Caster Feats and Stacking?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:02 am

I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not... but I can't see the answer anywhere...

I am giving my mage feats in:
SF Evocation (eventually, Greater)
Spell Penetration (Greater)
Aegis of Rime
Aqua Mortis
Spirit of Flame

Do the bonuses provided by these feats stack when she casts spells like Fireball, Acid Rain etc?

Thanks!

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:12 pm

You will get full value for your casting feats; e.g. the bonus damage for elemental feats if you cast a spell utilizing the requisite element. Spell Focus and Spell Penetration will also "stack" with the elemental feats, although they affect different rolls (saves vs magic resistance vs damage).

I'd actually skip Spell Penetration if any of your characters have magic resistance, especially any tank characters. I'd take GSF Necromancy or Enchantment instead.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:59 am

Yup, they do stack, although the "Greater" version actually overrides the standard. It turns the +2 bonus in a +4 bonus.
Apart from that, your Fireball will be cast at +4 DC, you'd have a +4 on the check to penetrate SR and you would do +20% damage.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:49 am

Ah Excellent!
Thanks very much guys.

I did think this was the case.. given how much damage my fire and acid spells were doing, but I just wanted to check.
While I had reservations, I've decided I quite like third edition rules, they balance the difficulty level of the game very nicely.

Though, I'm also just enjoying the feeling of it being like a whole new game because I lost my play disc for a couple of years without having finished it, and I now have it installed with the IWD2 NPC Project.

Much fun!
Anyway, thanks again

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:52 pm

If you use the druid shapeshift mod (recommended, because it deals with some of the bugs), the half-dragon forms also benefit from the elemental feats. In fact, the best form (elemental half-dragon, achieved at lvl 21, does all four types of elemental damage on every hit) can benefit from every elemental feat on every hit.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:16 pm

Aerich wrote:If you use the druid shapeshift mod (recommended, because it deals with some of the bugs), the half-dragon forms also benefit from the elemental feats. In fact, the best form (elemental half-dragon, achieved at lvl 21, does all four types of elemental damage on every hit) can benefit from every elemental feat on every hit.

I'll definitely bear that in mind, because I really like druids in the IWD games.. I'd say they rival wizards in their effectiveness. I also noticed that there is at least one bug with druids... namely that if you select additional shapeshifting feats they don't seem to appear.. nor does the dire bear shape change ability...

So, if this mod deals with issues like that, I'd certainly be interested.

However.. I think I'll save it for a subsequent installation because the NPC mod I'm currently using is huge, and still in Beta, no less.
Just to be safe, I don't want to use any other mods with it just yet.

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 8:56 am

The shapeshifting mod is very unbalanced unless you're playing HoF mode.

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:03 pm

True enough.

DW, all the shapes are different in the shapeshift mod (even the feat-based shapes, I believe). They are rather more powerful than the standard ones, allowing the better ones to be of significant use in HoF mode, as Klorox said.