Master of the Dead does not affect Death Aura

[Alkusoittow]

First of all, thank you for changing Master of the Dead feat to include Death Aura.

That said, I just wanted to report it currently does not raise the caster level of Death Aura. Current description:

Your Chill Touch, Death Aura, and Negative Energy Burst spells gain +10 to their maximum caster level

Also of note, the description of Death Aura itself is inaccurate (it gives 2 to 8 + (Caster Level/2) every 3 seconds, not 2 to 8 + (Caster Level) every 2 seconds).

Anyway, using the formula that is actually used to compute damage:
[2 to 8 + (Caster Level/2)]*({Spell Power + 100}/100)

One can take a sample of ticks and find the highest and lowest numbers. This is easy to find because there should be exactly 7 repeating non-crit numbers. I did this multiple times for multiple setups, different caster levels, and spell powers.

Here are my findings:
Take 2 equations and 2 unknowns:
MinDmg = [2 + (Caster Level/2)]*({Spell Power + 100}/100)
MaxDmg = [8 + (Caster Level/2)]*({Spell Power + 100}/100)

MinDmg and MaxDmg were taken from the game as the lowest and highest ticks found from the list of 7 consecutive numbers corresponding to rolls of 2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

Solve for Caster Level, and Spell Power.

If I do this without the Master of the Dead feat, I get exactly what I would expect for my caster level (the number of wizard levels I have in a multiclass build mixed with fighter and rogue, or the 20 in the case of a pure wizard. I did both).

Then, if I do the same test with the Master of the Dead feat, I get exactly the same result as before. According to the feat description, I should have been able to solve for the Caster Level as +10 to whatever it was before, so this feat is not actually performing its duty.

This is true for the case when I had a caster level of 12, and when I had a caster level of 20, so it's not like the spell itself is blocking anything higher than 20. The feat is simply not functioning.

On another, slightly less important note, when I solve for Spell Power, I get close to what I actually have, but not exactly. It's always a little less, by an integer value, so I think some form of negative spell power is not being taken into account either.

Thanks for looking into this!

[Alkusoittow]

Just an FYI: Still no effect from Master of the Dead after last night's update. Just finished testing again.

[volkovich]

Just an FYI: Still no effect from Master of the Dead after last night's update. Just finished testing again.

Am I missing something? Master of the Dead states that it increases the "maximum caster level by 10". Since Death Aura has no maximum caster level restraint that sort of makes it useless to be included in this feat. If the feat increase the actual caster level by 10 then it would do something with Death Aura. Unfortunately, I conclude that it is working as intended unless the Master feats are suppose to increase both the maximum and actual caster levels.

[LordTigerDawn]

Am I missing something? Master of the Dead states that it increases the "maximum caster level by 10". Since Death Aura has no maximum caster level restraint that sort of makes it useless to be included in this feat. If the feat increase the actual caster level by 10 then it would do something with Death Aura. Unfortunately, I conclude that it is working as intended unless the Master feats are suppose to increase both the maximum and actual caster levels.

Death aura does cap at lvl 20 for duration only. So this should be a longer duration if the caster has appropriate caster lvls for the spells. There will be no higher healed amounts, as there is not cap on those.

The feat does make a big difference on neg energy burst though.

[volkovich]

Are all spells capped at level 20 even if there is nothing in the description as part of game mechanics?

[EllisDee37]

Are all spells capped at level 20 even if there is nothing in the description as part of game mechanics?

No.

Any time an in-game description is actually accurate, consider that an outlier.

[JOTMON]

All PM's have ever got from Dev's is the uncomfortable silence and a broken Epic Feat.

[Eth]

Death aura does cap at lvl 20 for duration only. So this should be a longer duration if the caster has appropriate caster lvls for the spells. There will be no higher healed amounts, as there is not cap on those.

The feat does make a big difference on neg energy burst though.

Volkovich is not wrong though. The OP doesn't make really clear if he took that into account that as per description it only raises max level, not actual caster level (unless I understand him wrong, the max CL he tested was 20?).
A more useful test would be something like 20 wizard in an arcane destiny with an arcane augmentation item.

Then the expected CL for Death Aura would be 20 without the feat and 27 with the feat.

[Wipey]

I wouldn't take the feat.
"Healing" is good enough in EE or LE quests without it, in LE raids you get one shotted anyway on a robe user.

[Kaboom2112]

Forgive the necro (pun intended) . . . was this ever fixed?

[Shoka]

Master of the Dead still does not affect Death Aura for damage or healing amounts.

It affects Negative Energy Burst as expected. At level 27 I went from the burst averaging about 850 damage (when no save was made) and about 700 healing, to about 1450 damage and 1200 healing.

[Malusny]

Unfortunately that hasn't been working for a long time now and I believe the people responsible for programing know about it for a long time too. Non of the Devs actually has been kind enough to explain why this hasn't been fixed for such a long time (over 2 years in my opinion).

Quite sad to be frank.

Cheers.