Spellsinger feats

[HastyPudding]

So, looking at the new spellsinger enhancements coming in, I'm really excited to get my caster ready for it. He's all ready to TR (just needs a +1 LR heart).


This will be a 17th life character with complete caster lives (4 wiz, 4 sorc, 4 cleric, 2 druid, 2 fvs, 1 bard). He'll be TRing into a morninglord iconic, using a +1 LR heart to go pure 20 bard for the upcoming spellsinger boost (skip 1-14, good synergy with exalted angel destiny, mass buff sla, elven arcanum/enchantment bonus, etc).

Now, I'm hardly new to spellcasters, but I'm a little unsure on a few things.

1. Morninglord has 1 less feat than the usual human bard. Now, with my wizard/FVS past lives + items + spellsinger enhancements + destinies/twists + elven arcanum, I'm wondering if I need any spell penetration feats. I just did a bladeforged sorcerer life for fun. He had no spell penetration feats or enhancements and only rarely saw a few blue bubbles over mobs (mostly on drow) when using irresistible dance, wail, or finger of death. One spell penetration feat might be okay because it's heavily focused on crowd control spells and such, but are more really necessary?

2. Heighten. I'm wondering if I need this feat on a bard, since they only have 6 spell levels. It might be useful for the upcoming SLA's, as well as the sound burst SLA from the EA destiny, but I'm not 100% sold on the issue. Could this feat be better used elsewhere, such as an additional enchant focus or mental toughness?

3. How much spell focus is enough? A few are okay, but when you're feat starved, it can be a little irritating to spend an entire feat on just +1 to your enchantment dc's when that feat could give you a large bonus to spell points or a useful metamagic.

Thoughts?

[gwonbush]

Personally, I'd go PDK over Morninglord. Bit less light damage and 1 less DC to Enchantment, but in return you get an extra feat, 1 more CHA, and a cheaper way to get CHA to hit and damage than Swash (though you may want to get swash goodies anyway)

As for feats, there's a few options:

Full caster mode: with Maximize, Quicken, Heighten (Worth 2 DC on Ottos, better than additional focuses), Empowered Healing Spell, Spell Focus: Enchantment, Inspire Excellence, Empower, and 2 choices between additional focuses, spell pen or mental toughness. Greater Shout is something that can also be useful to spam, so you may want to pick up an Evocation focus for Draconic twisting.

You also have the potential to be more melee-focused. Spellsinger for CC and Swashbuckler to take them down. That would look something like
3 SWF feats, IC:Pierce (unless using Balizarde), Quicken, Maximize, Spell focus: Enchantment, Heighten, Inspire Excellence, and another feat of your choice such as Empower Healing Spell.

I find it relatively easy to get good DCs on a Spellsinger without going all out on the Spell Focus feats. Between 2 DC from songs, 10 total from Spellsinger (3 from stats, 4 from cores, 1 from Marigold and 2 from Prodigy), you find yourself sitting higher on DC than you might otherwise be.