Practiced spellcaster?

[Brandiwyne]

With the recent addition of new feats such as insightful reflexes, force of personality, etc., I was wondering (re: hoping): what is the possibility of adding this feat? And is it a feat that you can take multiple times (ala toughness) as long as total HD isn't exceeded?

I know I've seen it mentioned in posts by MT and others discussing prestige classes through enhancements, but I don't think I've ever seen a response from the development team regarding this.

I think it would be intriguing to see some of the MC builds that the players would come up with.

[Yaga_Nub]

I would hope that it could not be taken more than once. Much to powerful if you could.

[Brandiwyne]

I'm curious why you think it would be more powerful. My understanding is that it only increases your caster level to match your character level; this is used when calculating spell DC's, and spell penetration, correct?

It's not granting you additional spell points, or spell levels; at least, that's not how it's supposed to work.

Can you explain why you would think it would be too powerful?

[Mad_Bombardier]

IIRC, you can only take Practised Spellcaster once for each class. Additional feats benefit a new spellcasting class.

So, a 10Fighter/6Cleric could take Practised Spellcaster only once and would have caster level 10 for Cleric spells.
A 10Ranger/6Cleric could take Practised Spellcaster twice and would have caster level 14 for Ranger spells and 10 for Cleric spells.
A 6Ranger/6Cleric/4Wizard could take Practised Spellcaster thrice and would have caster level 10 for Ranger spells, 10 for Cleric spells, and 8 for Wizard spells.

[rimble]

It raises the caster level of one of your casting classes by four, but not above your character level. You can take it more than once but each time you apply it to a different casting class. You can't stack 'em on the same casting class.

[llevenbaxx]

Increases you caster level a maximum of +4 levels, not to character level in all circumstances. I also dont think it affects you DC since caster level never comes into the mix. Duration, caster level checks(spell penetration, dispel), increased affects such as energy resistance... might be it. Really nice for some builds, ho-hum for others.

You can take it multiple times but for different casting classes(clr/wiz, sorc/clr, paly/wiz etc)

[Brandiwyne]

....I did not realize that you could only take it once for each class type. Thanks for clarifying.

[Yaga_Nub]

I'm curious why you think it would be more powerful. My understanding is that it only increases your caster level to match your character level; this is used when calculating spell DC's, and spell penetration, correct?

It's not granting you additional spell points, or spell levels; at least, that's not how it's supposed to work.

Can you explain why you would think it would be too powerful?

As others in the thread have shown, you can take it multiple times if you have multiple casting classes.

I was speaking from the way that I interpreted your question. I took your question to mean can you take the feat more than once if you only have one casting class. It would be to powerful, IMHO, if you could because make a 15 XXX/1 Wiz (for instance), take the feat 3 times and have Shield for 26 min (with extend which you would take with your 1 wiz level). I don't think that is what was intended when the feat was introduced.

[Angelus_dead]

It would be to powerful, IMHO, if you could because make a 15 XXX/1 Wiz (for instance), take the feat 3 times and have Shield for 26 min (with extend which you would take with your 1 wiz level). I don't think that is what was intended when the feat was introduced.

That would not be powerful. In fact, you'd be nerfing yourself to waste feats like that.

A fighter15/wiz1 will have about 150 mana, so he can have Shield for 15 minutes. That's more total time than you'd ever really need before you rest again. Adding Practiced Spellcaster(wizard) will boost it to 75 min total, way more than you'd ever need. But it helps because casting Shield every 10 min is more convenient than every 2 min. However, adding another Practiced Spellcaster would get you up to 18 min each, and 135 min total. What a waste.

The only way stacking Practiced Spellcaster could maybe help is for something like Resist Energy, bringing your caster level up to 11 so you get 30 point resists. However, even that isn't much worth it for the cost in feats.


PS. The Extend feat makes no difference in the total time you can have a level 1 spell on.

[EinarMal]

PS. The Extend feat makes no difference in the total time you can have a level 1 spell on.

Except for the fact that they last 2 minutes? You mean spell point efficiency wise? It is still a lot less of a pain to cast buffs every 2 mins versus every minute.

Anyway this would be a great feat to add, and it's fine you can only take it once per spell casting class. I guess this might be hard depending on how they have coded the spell timers.

[Yaga_Nub]

That would not be powerful. In fact, you'd be nerfing yourself to waste feats like that.

A fighter15/wiz1 will have about 150 mana, so he can have Shield for 15 minutes. That's more total time than you'd ever really need before you rest again. Adding Practiced Spellcaster(wizard) will boost it to 75 min total, way more than you'd ever need. But it helps because casting Shield every 10 min is more convenient than every 2 min. However, adding another Practiced Spellcaster would get you up to 18 min each, and 135 min total. What a waste.

The only way stacking Practiced Spellcaster could maybe help is for something like Resist Energy, bringing your caster level up to 11 so you get 30 point resists. However, even that isn't much worth it for the cost in feats.


PS. The Extend feat makes no difference in the total time you can have a level 1 spell on.

From the online srd: Extend - Benefit -An extended spell lasts twice as long as normal.

It does because my 15th level wiz and/or sorc casts a 15 minute shield without extend. It goes off caster level. Now if you are saying that the Practiced Caster feat does not up your caster level for purposes of duration, I would say that I think that's one reason that everyone wants it so I think it does.

Practiced Spellcaster (from Complete Divine): When determining caster level for one of your spellcasting classes, you can add a bonus of up to +4. The amount of the bonus depends on the number of nonspellcasting class levels you have; you can add +1 for each nonspellcasting class level up to the limit of +4.

So if I took the feat once with my 15 XXX/1 Wiz I could cast a 5 minute shield (10 min with extend). If I took it again, I could cast a 9 minute shield, and if I took it a third time, I could cast a 13 minute shield. Taking it a fourth time would only allow me to add two minutes so I would wait until 18 to take it again if I really wanted to.

Yes, you would gimp yourself but you could cast a 26 minute shield (with extend) if you wanted to because extend doubles the duration of a spell that is not permanent or instant.

[Angelus_dead]

Now if you are saying that the Practiced Caster feat does not up your caster level for purposes of duration, I would say that I think that's one reason that everyone wants it so I think it does.

Of course I didn't say that. Of course Practiced Spellcaster would give you more duration.

But getting more duration from level one spells is not powerful. Far from being overpowered like you said, it is underpowered.

[Invalid_86]

I'd love to see the feat in the game.

[zacherias]

Practiced spellcaster would be nice addition to ddo for those who want to play multiclass characters. I'd say multiclass spellcasters are at a disadvantage to their pure class counterparts. I hope Turbine will add this feat. I'd really like to have it for classic Elven fighter/wizard build.