It amuses me that both of the casters in the group have this particular feat. Frankly, I think it's one of the least useful in the game.
See Combat Casting gives a +4 bonus on Concentration checks to cast spells defensively. And that's all. It does not help you on Concentration checks made when hit for damage while in combat, or when distracted by any other problems, or whatever. Just that one roll.
Now, how often does a spellcaster get hit while casting a spell?
Well, if the casting time is 1 round or greater, they might. Combat Casting doesn't help. If the opponent has a readied action, they might. Combat Casting doesn't help. Or, finally, from an attack of opportunity. Combat Casting doesn't help directly here, either, except insofar as you can cast defensively, avoiding the AoO.
So, Combat Casting is useless, except for those cases where the caster wishes to avoid an attack of opportunity. However, there is another mechanism for doing the same thing: the five foot step. Take one of those and, presto(!), no attack of opportunity.
Frankly, the only time a charcter should need to cast defensively is when using touch-range spells, and those really aren't the weapon of choice of the clever wizard.
Besides, the difficulty of the check for casting defensively is 15 + spell level. A 1st level Wizard with a Con of 13 (probably quite a few; Con is probably the 3rd most useful stat for Wizards) and maxed Concentration will have a check bonus of +5. So, he succeeds 55% of the time with 0-level spells, and 50% of the time with 1st level spells. By 5th level, the same wizard will have Concentration +9, succeeding 75% of the time with 0-level spells, and 60% of the time with his most powerful spells. And by 18th level, Concentration will be at +21, automatically passing for all spells of 7th level of lower, and 90% of the time on even 9th level spells.
And, you know what else is possible? Add the Skill Focus(concentration) feat to get a +3 bonus to all Concentration checks, regardless of cause. Which would help with the damage from a readied attack, or an attack during a full-round casting.
('course, a 1st level Human Wizard could have both, for a total +13 bonus on that casting defensively roll, succeeding on 90% for 1st level spells, or 95% for 0-level spells. But that's probably overkill.)
Archived comment by Mort:
ReplyDeleteSee, this is another point where I've gotten confused about the rules, the first one being bracers of armour actually giving an enhancement bonus and not just a straight armour bonus. I was almost certain that Combat Casting gave you a +4 to all concentration checks regarding spellcasting in any combat situation, obviously I was dead wrong. Ho hum, I guess I need to read the rules again...
Archived comment by me:
ReplyDeleteThe feat gives +4 to rolls to cast defensively, and to cast while grappled or pinned. It probably should give a +4 bonus to all rolls made in combat, as at the moment it's very limited.
Then again, Concentration is very rarely rolled outside of combat, so then the feat would probably be far too powerful.
Archived comment by Johannes:
ReplyDeleteThe reason I took Combat Casting is because I thought the feat does what the name implies, i.e. it helps you cast better in combat, i.e. increases your concentration checks in a fight in all situations. Since I played a cleric in one of Roger's games before (my very first DnD game ever if I remember quite correctly) and we handled it like that I thought it would be like that. I definitely know only the basics of DnD and don't have the money at the moment to buy a player's handbook so I can't read these things up, so I just ask those who generally know. In the case of combat casting, it was Roger and Andreas. Obviously they were misled by the name as well ;-(.