Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bob_the_Theurge 02-08-07, 02:48 PM	Reserve Feats from the CM are in. While I agree with the Circle explanation regarding those that are standard actions, I think that the Reserve feats which grant move-action or Swift-action abilities merely for holding back a spell are overpowered and border on broken. Examples: Blade of Force - swift action before full attack for Spellswords/etc; extra damage (1 pt per level of highest spell) plus ignore incorporeal miss chance. Magic Disruption - force a Concentration check or lower the DC/spell level of an enemy cast spell, immediate action Minor Shapeshift - "Whoa." And it's a swift action. Summon Elemental - this needs an errata just to say what form of action it is. Borne Aloft - Swift Fly every round, just for having a spell held onto.
Britt 02-08-07, 02:50 PM	Summon Elemental is Closed, so that's not an issue.
Bob_the_Theurge 02-08-07, 03:33 PM	Summon Elemental is Closed, so that's not an issue. And Borne Aloft?
Mommy was an Orc 02-08-07, 04:38 PM	What about Minor Shapeshift? In many cases, that almost amounts to Fast Healing = HD as well as some free temp hit points in the beginning of a fight.
Mommy was an Orc 02-08-07, 04:40 PM	And Borne Aloft? For the cost of Borne Aloft, you could have cast Overland Flight and get roughly the same effect.
Jay_Ibero_911 02-08-07, 04:57 PM	Minor shapeshift is also not an issue because, to the best of my knowledge, all polymorph spells are now closed. Though I guess Baleful polymorph would qualify, and possibly animal shapes, both of which are still open. I think we need a list of all spells which are now considered to be of the polymorph sub-school. Blade of Force is also not such a big deal. First, you need a force spell of at least 3rd level. Second, it only applies to your next single attack. Magic Disruption can be a little more troublesome, but most baddie casters should either have lots of ranks in concentration, or be more than 30ft away from you. Also, as it's an immediate action, that means no swift action on your next turn. It is a solid feat I'd say. Summon Elemental-Closed, though I don't see why...short duration, only one at a time, weak elemental for the level... Borne Aloft-You have to start and end on the ground or you fall. Good for maneuvering, not so useful for escape...And you need a 5th level air spell available... And the damage ones, while certainly conveneint, in no way add up to the power you get from the actual high level spell you are reserving. I'm considering Force Needle for my druid. The spell powering it will be Enveloping Coccoon, which is open, and conveniently a force spell. 6d4 force damage at 30ft, no SR, no energy resist. This is very handy as my druid doesn't have much in the way of regular damage, as most of his spells are buffs.
Madfox11 02-09-07, 03:53 AM	Summon Elemental-Closed, though I don't see why...short duration, only one at a time, weak elemental for the level... While the elementals suck for combat, they are going to break adventures due to their scouting abilities (earth elementals with their earth glide ability especially) and trap triggering stuff.
Morgen 02-09-07, 04:33 AM	As it was stated in the main LGCS thread, the way combats are set up in LG really don't give these feats the kind of power that they would normally like to give you on paper. As someone who plays an arcane spellcaster (sorcerer 12) I've played in several mods at higher APLs. Casting some of my biggest and most rediculious spells every round of combat, all in the same day, in a core special, I still had quite a few slots left over. So did the wizard, the clerics and the druid. I really wasn't even needing most of my 6th level spells, though I did use a slot for a nasty sorcerer style meta-magic electric boxes of doom spell. Anyway, a lot of those feats really arn't to big of a deal. There are a billion ways to add a couple of extra points to damage and a spellsword isn't going to have anything over a +6 more then likely at around 15th level and if you've got a ghost touch weapon well you've got the incorperal thing 24/7. NPC spellcasters all seem to have auto concentration success for almost all thier spells so no worries there. Flying is fine and dandy, but people have brooms and carpets and honestly you don't need to fly more then a couple of rounds a day 90% of the time so that doens't do much. Plus I think there is another draconic herritage feat that does the same thing anyway after you cast any spell in a round, so nothing new.
Sieylianna 02-09-07, 01:29 PM	And the damage ones, while certainly conveneint, in no way add up to the power you get from the actual high level spell you are reserving. I'm considering Force Needle for my druid. The spell powering it will be Enveloping Coccoon, which is open, and conveniently a force spell. 6d4 force damage at 30ft, no SR, no energy resist. This is very handy as my druid doesn't have much in the way of regular damage, as most of his spells are buffs. Force Needle is one of the ones I've looked at. The damage isn't great, but it's force damage, which is appealing to clases which don't have much in the way of damaging force effects. Ed
Jay_Ibero_911 02-09-07, 01:33 PM	Force Needle is one of the ones I've looked at. The damage isn't great, but it's force damage, which is appealing to clases which don't have much in the way of damaging force effects. Ed Exactly...though previously when faced with incorporeals he's used his brambled +1 Ghost touch quarterstaff...1d4+12, whee. And with my death ward armor (even if it's 1/day), I've proven a much tougher target than those incorporeals thought...
Maesto 02-09-07, 09:29 PM	Force needle is cute... but since it requires ranged attack rolls (not touch attacks or auto hits), it certainly isn't a magic missile on tap, although it isn't bad at all ;-) I'm looking at fiery burst myself. I've got an int29 wizard with 8th level spells. If I were to take fiery burst, I could have DC 27 minifireballs on tap (8d6, 5 foot radius), for about 30 points of damage on average, less on a made save, within a range of 30 feet. Well great. That's no mindblank today, incendiary cloud sucks when you actually use it, and really - it's a pathetic amount of damage. If my aim in life was to kill every low level kobold (and the campaign was geared in this direction), then maybe... But otherwise, really, I have better things to be doing. The only time this might come up is in a core special towards the end where you're starting to run low on spells. But I doubt it. I don't think any of the reserve feats included will make anything unbalanced; they're just cute. Cheers, Jolyon
KarmaInferno 02-10-07, 01:33 AM	For the cost of Borne Aloft, you could have cast Overland Flight and get roughly the same effect. It's worse, actually. It's more like a 30-foot jump than a Fly, as you have to be on the ground at the end of your turn. I can think of very few combats where moving from one spot to another was greatly affected by whether I was moving through the air or on the ground. The ability isn't as massively useful as you might think. -karma
Sieylianna 02-10-07, 01:36 AM	It's worse, actually. It's more like a 30-foot jump than a Fly, as you have to be on the ground at the end of your turn. I can think of very few combats where moving from one spot to another was greatly affected by whether I was moving through the air or on the ground. The ability isn't as massively useful as you might think. Maybe you could work it in with skirmish? Ed
KarmaInferno 02-10-07, 02:05 AM	You could use it to get Skirmish bonus damage, yes. Then again, you could just walk 10 feet and get the same thing. There are several ways to get bonus move actions in a round besides Borne Aloft. The only difference is that one is along the ground and one is through the air. As I said, few fights are situated where that matters much. Heck, most fights you see are some variation of "You're on one side of a open flat plain, they're on the other, roll initiative!" Whether you move 30 feet along the ground or through the air dosen't make much difference there, as you have to be on the ground at the end of your turn in either case. -karma
solbergb 02-10-07, 10:45 AM	I went through all the feats carefully, and I decided none of them were significant. Force blade only works on one single attack (compare to Arcane Strike, which also gives attack bonuses and works on all attacks). It adds a very small damage bump. Also remember that Ghostblight is in the game and pretty available via metaorgs in some regions. All of the direct damage ones are insignificant. They either do a pathetic amount of damage for the level of the caster or they have a pretty significant drawback (std action for 1d6/spell level touch attack, std action for 1d4/spell level ranged attack that is NOT a touch attack, etc). In every case a real spell, even magic missile, would generally be superior. In most cases a wand of magic missile level 5 is strictly superior too. All are significantly inferior (as in half power or lower) to draconic breath, which is considered useful but not especially powerful. Anyone who can do borne aloft can also do overland flight, except a level 10 sorcerer with a L5 air spell of some kind. An air themed sorcerer probably should be able to do something like Borne Aloft. Draconic flight is similar, and is considered a pretty weak feat. About the only subschool polymorph spell left for the shapeshift feat is baleful polymorph. This one could be kind of useful and maybe should be closed. Spending a feat to breathe water is 100% AOK by me. Water adventures are rare, and L3+ water spells usually indicate some kind of aquatic theme anyway. Might save the life of an odd Asherati caster :) Generally these feats are ok. The dimension hop one was bad, and the elemental one was poorly writte, but both are already closed. I think the main one to look at is the shapeshift one.