Feat/variant for friendlier blasters

[Prime32]

Smart Aim [General]
Benefit: When using a special attack which affects one or more targets, you may choose to delay its effects on some of these targets until the start of your next turn. If, at that time, those targets would no longer be valid (eg. they're out of range) they are unaffected. You may delay these effects even for a target you cannot see, as long as you are able to communicate a warning to them in some manner (such as a shout or gesture).
For example, if his teammates are engaged in melee with a group of orcs, a wizard could cast fireball while delaying its effects on his allies. The fireball affects the orcs immediately, but his teammates can avoid its effects if they move out of the blast radius within 1 round.


Don't tell me that giving this out for free couldn't help with certain types of problem player. Oh, and you can also take enemies by surprise by smart aiming Silent spells or something. Or go around telling people they're already dead.

[dman11235]

I think this should be a MM feat actually.  Good idea though.  A strong +0 right now, maybe a weak +1, so if you make it stronger, it can be a +1, or introduce some penalty and it can be a solid +0?

[Prime32]

I think this should be a MM feat actually.  Good idea though.  A strong +0 right now, maybe a weak +1, so if you make it stronger, it can be a +1, or introduce some penalty and it can be a solid +0?

"No I won't Smart Aim, that'll hurt my damage!"

[dman11235]

That's my fear with making it a +1, but a +0 shouldn't affect that.  That's why I said you'd need a bonus to make it a +1, but I'm not sure what you could do.

[Prime32]

Doesn't help people with SLAs, breath weapons etc. though. And if it's +0 you have to remove "metamagic sorcerer spells take longer to cast", though plenty of people do that anyway.

[dman11235]

Hmm, true.  My issue with it not being a MM feat is the fact that this is pretty much what a MM feat WOULD do.  And remember: Shape Spell exists.  I mean, as presented, I really like this idea.  It just seems like the sort of thing a MM feat would do.

[SneeR]

This would need to be sort of high cost, though. Delay Spell is high (IIRC) cost, and this is better than that. This essentially lets you spread an instantaneous spell's effects over multiple rounds.

Cast fireball on the guy at the end of the hall, delay all of it but the square he is in. he takes damage. He moves to another spot still within the effect. Let the rest of the fireball go off and deal two spell's damage for one.

If you want to help stupid blasters, just let them omit any square in their spell effects just like Archmage for a feat.

[Prime32]

Cast fireball on the guy at the end of the hall, delay all of it but the square he is in. he takes damage. He moves to another spot still within the effect. Let the rest of the fireball go off and deal two spell's damage for one.

No, the delay applies to creatures, not squares.

[RobbyPants]

Hmm, true.  My issue with it not being a MM feat is the fact that this is pretty much what a MM feat WOULD do.  And remember: Shape Spell exists.  I mean, as presented, I really like this idea.  It just seems like the sort of thing a MM feat would do.

Well, if it were a MM feat, I'd say it should totally be +0. You're already paying a feat and you're not getting that much in return. I'm also fine with making it be just a normal feat so you can apply it to SLAs and other effects. Again, it costs a feat; you only get so many of those.