feats and spells

[drgsldr69]

ok i know in 3.0 and 3.5 different fighter feats can also enhance casting of spells. my question is does that work here in ddo also?


FEAT SPECIAL
point blank works for ray spells
weapon specialization ray spells



i cant remember off hand what other feats worked with the spells those are just 2 ofthe ones i remember right off.

[llevenbaxx]

I think you have to be a 4th level fighter to specialize, but in PnP you could take FOCUS on a ray attack to improve the to hit. As well as imp crit and some others. Not sure there is much point to doing it in this game even if it is possible. There is no "to hit" on ray attacks and taking four levels of fighter(to specialize) and wasting multiple feats to add +2 to a 120 pt scorching ray just sounds kinda crazy.

[Aspenor]

DDO has no ranged touch attack rolls. Don't bother.

[drgsldr69]

ok i was talking about more then just the fighter feats. ok rogue abilities also worked with spells in pnp. as in the sneak attack bonus's. or a rangers favored enemy bonus. all that is sopposed to stack even with spells. but it dont seem to stack with ANYTHING in this game . i now have a rogue wiz rang to check on that and none of it is working.

first i tried the sneak attack part using ray spells and magic missles nothing. then i tried the bonus dam and att with favored enemy still nothing. what just because it is a spell they are no longer a sneak attack or a favored enemy???

[Khurse]

I really hate those undead so my fireballs are extra explodey?

Dunno- I'm new so may be wrong, but my ray spells never miss on someone who's not paying attention to me (so long as they're not running perepndicular to me) and magic missles never seems to miss unless i fire them at someone I can barely see.

Since even at lvl 8 I can one shot pretty much anything I've foudn so far(except named) with the appropriate spell I'm not sure why you'd feel you need more dice

[Staedtler]

first i tried the sneak attack part using ray spells and magic missles nothing. then i tried the bonus dam and att with favored enemy still nothing. what just because it is a spell they are no longer a sneak attack or a favored enemy???

Within the confines of DDO, neither of these should receive any bonus damage. Here's why.

Favored enemy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/ranger.htm#favoredEnemy) damage bonuses are specifically stated as applying to weapon damage. So, rangers should not, under any circumstances, receive any damage bonus to their spells for favored enemies.

As for rogues, it's a bit trickier. The description of the sneak attack (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/rogue.htm#sneakAttack) feature details that extra damage is applied for a successful attack when certain conditions are met. An attack is defined as a d20 roll + relevant modifiers against a target's AC. You could make an argument that any spell requiring an attack roll should qualify as a sneak attack. Spells like Magic Missile or Fireball should have no extra damage applied because they don't have attack rolls. Essentially, spells may be thought of as a normal ranged attack and should have all the sneak attack bonuses applied. However there are no attack rolls for any spell in DDO, hence no spell can be considered an attack and should not have sneak attack damage applied.

On the larger issue, the idea of rogues applying sneak attack damage to spells doesn't feel right to me primarily because, unlike a regular ranged attack, you're rolling to hit a target's touch AC. Although nothing in the published rules (that I know of) explicitly forbids this, I don't see it as something which should be allowed. You already get the benefit of rolling for a target's (often significantly) lower touch AC. It's pretty easy to abuse this. Consider a 19 rogue / 1 wiz with only shocking grasp slotted. You can walk around and watch your 20 fighter friends swing and miss the Big Monster Of The Week (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm#balor) while you step in, make a touch attack (which you will only miss on a roll of 1) and dish out 10d6 sneak attack damage. Repeat for as many 1st level spell slots as you have available.