Dragon Magic presented draconic Lineage feats, which let you convert spell slots into various attacks/abilities that varied in power by the slot spent. Complete Mage gave us Reserve Feats, which gave you an infinite-use spell-like ability as long as you had the ability to cast an appropriate spell, and said ability varied in power by the spell unspent. I can't seem to decide which would be better; on one hand, Draconic Lineage feats let you have a particular type of spell at any level without taking up space on your spell list, but requires Draconic Heritage as a prerequisite. On the other hand, Reserve feat's abilities are unlimited use, but would require you to have a decent stock of the appropriate spell type on your list, which might make you easier to counter. Which should I choose?
[RPG] Draconic Lineage feats vs Reserve Feats
dnd-3.5efeatsspells
Related Solutions
It's a shame it's too late to make class suggestions as this character's ripe for factotum (Du 14-20). More levels of wizard would really be a boon, too. She's already a wizard, so she's a conjuration specialist who took the alternative class feature abrupt jaunt (PH2 70), right? And since you don't care about her being especially effective, taking Mnk1 and beating up a sparring dummy of the master (AE 137) (30,000 gp; 40 lbs.) to get that 10 ft. of movement required for to use skirmish is kind of a thing. Anyway.
Obscure Feats
- The uncategorized feat Hardened Criminal (City of Stormreach 95) grants the creature immunity to attempts to Intimidate it and the ability to take 10 on 1 skill picked when the feat's picked. Note: This feat sprang to mind immediately when you mentioned your character's focus on the Escape Artist skill.
- The fighter, general, and Chult and wild dwarf regional feat Disentangler (Rac 162) grants the creature a +2 bonus to Escape Artist skill checks and a +2 bonus to opposed grapple checks.
- The general feat Daredevil Athlete (CS 76) as an immediate action 3/day grants the creature a +5 competence bonus to a single Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Ride, Swim, or Tumble check. I assume the intent is the next one, though. As a competence bonus, it'll stack with the circumstance bonus from masterwork tools but not the competence bonus that often comes from magic items, which is sad.
The aberrant feat Mourning Mutate (Dragon #359 110) as one of its benefits grants the creature a +3 racial bonus to Escape Artist skill checks from being "unusually flexible." It's 1st-level only and can make the creature look scary, awesome, or scary awesome at the DM's discretion. As it counts as the feat Aberration Blood (LoM 178) (which could instead grant the creature +4 racial bonus to Escape Artist skill checks, but the creature then has "slimy skin"--ew), it grants access to...
- The aberrant feat Inhuman Vision (LoM 180) grants the creature darkvision 5 ft. per aberrant feat and a +1 bonus to Spot skill checks per aberrant feat.
- The aberrant feat Scavenging Gullet (LoM 181) grants the creature a +4 racial bonus versus ingested poisons and diseases. More importantly, it grants the creature the ability to "gain nourishment from eating any organic material, despite its freshness or source." For a sensate, this is gold.
- The fighter and general feat Master of Mockery (Dragon #333 88) grants the creature the ability to make a Perform (comedy) skill check as a standard action. The check's target makes a Will saving throw (DC = the Perform (comedy) skill check's result). If the target fails, it's enraged, gaining a +2 bonus to attack rolls versus the creature, taking a -2 penalty to Armor Class, and attaking the creature "whenever able." Talk to the DM about the effect's duration.
- The tactical feat Combat Panache (PH2 93-4) grants the creature use of 3 tactical maneuvers that are wildly subpar or difficult to use but a a lot of fun. Two maneuvers actually require the creature to be hit and take damage before they can be used, and the other requires the creature to hit and inflict damage before it can be used. Nonetheless, they're flashy and fun.
This is not a typo or mistake.
While WOTC may not have the best track record for publishing without errors and their length errata for all editions they've ever published exists, its not a safe assumption to presume that this was an error.
Neither the Ranger nor someone with the Initiate Feat should get one....
The Ranger doesn't receive spells until level 3 and the types of spells the Ranger gets are generally used as utility spells. They buff the party, the ranger, or trigger against an enemy without a DC roll. Its not as important that a Ranger has a spell focus because their main way of dealing damage is not spells but their class features combined with a longbow.
As far as initiate's go, your getting 2 cantrips and only 1 spell. The character is at best a dabbler. If they already have a focus as part of their main class (or multiclass) than yes they could use it for their spells, but they are already experts at magic. A barbarian that takes a Initiate feat should be notably not as good at it as someone who is trained.
As you noted characters can simply multiclass instead to gain better casting. That is the whole point of multiclassing, getting access to full class features. The opportunity cost is that by multiclassing you delay your main class level up and deny yourself a capstone feature.
In summary:
1. No
2. Yes
Best Answer
In general, Reserve feats
You can hold down a Reserve feat forever and ever as long as you've got an appropriate spell memorized or spell slot open. This makes them great for backups, out-of-combat healing, blasting, and a myriad of other things that you might want to have around but don't really want to burn precious spell slots on. Reserve feats can be a great way to make a character feel more magical without having to optimize your numbers or carry around enough scrolls to found your own library.
A note: Reserve feats don't eat up the spell you need to have memorized in order to use them, which means that you can set that spell slot and forget about it for the rest of your career. Unless something starts ripping into you with negative levels or mental ability score damage, your Reserve feat will always be active and ready to rumble.