Spell Focus: Conjuration

[Thanee]

Since the Augment Summoning feat has Spell Focus: Conjuration as a prerequisite (only god knows why it needs to be "balanced" with such a hefty cost), I wondered, what to do with that feat.

What spells are there (besides the Calling range of spells, where it is more or less pointless) that will actually make use of the DC boost?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Crothian]

Last summer we hada conjurer in our group who found a good amount of spells in the conjuring school that had DCs from other sources like Quint Wizard, R&R, and other third party books.

 

[Agent.0.Fortune]

It rocks for Cleric summoners since inflict spells are conjuring.

 

[jgsugden]

There are a few for wizards and sorcerers, but clerics and druids find very few conjuration spells with saving throws.

I dealt with this via a house rule: Spell Focus can grant one of three advantages (selected when the feat is takes):

1.) Increase the DC of spells of that school by 1,

2.) Increase the caster level of spells of that school by 1, or

3.) You may cast/prepare 1 additional spell (in that school) from a level that you may normally cast.

This change allows spell focus to be useful for schools that typically do not have saving throws attached to a majority of their spells (conjuration, divination, abjuration, etc ...)

 

[shilsen]

What spells are there (besides the Calling range of spells, where it is more or less pointless) that will actually make use of the DC boost?

Bye
Thanee

Some nice spells just from the PHB.

1st: Grease
2nd: Glitterdust, Web
3rd: Stinking Cloud
5th: Cloudkill, Wall of Stone
6th: Wall of Iron
7th: Plane Shift
8th: Incendiary Cloud, Trap the Soul

 

[Pielorinho]

Nice list, shilsen. I'll point out that several of these spells are fantastic. Glitterdust lets you blind several opponents at once, which is almost better than fireballing them -- a fireball doesn't take them out of the fight as surely as blinding them does. And web is wonderful for dividing and conquering, especially if you've cast Freedom of Movement on the party tank (who can then charge through the webs with impunity, fighting monsters one-on-one).

Grease? Tons of fun. Cast it on the cleric's holy symbol, the archer's bow, the wizard's favorite wand. Or cast it on the ground in front of you, and point and laugh as the bad guys tumble at your feet.

And Plane Shift is great. Undead creatures can always get an insta-tan on the positive material plane, and just about any bad guy can benefit from the plane of fire. Sure, you won't get their loot, and if they survive you've made yourself a real enemy; but when it works, oh, the satisfaction.

Ironically, druids, who receive the most benefit from augment summoning, receive very little benefit from SF: conjuration. As near as I can tell, the only spells they have that benefit from this feat are as follows:
-The various cure spells, when cast on undead. Not a tactic often used in my experience -- druids get the spells later than clerics and can't spontaneously cast them, and often rely on wands for their healing; wands are unaffected by the feat.
-Neutralize poison and delay poison when cast on a poison-using creature. Never seen it in play, but it'd be cool in a very specialized setting.
-Wall of stone when used to trap a victim. Again, never seen it in play, but it could be nice -- although for the cost, there are much better ways of trapping people (wall of thorns, for example)
-Fire Seeds and Storm of Vengeance, for the less-important effects of each spell.
-Word of Recall, when used to recall an item in someone else's possession. Not that common an occurrence .

Any I missed? Druids have plenty of conjuration magic, but few of their conjuration spells have saves; if they take this feat, it's almost exclusively for the huge benefits they reap from augment summoning.

Daniel

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'm playing a 3rd level Conjurer these days, and making incredibly good use out of Grease and Glitterdust.

 

[shilsen]

I'm playing a 3rd level Conjurer these days, and making incredibly good use out of Grease and Glitterdust.

Those are two of my favorite Sor/Wiz spells, with a lot of useful application, as Pielorinho pointed out above. Wait till you get to use the Fog-type spells, which are some of the more underused spells in the game. Solid Fog is brilliant for tactical usage. Esp. if you have a couple of pals to sling fireballs and the like into the fog

 

[Thanee]

Thank you!

Now these are mostly Sor/Wiz spells, is there anything useful for a druid as well (the obvious class choice for Augment Summoning, I suppose)?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Wait till you get to use the Fog-type spells, which are some of the more underused spells in the game.

Hehe, I used Solid Fog once as a DM to seperate the party from the rest during an ambush. The funniest part was when the party wizard mentioned AFTER the party had moved out of the darn foggy slowness, he just remembered, that he had a Dimension Door spell prepared!

Bye
Thanee