New feat suggestion: practiced spellcaster

[FuzzyDuck81]

Practiced Spellcaster​

( Complete Arcane, p. 82)
[General]
Choose a spellcasting class that you possess. Your spells cast from that class are more powerful.

Prerequisite​

Spellcraft 4 ranks,

Benefit​

Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by 4. This benefit can't increase your caster level to higher than your Hit Dice. However, even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, if you later gain Hit Dice in levels of nonspellcasting classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus. For example, a human 5th-level sorcerer/3rd-level fighter who selects this feat would increase his sorcerer caster level from 5th to 8th (since he has 8 Hit Dice). If he later gained a fighter level, he would gain the remainder of the bonus and his sorcerer caster level would become 9th (since he now has 9 Hit Dice). A character with two or more spellcasting classes (such as a bard/sorcerer or a ranger/druid) must choose which class gains the feat's effect. This feat does not affect your spells per day or spells known. It increases your caster level only, which would help you penetrate spell resistance and increase the duration and other effects of your spells.

Special​

You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you choose it, you must apply it to a different spellcasting class. For instance, a 4th-level cleric/5th-level wizard who had selected this feat twice would cast cleric spells as an 8th-level caster and wizard spells as a 9th-level caster.

Obviously there's a few incompatibilities with DDO there as well as issues with the whole thing about HD calculations, but I think it could be adapted with those issues simply bypassed.

My idea is that it becomes a new epic feat that adds a universal +4 (maybe only +2? numbers would need to be crunched) caster levels to all spells regardless of class, but since it doesn't include an increase to maximum caster level it wouldn't unfairly boost epic spells & destiny abilities, which are already regulated by the autogranted epic knowledge feat.

 

[Enoach]

I'm all for Practiced Spellcaster feat being added into the game. I believe there was a discussion by the dev team years ago (old forums) on this very aspect and how it can be abused.

I will point out that this feat is intended for Multi-class builds and you gain caster levels up to 4 for the caster class it is choose for, examples:
1. 7th Level character 4 levels Wiz, 3 Levels Cleric taken for Wiz -> Wiz would be Caster Level 7 as you cannot be a higher caster level than your current level with this feat and there is only 3 cleric levels
2. 7th Level character 4 levels Wiz, 3 Levels Cleric taken for Cleric -> Cleric would be Caster Level 7 gain the benefit of all 4 cls from the feat.

This feat would open up options for multi-class builds such as the mystic theurge (possible universal tree)

My opinion, I would like to see it as a feat option for DDO at Heroic. Limited to being able to take it only if you are multi-class and limited to the caster classes in the build.

 

[Lazuli]

In the past it could be abused because high level spells weren't good and shiradi magic missile builds were booming. But those times are behind us, the things that could have made this feat op have disappeared.

Keep in mind that the feat only gives CL up to the limit of your HD, it does not give true spellscating levels, so you could still lose access to level 8-9 spells if you multiclass.

I don't see mystic theuge as an universal tree, I think is better manage it as an archetype.

 

[droid327]

I dont know if it would entice casters to give up their capstones, regardless

But maybe just for Heroic leveling...let you splash /2 FvS on a Sorc for heals, etc.

You definitely would have to put the caveat that it cannot increase your effective CL above your actual character level, or else its obviously blatantly OP for Heroic lol

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

I dont know if it would entice casters to give up their capstones, regardless

But maybe just for Heroic leveling...let you splash /2 FvS on a Sorc for heals, etc.

You definitely would have to put the caveat that it cannot increase your effective CL above your actual character level, or else its obviously blatantly OP for Heroic lol

That was my reasoning for the way I suggested implementing it as an epic feat, it'd not have the issue at all so be far easier to implement on a coding basis & be a handy utility thing for multiclass builds to make the handful of lower level spells they have access to more powerful; combined with the "master of" feats they might even be good enough for certain offensive SLAs to enter the rotation, though I could mainly see that being limited to master of the dead for death aura, still some 7wiz pale master splash multiclasses might be fun & at that point it'd be a 2 feat tax & giving up high level core enhancements so that helps balance it a lot.

If they could implement is as a heroic feat with the proper limitations then yeah, even more fun could be had.

 

[Striga]

Sure, it would be fun. I could even see it granting +1 caster level for each five character levels, i.e., +1 CL at character levels 1-9; +2 CL for 10-14, +3 CL for 15-19, and +4 CL for 20+. I don't think this would need any additional restrictions.

 

[Shear-buckler]

Last time this was brought up there was 15 pages of people complaing that magic missle would become too strong.

 

[popejubal]

Since MCL is the real limit on offensive power, I think that Practiced Spellcaster could just be "Your caster level for all spells is 4 higher. Note that this does not change the Max Caster Level of your spells." It would be a nice mechanism for partial casters to catch up to full casters and would make some niche builds more interesting without adding any meaningful power creep because the only builds it would be helping are far from the meta anyway. The only "problem" would be that it will make low levels "too easy" because you could take it at level 1 and swap it out later with Fred, but frankly low level quests are so easy that I don't think "Oh no, low level quests will be too easy now!" is a real problem.

 

[droid327]

The only "problem" would be that it will make low levels "too easy" because you could take it at level 1 and swap it out later with Fred, but frankly low level quests are so easy that I don't think "Oh no, low level quests will be too easy now!" is a real problem.

The problem with it in Heroic is more that it would instantly become far-and-away the best feat for any caster to take. It'd reduce build variation because it would be the automatic first feat for every caster at L1, even if you might swap it out for Heighten at L20 or something. Devs tend to not like creating those kinda "instant and forever BIS" options.

That's why capping CL at character level ensures it only benefits multiclassing casters, not every single caster.

 

[popejubal]

The problem with it in Heroic is more that it would instantly become far-and-away the best feat for any caster to take. It'd reduce build variation because it would be the automatic first feat for every caster at L1, even if you might swap it out for Heighten at L20 or something. Devs tend to not like creating those kinda "instant and forever BIS" options.

That's why capping CL at character level ensures it only benefits multiclassing casters, not every single caster.

That makes sense and it wouldn't matter once you hit Epics, so it's a good limiting factor without actually impeding what the feat is intended for.

 

[Lazuli]

The original pnp feat is only for multiclassing, since it raises your CL up to your HD (a maximum of +4 CL). A full caster gains no benefit from it.

A wizard 4/rogue 2 would have a CL 6, but only would still have spell slots of a wizard 4, so it wouldn't really be very popular to level up either. Delaying high level spells hurts. But for people who are going to make a splash anyway, like those trapper builds, it could be a help.

 

[Enoach]

Not sure where people are getting the idea this feat is too powerful.
1. It only benefits multi-class
2. It only raises the Caster Level of the chosen class no more than their current Level but also no more than 4 levels
3. They don't gain spells
4. Spells are still limited by Max Caster Level
5. The feat can only be taken as early as 2nd Level, but isn't really significantly useful until at least 4th on
6. CL effects damage dice, Spell Penetration and Knock, Dispel and Banishment types

The Advantage of this Feat is in mixing Caster Types, such as Arcane and Divine. But even than the max benefit for a 10/10 character grabbing this feat twice is having a 14/14 Caster Level.

In Epics that would also increase.

The reason that it was argued about MM being too strong was because of how shiradi champion worked and MM had multiple projectiles that did low damage on their own, but would have a higher potential triggering effects.

One way I can see this implemented is to create multiple versions of the Feat, one for each caster class, the prereq would be to have at least one level not of that caster class.