Sorcerer - Past Life Arcane Prodigy Feat - Worth It?

[Shacker]

TRing my Sorcerer soon, most likely into a casting FVS. Just wondering if the past life feat is worth it --- 105 sp and the 10/rest clicky. Sure the SP is nice, but does the clicky do enough damage with empower/maximize/heighten to make it worth it?

It will take the place of one of these feats: toughness, empower healing, spell focus "X" or spell penetration.

Any feedback from someone who has tried it would be great and appreciated.

[MnaSidhe]

Worth it instead of Mental Toughness...
The damage itself is not that special... at least I found it not that special. Also too busy casting Divine Punishment and Blade Barrier to remember to shoot the rays...
And for the first few levels just pick up a greataxe...

[butcheredspirit]

From memory you can't heighten it, only max/empower.

It was a few lives ago I last took it, I didn't really like it.

As stated above,
It's worth taking if you were planning on taking mental toughness anyway.
The damage isn't very reliable.

[Tid12]

You cant heighten it, its not really worth it.

[Bacab]

Its great! If TRing back into a SOR. It qualifies you for tier 2 (maybe 3) of the PRE Savants.

Otherwise, i think mental toughness and +SP type feats are generally a waste. +105 SP at level 20 is essentially 2 more damage spells per rest. I prefer concord/opp and torc. If you don't have concord/opp yet...don't TR until you do.

[BingoGazingo]

Not worth it. 105 SP is not a big deal for sorc, assuming u have something like 3k SP. I'd take spell focus instead.

[Bacab]

Not worth it. 105 SP is not a big deal for sorc, assuming u have something like 3k SP. I'd take spell focus instead.

Yeah or shield mastery or force of personality...or another toughness. Pretty much anything is better than mental toughness on a FVS or Sorc...

[Isharah]

Useful to take early on for the extra capacity.

I found that a lot of people take both Maximize and Empower on healer type builds early on. You wouldn't need both maximize and empower for a spell at low levels, so IMO it would be nice to take the active PL:sorc in place of one of these.

By the time you get blade barrier, swap it out for a metamag or spell focus -- by this time the extra SP you get from the PL won't be as helpful as that SF or metamag.

So maybe you might want to go somewhere along the line of

1 - Toughness
3 - PL:Sorc
6 - Empower
9 - SF: Evoc
12 - GSF: Evoc + Swap out PL:Sorc for Maximize
15 - Heighten
18 - Spell Penetration

Not saying that PL:Sorc is an uber feat; just saying that between getting a feat that is marginally useful and a feat that you won't ever use (at least for that level window), i prefer the previous.

Cheers.

[MRMechMan]

Yeah or shield mastery or force of personality...or another toughness. Pretty much anything is better than mental toughness on a FVS or Sorc...

I think he was refering to bacabs post where it qualifies you for savant prestige class. So it's only comparing it to evoc/conj focus.

It was OK while leveling. 1 shotted stuff fairly often. That combined with a clr PL enhanced niacs SLA made for fun leveling on water savant life.

But past level 12 or so it's fairly useless. Extra sp always nice but not really needed.

Any of the feats you listed are better.

Toughness for sure unless its your 2nd+ (1st unlocks a TON of enhancements for fvs)
If evoker: spell pen unless wiz PLs, otherwise evoc focus
Empower healing is also a very solid choice, as it's only meta that effects mass heal. But if fleshie wf with decent amp it's not needed really. If wf fvs, it's very very useful.

[SirValentine]

Its great! If TRing back into a SOR. It qualifies you for tier 2 (maybe 3) of the PRE Savants.

Otherwise, i think mental toughness and +SP type feats are generally a waste.


I'd agree with this. Maybe take it if you TR back to a Sorc, as you cover your PrE requirement AND get some extra SP.

But on any other class? Nah, I'll pass.

[mobrien316]

I have found it fairly useful at lower levels. Then I swap it for something else later on, maybe around level 10 or 12.

[supot]

its really slow and gives inconsistent damage (sometimes high and nice sometimes really crappy.)

Was ok for the first few levels, became obsolete. Can be useful in emergencies when without SP and in Antimagic, but not that worth it.

It does not qualify for Mental toughness for a Wiz, i dont know about Savant Prereqs though. If it does then maybe thats the exception to getting it if nothing else is good.

[sweez]

From memory you can't heighten it, only max/empower.


This is correct, you can also quicken it. It's an *excellent* leveling tool, since it'll one-shot most critters while leveling (even elite streaking), plus it works in anti-magic fields, so it's a great to take out beholders with. At cap though, it's most likely almost completely useless.

(although, that was on a sorc, and the elemental enhancement lines *seem* to affect it, not sure how it would work on a FvS)