Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Salla 07-22-07, 07:55 PM	I was considering creating a string of feats (or more likely, one feat that you can select multiple times in that Weapon Focus kind of way) that lets a character gain Spell Focus based on Descriptor rather than school. So, you could take Spell Focus (Fire) (+1 DC on all spells with the Fire descriptor) or Spell Focus (Mind-Affecting) (+1 DC on all mind-affecting spells), and so forth. The usual 'spell focus doesn't stack with itself' caveat, of course, applies, so Spell Focus (Evocation) and Spell Focus (Fire) don't combine on a Fireball for a +2. The question, of course ... is do you think anybody would actually take them?
Kyrian 07-22-07, 08:36 PM	I definitely can see someone taking them, and I think its a good idea if you have PC's who don't powergame. But your feat could be combined with something like Energy Substitution of the same descriptor to give a bonus to any energy related-spell the caster substitutes. The other thing that could make it overpowered is the various classes/prestige classes that grant DC bonuses to spells of a certain descriptor. While your feat may not stack with spell focus, it would still stack with many of these class bonuses (most of which are generic, and thus stackable) and could prove to be unbalancing. Giving it a progression would make it even more likely to be abused. Just my two cents...
Nom 07-22-07, 11:09 PM	But your feat could be combined with something like Energy Substitution of the same descriptor to give a bonus to any energy related-spell the caster substitutes.I'm not sure this is a problem, since by and large someone using energy sub is going to be going straight evocation or conjuration, right? (I also think that energy sub as a +0 metamagic has stylistic problems, but that's a different issue entirely). I actually don't see a lot of situations where one could get more benefit from this than from conventional Spell Focus (assuming they can't stack). It's both broader and narrower than the normal feat, but mainly just different.
Tequila_Sunrise 07-23-07, 12:48 AM	I think it's a great idea. If one of your players finds a way to abuse it, add text to fix it. TS
Malchius 07-23-07, 10:52 AM	I'm sure one of the Draconic Heritage feats does exactly that adding to the DC due to Descriptor btut hat's very limited and not open to every caster.
foxtail 07-23-07, 11:06 AM	There's already an example of this in play that is, indeed, open to abuse. Cold Focus from Frostburn increases the potentcy of your [cold] spells, and Snowcasting (same book) can give any spell the [cold] descriptor, IIRC. But as with anything that's "overpowered", a reasonable player can make it a moot point.
Salla 07-23-07, 01:05 PM	There's already an example of this in play that is, indeed, open to abuse. Cold Focus from Frostburn increases the potentcy of your [cold] spells, and Snowcasting (same book) can give any spell the [cold] descriptor, IIRC. But as with anything that's "overpowered", a reasonable player can make it a moot point. I don't own Frostburn (or any of the 'environmental' books, though Dungeonscape is growing enticing), so I wasn't aware of that one.
ArochanoX 07-24-07, 02:02 AM	There are also shadow focus or similar feat (either in tome of magic or some FR book). But yes, they are fine (to me atleast) and I would even allow them to stack with themselves. So if you have a fireball with focus evocation and focus fire, you'd get the +2 (because they are unnamed bonuses from diffrent sources). There could also be descriptor specialization that added +2 damage per level of spell (+4 per level for greater specialization). Though they apply only to damage-dealing spells which is quite lame.. It should affect other spell effects too, but it's uneasy to balance.