Mass Feat - Your Thoughts

[CKFunkymoped]

Now i dont know if this is doable but i thought i would just throw it out there and see what people think. i am in a good raid guild and spend most night doing just that. my idea is a feat or enhancment for casters to be able to cast things like freedom of movement,greater heroism etc to everyone around you. this would not be a cheaper way of doing this sp wise ( but if was enhancement to improve there could be ) ,but would help alot with raiding no having to spend 5 mins buffing 11 other people. like i say thing post is not a rant or anything just wanted to hear what most people think of this idea, i know in feat heavy builds this may not be the best feat to take but at lvl 20 epics i have personally found most things dont take 20 mins and could possibly be switch with extend or something else.

Pumpnineteen

[dunklezhan]

cautiously in favour of this, but it would have to be very well balanced in terms of additional SP cost and what spells it can work with to avoid becoming OP at lower levels. If that could be got right, then yes. After Druids, cos I'm sick of all the pining for them that goes on around here... XD

[Aashrym]

I'm not sure about spells. I'd have to give that some thought.

Most buffing with spells doesn't really take that long compared to BARD SONGS. The ability to multi-select and blow multiple songs would make my day.

"Oh look at the bard singing. Should we save 1 for him to kill when he's done?"
"Nah, he's participating enough."

D'oh!!

[nerdychaz]

What if:

On your feat list, at level 1, there was a "Mass Cast" button (similar to the caster's dismiss charm ability). This would spend the same amount of SP on casting, but would cast on all targets within range.

Perhaps it could be tweaked to follow normal cooldown timers so that it cannot be abused during battle. (i.e. healing)

Overall, I approve this idea, but it would require a bit of thought to enact effectively.

[Rakian_Knight]

I would have to say no with this simply because most spell already have a Mass version later on and the usefulness of a mass version of a spell changes from spell to spell. How would you determine the extra sp cost for a "Mass" Metamagic feat because the spells that have mass versions now are differently spaced?

Examples:

Protection from Evil (level 1 spell) / Mass Protection from Evil (level 3 spell)
Deathward (level 4 spell) / Mass Deathward (level 8 spell)
Spell Resistance (level 5 spell) / Mass Spell Resistance level 7 spell)
Protection from Elements (level 5 spell) / Mass Protection from Elements (level 7 spell)

If you go by Protection from Evil the cost of "Mass" would only be 10 sp however, if you look at deathward it is double the cost with a 20 sp difference. This the is the main reason I don't thing a single "mass" metamagic feat could work because the usefulness of a spell changes from being able to cast it only on one person at a time to casting it on everyone at once.

This is just going over buffs so only imagine if you could use it on attack spells to *shivers*.

Just my thoughts

~Rakian_Knight

[CKFunkymoped]

This is just going over buffs so only imagine if you could use it on attack spells to *shivers*.
~Rakian_Knight

oh yes i did mean only buffs mass finger of death was not what i was thinking of but now you mention it :P

thanks all for your reply some good points for me and things i never thought of

[fuzzy1guy]

A resist all spell would be nice too. (fire, cold, sonic, electirc, acid) with one cast.

That costs the exact same as if you'd cast them all individually.

[Bogenbroom]

I've made a similar suggestion in the past and one good point that someone made was that the ability to mass buff quickly could have significant impact on combat... especially against debuffing creatures.

In that vein, I'd be inclined to restrict the use of and such "Mass" meta-magic or whatever to 2 places. 1) Quest entrance (an area already marked, as it is used to restrict hireling summons) and 2) at a shrine, but only until an effect that removed a casters ability to mem spells occurs. Again, also already a marked area.