Buying / Crafting Scrolls and Other Items vs. Breadth Feat

[John R.]

I've begun playing in a Paizo published AP and I am taking the Witch dedication. I was planning on going all the way up to legendary in crafting and got to thinking, is the Patron's Breadth feat worth the class feat if I can just buy or craft scrolls and other items for the same effect? Is the gold cost of such items worth the equivalent effect of a class feat?

[Kyrone]

Staff, scroll, wands, yeah, I usually like them more than the breadth feat, though I might retrain into the breadth at higher lvls when you gain more slots with it.

But when you get it at lvl 8? Lvl 1-2 scrolls are cheap enough.

[Captain Zoom]

John R. wrote:

I've begun playing in a Paizo published AP and I am taking the Witch dedication. I was planning on going all the way up to legendary in crafting and got to thinking, is the Patron's Breadth feat worth the class feat if I can just buy or craft scrolls and other items for the same effect? Is the gold cost of such items worth the equivalent effect of a class feat?

You didn't mention if you're taking the Basic, Expert and Master Witch Spellcasting feats. I assume you are as that's when Patron's Breadth comes into play.

Kyrone's suggestion is solid. You don't get Patron's Breadth until Level 8, so until then I guess you can use low level scrolls. You take Expert spellcasting at Level 12 at which point you have extra 1st and 2nd level spell slots. 3rd level and higher slots come on-line pretty much at level 14, 16, 18, 20.

Patron's Breadth will eventually get you a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 level spell slot each day, versus paying 4 gp, 12 gp, 30 ggp, 70 gp, 150 gp and 300 gp (total 566 gp) per day to replicate the spell slots using scrolls. The spell slots can be easily changed each day while you'll have to plan your purchases or crafting ahead of time for the scrolls.

So at higher levels it's definitely worth it. At lower levels not so much. Of course, you can just do both as the two approaches are not mutually exclusive - Take Patron's Breadth at 8 and get 1 free slot per day that you can fill with any spell you know (increasing as you go up), plus still buy scrolls.

[HumbleGamer]

The Breadth feat Cons outweigh the Pro, but it might be a nice choice depends your character.

The majority of combatants tend to have either hands occupied ( 2h, 2w, s&b ), so they would have issues expending actions to retrieve scrolls during a combat encounter.

If you don't have anything better by lvl 8, an extra true strike might always come in handy.

I am planning on a champion with sorcerer dedication due to its ancestry and lineage, and the breath is excellent for him also because the missing lvl 8 feats ( since he will be using a 2h weapon, he won't benefit from either second ally or quick shield block, and all the other lvl 8- feats are really not worth nor interesting, or simply too niche to be even considered ), but it will probably start shining from lvl 12 on.

Finally, and probably most important, if your tradition is arcane keep in mind that there's the ring of wizardry.
It's only uncommon, so getting your hands on it would require a little more effort but nothing impossible, and its effect would be extremely powerful especially on a dedication.

Quote:

Ring of Wizardry (Type I)Item 7

Price 360 gp
The bonus is +1, and the ring grants two 1st-level spell slots

Ring of Wizardry (Type II)Item 10

Price 1,000 gp
The bonus is +2, and the ring grants two 2nd-level spell slots and one 1st-level spell slot.

Ring of Wizardry (Type III)Item 12

Price 2,000 gp
The bonus is +2, and the ring grants two 3rd-level spell slots and one 2nd-level spell slot.

Ring of Wizardry (Type IV)Item 14
Price 4,500 gp
The bonus is +2, and the ring grants two 4th-level spell slots and one 3rd-level spell slot.

[Castilliano]

As noted by others, the Breadth feat starts low in value and then ramps up. It gets so high by 20th I'd say it's worthwhile, but only if taking all the other MCD feats for maximum casting (which is an enormous investment in itself which ramps up too).

If still in doubt, another major factor would be what the heck is your base class? If already a spellcaster, then the bonus spells are less useful than if you're a martial, and if a martial, you're less likely to have the hands or actions to be pulling consumables in combat.
So for a martial (if also taking the other feats/playing to 20th), I'd say Breadth becomes a must-have. For a caster (again w/ the other feats & to 20th), it's still pretty juicy to have those slots on call w/o drawing items, but gauge that quantity versus other feats that might increase quality (in terms of effectiveness per round, since numerical bonuses are scarce).
If I was a Sorcerer, for example, I'd pour those feats into Focus Spells and recharging Focus Points, and only dabble in Witch. But an Alchemist would be in dire need of that diversity!

[John R.]

Yeah, I'm going "martial" with a Alchemical Science Investigator and plan on going all the way to Master Spellcasting. Will probably eventually take Implausible Purchase as well if gold is plentiful enough so I expect to eventually always have the right spells when I need them if my skills can't solve a problem.