Thought Magic [magic system, base classes, & feats]

[TheGeometer]

I check all threads with new posts and forget about things I posted unless I am reminded that I wasn't done yet.

Okay, well, don't reply to this until you have suggestions on the homebrew, then

...also, I hope I don't sound ungrateful. I really appreciate anyone willing to wade through all that text just to help me out. In case I haven't said it already, thanks so much!

[Nanshork]

No worries, everything is fine.

On to the Philosopher!

Well, the capstone ability ends up being unlimited WBL.  That could be an issue.

[TheGeometer]

Well, the capstone ability ends up being unlimited WBL.  That could be an issue.

Fixed. Specified that you can't sell it. I guess you could rules-lawyer it and find other ways to make a profit from the stones, but honestly, if your DM is that willing to let your 20th-level character get away with stuff, you're gonna break the game anyway. It's only a matter of time.

[Nanshork]

Well, the capstone ability ends up being unlimited WBL.  That could be an issue.

Fixed. Specified that you can't sell it. I guess you could rules-lawyer it and find other ways to make a profit from the stones, but honestly, if your DM is that willing to let your 20th-level character get away with stuff, you're gonna break the game anyway. It's only a matter of time.

I wasn't even thinking about selling it.  I was thinking about how the basic features of the Philospher's Stone involve turning cheap metals into valuable ones.

[TheGeometer]

I wasn't even thinking about selling it.  I was thinking about how the basic features of the Philospher's Stone involve turning cheap metals into valuable ones.

Oh yeah, duh, I forgot the whole point is the stone turns lead into gold. Uh, alright, I changed it so now only 1 stone can be created per month. 1000 lbs of gold is, what, 100,000 gp? Getting 20% of your WBL once per month doesn't seem super broken, I think.

[Nanshork]

Once a month works and is in line with a Pathfinder equivalent capstone (not that you care about balancing against pathfinder. ).

[TheGeometer]

Groovy. On to the Strategist!

[Nanshork]

Strategist!

Siege Engines.  Huh.

There's nothing wrong with the class, but it just feels meh to me.  I have no explanation off-hand.

[TheGeometer]

Siege Engines.  Huh.

There's nothing wrong with the class, but it just feels meh to me.  I have no explanation off-hand.

You know, I feel the same way. I think it's a holdover from when the Strategist ideas were way more powerful than the Creative and Philosopher. I guess I thought that the Strategist shouldn't get anything too powerful while its already so far ahead. But I've since nerfed a lot of the Strategist's main arsenal and given the other 2 classes plenty to work with, and besides, I agree. Why siege engines? It seems much more fitting for a more warfare-oriented prestige class than a base class, especially since literally none of the Strategist's ideas reference siege engines. Int to saves is boring filler, and of all the class features, only Tried and True had anything to do with idea magic at all. It was indeed all very meh. It was generic and forgettable.

So... (don't be mad)... I overhauled it. I can kick the habit I swear. I can stop overhauling any time I want!

But, uh, yeah, basically all the class features are different now. Mind taking another look?

(click to show/hide)

Table: The Strategist				HD: d6
Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Base Attack Bonus +0 +1 +2 +3 +3 +4 +5 +6/+1 +6/+1 +7/+2 +8/+3 +9/+4 +9/+4 +10/+5 +11/+6/+1 +12/+7/+2 +12/+7/+2 +13/+8/+3 +14/+9/+4 +15/+10/+5	Fort Save +2 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5 +5 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10 +10 +11 +11 +12	Ref Save +0 +0 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +6	Will Save +2 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5 +5 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10 +10 +11 +11 +12	Special                                  Tried and True Battle-Ready Know Thine Enemy Selective Idea 1/day — Tried and True Idea of Opportunity 1/day Superior Tactics — Element of Surprise Tried and True Selective Idea 2/day — Up My Sleeve Idea of Opportunity 2/day Tried and True — Saw it Coming Battlefield Control Selective Idea (unlimited)	Hand Size 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7	IP / Idea Limit 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5	Deck Composition   0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 5 4 — — — — — 4 5 — — — — — 4 6 — — — — — 3 6 2 — — — — 3 6 3 — — — — 3 6 4 — — — — 2 5 5 2 — — — 2 5 5 3 — — — 2 5 5 4 — — — 1 4 5 5 2 — — 1 4 5 5 3 — — 1 4 5 5 4 — — 0 3 4 5 5 2 — 0 3 4 5 5 3 — 0 3 4 5 5 4 — 0 2 3 4 5 5 2 0 2 3 4 5 5 3 0 2 3 4 5 5 4 0 2 3 4 5 5 5 0 2 3 4 5 5 6	Ideas Known   0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 6 3 — — — — — 6 4 — — — — — 6 5 — — — — — 6 5 2 — — — — 6 6 2 — — — — 6 6 3 — — — — 6 6 3 2 — — — 6 6 4 2 — — — 6 6 4 3 — — — 6 6 5 3 2 — — 6 6 5 4 2 — — 6 6 6 4 3 — — 6 6 6 5 3 2 — 6 6 6 5 4 2 — 6 6 6 6 4 3 — 6 6 6 6 5 3 2 6 6 6 6 5 4 2 6 6 6 6 6 4 3 6 6 6 6 6 5 3 6 6 6 6 6 5 4

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Strategists are proficient with simple weapons, with the longsword, warhammer, longbow, and net, and with light and medium armor and shields.

Ideas: The Strategist begins play knowing 6 0th-level ideas and 3 1st-level ideas. At every subsequent level, the Strategist learns one or more new ideas as given in the Ideas Known section of the table above, and can use between 0 and 2 of each to create the deck composition that corresponds to her level (also given above). She may choose lower-level ideas whenever she would be allowed higher-level ones, both when learning new ideas known and when building her deck. At 4th level and every 4 levels afterward, she may exchange one idea known for another idea of her choice of that level or lower. The DC for her ideas is 10 + the idea's level + her Intelligence modifier.

Tried and True: While the Strategist generally likes to adapt to the circumstances of each battle, some techniques work too well not to keep up her sleeves for every occasion. At 1st level and every 5 levels afterward, she selects a non-unique idea on her list of ideas known (which may be one that she already chose for this feature). Once per day per time chosen, she may treat an idea in her hand of equal or greater level as that idea.

Battle-Ready: The 2nd-level Strategist understands the importance of attacking first. Once per day when she rolls initiative, she can roll twice and take the better of the two rolls. She may look at the result of the first roll before deciding whether to use this ability.

Know Thine Enemy: At 3rd level, the Strategist gains a +2 bonus to Knowledge checks made to identify enemy monsters and Spellcraft checks made to identify enemy spells and spell-like effects.

Selective Idea: At level 4, the Strategist learns how to wield her dangerous area-of-effect ideas against her enemies without putting her allies in harm's way. Once per day, she can express an idea that affects an area as a Selective Idea, which does not harm the Strategist's allies. Allies in the effect are not impeded in any way; they do not take damage, they do not need to save against harmful effects, and their movement and visibility are unaffected.  The Strategist gains an additional use per day of this ability at level 12, and at level 20, she may make any of her ideas selective without limit.

Idea of Opportunity: The 7th-level Strategist is cunning enough to take advantage of an enemy's misstep and unleash a barrage of thought magic when they are least prepared for it. Once per day, as an attack of opportunity, she can express a harmful idea from her hand, as long as the provoking enemy is one of the targets of the idea or within its area of effect. She may pay any amount of IP to augment it (not to exceed her IP per idea limit, even if the expressed idea is normally unconstrained by this limit, like Mindcannon). On subsequent turns, she must lose IP equal to the amount that she spent. Until she has paid for the entire IP cost of her attack of opportunity, she may not express any other ideas, unless those ideas have no effect other than to generate more IP (such as Insight).

At level 15, her number of uses of this ability per day increases to 2. Even if she has the Combat Reflexes feat, she cannot use this ability multiple times between two of her consecutive turns - she must pay back the IP spent on the first idea before she can express another one, whether or not the second idea is an Idea of Opportunity.

Superior Tactics: By level 8, the Strategist is a master tactician, choreographing her allies' positions to devastating effect. All allies within 60 feet of the Strategist (including the Strategist herself) gain an additional +2 to melee attack rolls when flanking (for a total of +4). In addition, enemies within this range gain no bonuses from flanking (though flanked allies may still be vulnerable to Sneak Attacks).

Element of Surprise: The 10th-level Strategist knows how best to seize the advantage of striking first. Whenever she is able to act in the surprise round, she may take any actions that would be available to her in a normal round (normally, a character acting in a surprise round is restricted to a single move or standard action).

Up My Sleeve: At level 14, the Strategist learns to keep an idea hidden away and wait for the perfect moment. She may remove one idea from her deck. At any time during a period of intense thinking, she may add that idea to her hand. This is only usable once during that period of thought, after which the idea is discarded like the rest of the cards she plays or leaves in her hand at the end of her turn. She may choose a new idea to hide away immediately after forming her deck composition for the day, or after a period of intense thinking ends. She cannot have more than one idea hidden away at any given time.

Saw it Coming: By level 18, the Strategist knows every trick in the book; nothing surprises her anymore. She always acts during the surprise round, rolling initiative as normal, even if only the enemy side has the surprise advantage. This does not necessarily guarantee that she will be able to accomplish anything; for instance, if someone sneaks up on her while she is sleeping, if she wins initiative before the attack and does not manage to awaken, she will spend that round continuing to sleep. However, if the enemy wins initiative and attacks her, then assuming she survives, she would wake up and be able to counterattack within that surprise round.

Battlefield Control: The level-19 Strategist reaches the pinnacle of battlefield control by literally controlling the battlefield. Once per 3 days, she can warp all her surroundings within a 1000-foot radius centered within Medium range. Within an urban environment, this supernatural effect acts as the spell Animate City, while in nature, it acts as Shadow Landscape (though without being able to designate shadow guardians). If the latter effect takes place, roll immediately to change the weather. Either way, the duration of the effect is 10 minutes per class level. These changes to the surrounding area do not affect the Strategist or her allies, as though the land itself were on her side. Entangling plants, rampaging buildings, and harsh storms seem to deliberately avoid allied creatures and focus their wrath on enemies. Unforgiving slopes and quicksand, likewise, do not impose any movement penalties on the Strategist or her allies. The DC of this ability, where applicable, is 20 + the Strategist's Intelligence modifier.

(click to show/hide)

Table: The Strategist				HD: d6
Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Base Attack Bonus +0 +1 +2 +3 +3 +4 +5 +6/+1 +6/+1 +7/+2 +8/+3 +9/+4 +9/+4 +10/+5 +11/+6/+1 +12/+7/+2 +12/+7/+2 +13/+8/+3 +14/+9/+4 +15/+10/+5	Fort Save +2 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5 +5 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10 +10 +11 +11 +12	Ref Save +0 +0 +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +6	Will Save +2 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5 +5 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10 +10 +11 +11 +12	Special                                  Tried and True Battle Clarity Know Thine Enemy Element of Surprise — Tried and True Siege Engine Experience Cunning Tenacity — Terrain Advantage Tried and True Siege Engine Mastery — Mental Temerity Tactical Advantage Tried and True — Saw it Coming Ward Battlefield Siegebreaker	Hand Size 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7	IP / Idea Limit 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5	Deck Composition   0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 5 4 — — — — — 4 5 — — — — — 4 6 — — — — — 3 6 2 — — — — 3 6 3 — — — — 3 6 4 — — — — 2 5 5 2 — — — 2 5 5 3 — — — 2 5 5 4 — — — 1 4 5 5 2 — — 1 4 5 5 3 — — 1 4 5 5 4 — — 0 3 4 5 5 2 — 0 3 4 5 5 3 — 0 3 4 5 5 4 — 0 2 3 4 5 5 2 0 2 3 4 5 5 3 0 2 3 4 5 5 4 0 2 3 4 5 5 5 0 2 3 4 5 5 6	Ideas Known   0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 6 3 — — — — — 6 4 — — — — — 6 5 — — — — — 6 5 2 — — — — 6 6 2 — — — — 6 6 3 — — — — 6 6 3 2 — — — 6 6 4 2 — — — 6 6 4 3 — — — 6 6 5 3 2 — — 6 6 5 4 2 — — 6 6 6 4 3 — — 6 6 6 5 3 2 — 6 6 6 5 4 2 — 6 6 6 6 4 3 — 6 6 6 6 5 3 2 6 6 6 6 5 4 2 6 6 6 6 6 4 3 6 6 6 6 6 5 3 6 6 6 6 6 5 4

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Strategists are proficient with simple weapons, with the longsword, warhammer, longbow, and net, and with light and medium armor and shields.

Ideas: The Strategist begins play knowing 6 0th-level ideas and 3 1st-level ideas. At every subsequent level, the Strategist learns one or more new ideas as given in the Ideas Known section of the table above, and can use between 0 and 2 of each to create the deck composition that corresponds to her level (also given above). She may choose lower-level ideas whenever she would be allowed higher-level ones, both when learning new ideas known and when building her deck. At 4th level and every 4 levels afterward, she may exchange one idea known for another idea of her choice of that level or lower. The DC for her ideas is 10 + the idea's level + her Intelligence modifier.

Tried and True: While the Strategist generally likes to adapt to the circumstances of each battle, some techniques work too well not to keep up her sleeves for every occasion. At 1st level and every 5 levels afterward, she selects a non-unique idea on her list of ideas known (which may be one that she already chose for this feature). Once per day per time chosen, she may treat an idea in her hand of equal or greater level as that idea.

Battle Clarity: The 2nd-level Strategist can use her wits to keep herself out of danger. She adds her Intelligence modifier or her class level, whichever is lower, to her Reflex saves.

Know Thine Enemy: At 3rd level, the Strategist gains a +2 bonus to Knowledge checks made to identify enemy monsters and Spellcraft checks made to identify enemy spells and spell-like effects.

Element of Surprise: The 4th-level Strategist knows how best to seize the advantage of striking first. Whenever she is able to act in the surprise round, she may take any actions that would be available to her in a normal round (normally, a character acting in a surprise round is restricted to a single move or standard action).

Siege Engine Experience: Siege Engines are a vital component of many armies, and so the Strategist familiarizes herself with them in order to better incorporate them into her battle plans. She gains Siege Engine Experience (described below) as a bonus feat at level 7, even if she does not meet the prerequisites. If she already has the feat, she can take any other feat for which she meets the prerequisites instead.

Cunning Tenacity: At level 8, the Strategist's understanding of battlefield dangers like poison and death effects helps her body physically withstand them better. She adds her Intelligence modifier or her class level, whichever is lower, to Fortitude saves.

Terrain Advantage: The 10th-level Strategist knows how to make the most out of whatever cover is available. She gains +2 to AC and Reflex saves while behind cover (for a total of +6 to AC and +4 to Reflex saves due to cover). The feat Precise Shot only negates 4 points of the AC bonus, not the remaining +2.

In addition, the Strategist is treated as having cover as long as there is a square adjacent to her in which she would normally be considered to have cover. Thus, for instance, a Strategist standing west of a 5-by-5-foot boulder would count as having cover from a far-off archer to the north, since she is within 5 feet of the space just south of the boulder from which the archer's shot is obstructed.

Siege Engine Mastery: At level 12, the Strategist gains Siege Engine Mastery (described below) as a bonus feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites. If she already has the feat, she may take any other feat for which she meets the prerequisites instead.

Mental Temerity: The 14th-level Strategist's intelligence provides her with resolve in the face of mental attacks. She adds her Intelligence modifier or her class level, whichever is lower, to Will saves.

Tactical Advantage: The 15th-level Strategist is a master tactician, choreographing her allies' movements to devastating effect. All allies within 60 feet of the Strategist (including the Strategist herself) gain an additional +2 to melee attack rolls when flanking (for a total of +4). In addition, allies within this range do not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving out of threatened spaces.

Saw it Coming: By level 18, the Strategist knows every trick in the book; nothing surprises her anymore. She always acts during the surprise round, rolling initiative as normal, even if only the enemy side has the surprise advantage. This does not necessarily guarantee that she will be able to accomplish anything; for instance, if someone sneaks up on her while she is sleeping, if she wins initiative before the attack and does not manage to awaken, she will spend that round continuing to sleep. However, if the enemy wins initiative and attacks her, then assuming she survives, she would wake up and be able to counterattack within that surprise round.

Ward Battlefield: The level-19 Strategist can instantly imagine magical defenses into being in order to hold their position. Once per day as a standard action, she may produce the effects of a Guards and Wards spell cast at her expresser level as a spell-like ability. However, this version of the spell is less strict when it comes to where the aspects of the spell can be placed. The fog, Web, Dancing Lights, Gust of Wind, Magic Mouth, Suggestion, and Stinking Cloud effects can be placed anywhere, not just in corridors, though no square can contain more than two of these effects in it. In addition, the confusion effect can be placed on any intersection, not necessarily indoors (though the paths must be clearly delineated, such as a fork in a road; a tree that can be passed either to the right or to the left is not a sufficiently universal intersection). The DC for any effect produced by this class feature is 16 + the Strategist's Intelligence modifier.

Siegebreaker: At level 20, the Strategist learns of a powerful technique capable of changing the tide of battles and singlehandedly breaking sieges. She may indicate a location within 1 mile to be affected by an extreme version of the Repulsion effect. Its area can be of any radius up to 10 miles, and rather than being indiscriminate, it only applies to creatures the Strategist indicates, as though setting the trigger for a Glyph of Warding. Any applicable creature already within the warded area must make a Will save (DC 19 + the Strategist's Intelligence modifier) or be forced to leave the area as quickly as it is able without expending limited resources (i.e., an army will run, but if it has siege weapons within the area, it will not abandon them, even though recovering them would slow it down). Creatures outside the warded area must succeed on the Will save or be unable to enter for 24 hours.

This effect lasts 1 day per class level, with each day requiring a new saving throw for creatures wishing to enter the area and creatures already within it. The Strategist may end it at any time as a free action. If the Strategist dies or moves more than 1 mile from the warded area, the effect ends automatically. The Strategist must wait at least 1 week after the end of one use of this effect to use it again.

[Nanshork]

Overhauling is a perfectly normal response to reviewing, of course I'm not mad.   

Strategist Part Two!

I like Selective Idea but 1/day > 2/day > Unlimited/day is a weird progression.  Maybe 1/day > Int Mod/Day > Unlimited?

I'm seeing a lot of limited per day stuff which I personally am not a fan of but the class as a whole looks a lot more interesting now.

[TheGeometer]

I changed it from per-day to per-intense-thought (aka per combat, generally). Especially with how short combat gets toward level 20, 2/encounter and unlimited aren't too far apart anyway. And this way there's no need to ration the ability for later encounters. It also indirectly scales with Int mod, like your suggestion Nanshork, since the number of intense thoughts per day depends on your primary modifier.

[Nanshork]

That actually looks way better than my proposal.  You've got a double space after the word use in that class feature now.

On to Feats!

Final thought is odd. 

[TheGeometer]

That actually looks way better than my proposal.  You've got a double space after the word use in that class feature now.

Fixed now.

Final thought is odd.

How so?

[Nanshork]

Final thought is odd.

How so?

It's only really useful if it can prevent the damage or heal you but there's only one healing idea so those aren't likely scenarios.

[TheGeometer]

It's only really useful if it can prevent the damage or heal you but there's only one healing idea so those aren't likely scenarios.

I disagree. An extra action is always useful, especially if your party's getting their asses kicked so much that you've just been knocked out. I wasn't even intending it for use in preventing damage or healing (though that's a decent use of it for sure).

[Nanshork]

This is D&D. In my experience if you're going below 0 hp it's because you're dead and not knocked out. 

[TheGeometer]

Weird. I know the window between -10 and 0 HP is kinda small, but somehow I end up in it a lot.

Anyway, I need to brainstorm ways to tweak it. I'd also like to come up with new [General] feats to replace the siege engine stuff. But in the meantime, we can move on to the idea list.

[Nanshork]

Maybe you're lucky or your DMs fudge rolls for than mine.

Or maybe I'm unlucky. 

[Garryl]

A quick estimate of the chance of falling into the diehard range is to divide 10 by the average damage dealt by enemies (maximum 100%, obviously). A slightly more accurate way would be to take a weighted average of 10 divided by each possible damage result enemies can deal. For example, a Dire Wolf (1d8+10, with a 1/20 chance to deal double with a crit), has about a 67% chance of dropping a character into the range of 0 to -9 with a sufficiently long series of attacks starting at a random initial hp value.

Example Anydice code:

Code: [Select]

DAMAGE: {1d8+10:19,2d8+20:1}
output [lowest of 1000/(1dDAMAGE) and 100] named "diehard"

Some damage values for reference:

(click to show/hide)

Orc with falchion (2d4+4/18-20): 87%
Dire Wolf (1d8+10): 67%
Ankheg (2d6+7 and 1d4): 62%
Huge Fire Elemental (2d8+4 and 2d8): 51%
CL10 Fireball with 40% chance to make the save (10d6): 43%
Frost Worm (2d8+12 and 1d8): 40%
Power Attacking (-9) Fighter with 18 Str, a +2 Greatsword, and Weapon Specialization (2d6+28/19-20): 26%
Warblade with 30 Str, a +1 Greatsword with no other damage-relevant properties, and Strike of Perfect Clarity (2d6+16+100/19-20): 7%

The odds can improve or worsen depending on how your DM plays different monsters with multiple attacks when they drop a character, whether they move on to other combatants immediately, or continue to direct attacks at an unconscious character until they're dead (not an issue for Final Thoughts, as its immediate action activation would interrupt any subsequent attacks, so more of a regular Diehard thing). Also, multiple attacks with different amounts of damage are weird to calculate, although I suspect they'd overall overall improve your chances of landing in the Diehard range; smaller attacks have lower chances of skipping it, and would whittle down your hp more slowly leading to the high damage attacks risking KOing you when you have more hp remaining and thus barely nudging you into the Diehard range.

Of course, that's also ignoring the many other ways of losing hp or dying that make falling into the Diehard range irrelevant, such as death effects, being disabled by spells when it happens, etc.


Since I've already written so much about the topic, here are some thoughts about Final Thought. I'm not a huge fan of these types of feats in general. Getting dropped isn't a common occurrence in my experience, and falling in the Diehard range when that does happen only comes up maybe 60% of the time when it does happen. Using this sort of feat can help win the fight, but it does reduce your odds of surviving the fight sometimes; a creature that drops you unconscious might move on to your allies that still threaten it, but if you're still up and fighting, it's all but guaranteed to stick around to finish you off. Final Thought bucks the trend of Diehard effects somewhat by being more of a Death Throes ability instead, getting one last effect off before you slip into an unthreatening unconsciousness. This lets you disrupt your enemies as you drop, hopefully preventing them from finishing you off while you're so vulnerable, and unlike Diehard, you're not still up and fighting so you're not an overt threat that still needs to be neutralized.

For practical purposes, I'd expect Final Thought to be used more as a last-ditch, reactive life saver than an offensive Death Throes, since it's only usable when you're at death's door rather than when you've irrevocably passed beyond it. By mid levels (the earliest you can even take the feat with its thinker level 8 prerequisite), you have a few ideas that are good for this sort of thing, such as Being and Nothingness, Mindarmor, On Life, Reposition, and even Stinking Cloud, in addition to less effective lower-level variants such as Graceful Dance, Healing Touch, and Take Positions. If you build for it, having redrawn your hand at the end of your previous turn, odds are pretty good that you'll have at least one idea along those lines, probably 85% or so.

A get out of death free card is great to have. Unfortunately, I think it's not reliable enough for what you're paying. You can hit the Diehard range with a relevant defensive idea in hand maybe 50% of the time, which is a little less reliable than I'd like, and it gets worse at higher levels as damage numbers keep rising. It's a more reliable and more powerful version of the Rogue's Defensive Roll in terms of not dying, at least, but that's not saying all that much.

The new version lets it be used regardless of how low below 0 you go, rather than only if you fall into the Diehard range, so it has full Death Throes capability. You probably still want it more for saving your life, rather than getting a bit of vengeance at the end of it, but at least you get a consolation prize if you can't do that by improving the odds for the rest of your party even if you still kick the bucket and die.

As I mentioned, getting dropped isn't a very common occurrence for PCs in my experience (very common for NPCs, though). I'd have trouble justifying a feat on mitigating something that happens to my character maybe a couple of times per campaign when I could instead pick up more proactive abilities that would keep defeat from being a concern in the first place. It's a really good feat for NPCs, though, as it's basically a 50% chance of getting an extra idea off during a fight. I also don't have much experience with higher-level rocket tag combats, where this sort of reactive ability might be all the more necessary to survive, although fights like that would have even greater odds of bypassing the Diehard range and just invalidating the feat entirely, so I doubt it.

[TheGeometer]

Okay, couldn't think of how to get Final Thought to be worth it, so I scrapped it. Siege Weapon Experience and Siege Weapon Mastery have also been scrapped, because they have nothing to do with this magic system anymore.

New feats added: Flexible Learner [General], Afterthought, Narrow Focus, and Practiced Thinker.