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Spell Specialization
Select one spell. You cast that spell with greater than normal power.Prerequisites: Int 13, Spell Focus.
Benefit: Select one spell of a school for which you have taken the Spell Focus feat. Treat your caster level as being two higher for all level-variable effects of the spell.
Every time you gain an even level in the spellcasting class you chose your spell from, you can choose a new spell to replace the spell selected with this feat, and that spell becomes your specialized spell.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a different spell.
From reading a few suggestions on the internet it seems this also increases the Caster Level by two and therefore also increasing the DC of the spell? Is this correct?
The way I read this is that for spells that have level-variable effect (like damage per level, range per level, etc) it increases your level and therefore increasing the potential damage or range upto the max cap out?
The understanding of one is quite useful as it would increase DC vs spell and damage and range, etc. but on the other one it's kind of meh...
Caster levels have no influence on DCs.
The DC is calculated 10 + Spell Level + Spellcasting Ability Modifier.
Spell Level refers to the level of the spell itself, i.e. which spell slot the (not-metamagic-modified) spell would use when you cast it with your class. The only way to increase the spell level is by using the Heightened Spell metamagic.
The Spellcasting Ability Modifier depends on your spellcasting class (WIS for clerics, ...; INT for wizards, ...; CHA for sorcerers, ...).
Example, a multiclass "Cleric 8 / Wizard 6" character with WIS 16 (modifier is +3), INT 20 (modifier is +5) casts Hold Person once as a cleric spell and once as a wizard spell. Hold Person is a level 2 cleric spell, but a level 3 wizard spell, and has a duration of "1 round/Level".
Hold Person cast as the cleric:
DC = 10 +2 (spell level) +3 (WIS modifier) = 15
Duration = 8 rounds (cleric caster level 8)
Hold Person cast as the wizard:
DC = 10 +3 (spell level) +5 (WIS modifier) = 18
Duration = 6 rounds (wizard caster level 6)
If this multiclass character then takes the Spell Specialization feat (not a metamagic, it's a feat) for Hold Person, he could cast it with a higher caster level, resulting in the same DCs but increased duration:
Hold Person cast as the cleric:
DC = 10 +2 (spell level) +3 (WIS modifier) = 15
Duration = 10 rounds (cleric caster level 8, +2 spell specialization)
Hold Person cast as the wizard:
DC = 10 +3 (spell level) +5 (WIS modifier) = 18
Duration = 8 rounds (wizard caster level 6, +2 spell specialization)
p.s.: I ignored the Spell Focus: Enchantment (prerequisite for Spell Specialization) for this calculation to keep it easier. The Spell Focus: Enchantment actually increases the DC of Hold Person by +1.
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Spell DC goes up when the Spell level goes up, not the Caster level.
If you specialize in Fireball, your Spell DC remains the same, but your range increases by 80ft, your damage goes up 2d6 (until you hit the cap at least), and you have a better chance of penetrating SR.
The primary use of this feat is getting the additional damage dice (which is presumably why it is so easy to change spells as you level up and hit the damage caps), but it's also very useful for spells where your relative caster level determines how your targets are effected (I think I had something like +10 caster levels going on my Oracle's Holy Word in WotR).
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Yup. You are right, thanks for pointing that out. I saw a few posts where this metamagic was used to increase DC, and I was confused by the wording and what was being claimed. When instead I should have focused on actual definition of caster and spell level.
This feat is just about useless :-D
Thanks for the clarification!
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Yup. You are right, thanks for pointing that out. I saw a few posts where this metamagic was used to increase DC, and I was confused by the wording and what was being claimed. When instead I should have focused on actual definition of caster and spell level.
This feat is just about useless :-D
Thanks for the clarification!
This feat is most definitely not useless. It's a very common feat among blaster casters. For example, if you are a 7th level sorcerer, and chose fireball, it would make your fireballs do 9d6 instead of 7d6 damage. For a 1st level human wizard, you can throw 2 magic missiles instead of just one.
Because you can change the specialized spell, you can shift it to another spell as you level up and no longer need the Spell Specialization feat to reach the maximum caster level for the specialized spell.
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Yup. You are right, thanks for pointing that out. I saw a few posts where this metamagic was used to increase DC, and I was confused by the wording and what was being claimed. When instead I should have focused on actual definition of caster and spell level.
This feat is just about useless :-D
Thanks for the clarification!
This feat is most definitely not useless. It's a very common feat among blaster casters. For example, if you are a 7th level sorcerer, and chose fireball, it would make your fireballs do 9d6 instead of 7d6 damage. For a 1st level human wizard, you can throw 2 magic missiles instead of just one.
Because you can change the specialized spell, you can shift it to another spell as you level up and no longer need the Spell Specialization feat to reach the maximum caster level for the specialized spell.
Yep, this is a very solid feat, assuming you actually have a spell you want to use a lot: If you pick your spells at random each morning, it probably won't help you much...
Likewise, it's not great with spells that don't have level-based factors (Color Spray, for instance).
It is part of a 'fun' Magic Missile build:
Elf with the 'Overwhelming Magic' trait to get Spell Focus (Evocation) for free.
Sorcerer class with the Tattooed Sorcerer archetype for a free Varisian Tattoo (Evocation) feat.
Gifted Adept (Magic Missile) trait.
Spell Specialization (Magic Missile) as your level 1 feat.
You end up with 3 missiles per casting of Magic Missile at level 1, which is absolutely terrifying until you run into creatures that are just immune somehow (which somehow happened a lot during the one campaign where I saw this build in action).
For fun, you can multi-class into Arcanist at level two for another batch of missiles and the Potent Magic exploit, giving you a bunch of '4 missile' casts per day.
Yup. You are right, thanks for pointing that out. I saw a few posts where this metamagic was used to increase DC, and I was confused by the wording and what was being claimed. When instead I should have focused on actual definition of caster and spell level.
This feat is just about useless :-D
Thanks for the clarification!
This feat is most definitely not useless. It's a very common feat among blaster casters. For example, if you are a 7th level sorcerer, and chose fireball, it would make your fireballs do 9d6 instead of 7d6 damage. For a 1st level human wizard, you can throw 2 magic missiles instead of just one.
Because you can change the specialized spell, you can shift it to another spell as you level up and no longer need the Spell Specialization feat to reach the maximum caster level for the specialized spell.
Its also very profound for spells like dispel magic, letting you end magic outside your weight class.
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Yup. You are right, thanks for pointing that out. I saw a few posts where this metamagic was used to increase DC, and I was confused by the wording and what was being claimed. When instead I should have focused on actual definition of caster and spell level.
This feat is just about useless :-D
Thanks for the clarification!
Spell Specialization
Select one spell. You cast that spell with greater than normal power.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Spell Focus.
Benefit: Select one spell of a school for which you have taken the Spell Focus feat. Treat your caster level as being two higher for all level-variable effects of the spell. Every time you gain an even level in the spellcasting class you chose your spell from, you can choose a new spell to replace the spell selected with this feat, and that spell becomes your specialized spell.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a different spell.
It isn't a metamagic, it hasn't the metamagic tag after the name and it isn't in the list of metamagics of Ultimate Magic.
p.s.: Generally it's a good house rule to change some ability score prerequisites like INT/WIS/CHA around to allow all spellcasters equal access to general spellcasting feats. So if there's a druid or bard who'd like to have Spell Specialization, it's not game-breaking to allow it.
Yup. You are right, thanks for pointing that out. I saw a few posts where this metamagic was used to increase DC, and I was confused by the wording and what was being claimed. When instead I should have focused on actual definition of caster and spell level.
This feat is just about useless :-D
Thanks for the clarification!
Also, think Shadow evocation/conjuration