship Norgorber and channel negative energy).
And actually you can use Spell Focus (and its greater version) to increase a poison DC: Via Toxic Spell metamagic. If you also want to apply Elemental Focus (and its greater version), you have to find a spell dealing elemental damage which requires a Fortitude save.
| Nexo |
Thanks to Toxic Spell (which has a +1 modifier) you can increase the poison's DC by 2, very useful ...
Considering that the poison's DC are really ridiculous and are not a problem for a CR 16 monster, let alone a dragon that has both spell resistance and a high Fortitude bonus.
To all this must be added that the poison costs a lot and forces you to work for a long time if you want to craft it.
In my opinion it is a useless limitation for something that is already limited by itself.