Not sure if this belongs in advice or not, I chose general discussion since it involves a 3rd party publisher's feat. Anyways, my DM gave me permission to take this feat if I wished to do so and I just wanted to see others opinions on it.
The feat is Improved Arcane Bond.
I'm liking what I'm seeing quite a bit and I'm currently a 5th level wizard and have my 7th level feat already planned, so this would be picked up at 9th level, at the soonest.
So what do you think? Any good?
Looks good to me, for the price of a feat you're getting a boost to penetrating SR, an extra spell, and a boost to saves. Not likely you'll find a single feat that provides that much. for the price of 1. The level 5 bonus isn't all that great but if you're taking it at 9th, it doesn't matter so much.
Are you kidding me? You should be glomping your GM right now.
Scaling SR by 11th level (at an unheard of level), An extra "Get Out of Jail Free" spell at 9th, a scaling "Cloak of Resistance" effect and +2 Spell Pen by 7th (slow, but still great considering you're a Wizard), and +2 to Concentration checks for casting defensively or while grappled, all of which stacks?
That has got to be the most overpowered feat (that is, behind Leadership).
That's a cool and solid feat. Two things I thought of though.
1. The 7th level ability is probably meant to stack with more then an just Spell Penetration, but as written it doesn't.
2. 7th level again. For mist of a characters adventuring career, most seem to have Cloaks the off the same bonus type: Resistance. Overlap isn't the best.
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The updated version of this feat, as well as others such as Awakened Arcane Bond can be found in the New Paths Compendium from Kobold Press
You can find out more here: New Paths Compendium
It's definitely worth it. As Darksol said, though, it's also overpowered compared to other feats. Especially the 7th-level ability is stronger than most feats*, while the 11th-level ability is worth a feat all by itself, and the combined 5th-and-9th-level abilities would probably also be worth it as a single feat.
All together, this single feat grants you abilities worth somewhere between 3 and 4 other feats, which is a bit over the top.
* The 7th-level ability not only grants the same bonus as an existing feat (Spell Penetration) that many spellcasters already select, it also stacks with that feat, and it even goes further and grants you a free scaling cloak of resistance.
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Regarding the Improved Arcane Bond feat - it was clearly designed as the analog to Improved Familiar. I agree it IS a powerful feat, but I don't think it's overpowered. It's intended to make having an arcane bond more appealing (since many seem to feel having an arcane bond is more of a liability than a benefit). And, since it is sort of the counterpart to Improved Familiar, which allows a wizard to get something like a quasit (with its various cool spell-like abilities, additional action(s) each round for its master, simply because it is a separate creature at the master's disposal ... etc), I'd say this feat is powerful, no argument there, but still balanced.
And, don't forget the various abilities come over the course of MANY levels ... and even helps to reduce the 'dreaded dependence on multiple magic item problem' to boot! Also, keep in mind that, unlike most other feats, a PC with Improved Arcane Bond only gets the benefits of the feat when in contact with his arcane bond ...
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It's pretty good. Breaking it down level by level:
5th The wizard may add his INT modifier as a bonus to his CMD vs. attempts to disarm or sunder his bonded object. Bond object grants +2 bonus on concentration checks made to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability when casting on the defensive or while grappled. This bonus stacks with the Combat Casting feat.
If you've invested this much in a bonded object you really don't want bad stuff happening to it. The bonus to defensive casting is useful; combined with combat casting you might get a high enough bonus that the check becomes a no-risk. Not worth a feat in itself yet.
7th Bond object grants a +2 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome a creature’s spell resistance.This bonus stacks with the Spell Penetration feat. Bond object imparts magic protection to the wizard in the form of a +1 resistance bonus on all saving throws.This bonus increases by +1 for every 3 additional arcane caster levels, to a maximum of +5 at 19th level.
Of course the bonus stacks with Spell Penetration; it's an untyped bonus. It's also just as strong as SP so this makes alone makes it a decent feat, if it did nothing else. And since it's a feat bonus, it'd work with Spell Perfection.
The Resistance bonus is pretty nice to get for free, but it doesn't scale all that fast. Cloak of Resistance is pretty cheap to craft and Resistance is a pretty common bonus. But for a basically free bonus, it's nothing to complain about.
9th The wizard may cast one additional spell per day that he has in his spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared. If the Wizard specializes in an arcane school, this second spell must come from that school. This additional spell otherwise follows all the rules of the standard arcane bond ability.
This on its own is worth a feat.
11th Bond object grants spell resistance, as the spell of the same name, to the wizard equal to 12 + arcane caster level.
Spell resistance doesn't interfere with spells you cast on yourself, and wizards don't often use divine buff spells. It'll grant you an additional 20-60% chance to be unaffected by spells and SLAs used against you by CR-appropriate enemies, and weaker minions have a really hard time affecting you. This ability is probably worth 1-2 feats on its own.
I admit that I didn't consider the comparison between this feat and Improved Familiar, which I should have, and which certainly makes a difference in terms of relative power :)
However, I don't feel like Improved Familiar is a must-have feat for wizards with familiars, while I don't think there's any other feat I'd rather have for a wizard with arcane bond than this one.
Part of the reason is that I feel it's more powerful for the PC to be directly improved, than for the PC's companion/familiar/etc to be improved. That said, I will also admit to having little experience with the Improved Familiar feat, as I've rarely seen it used (even in 3.5, where all wizards had familiars). Although thinking back, that might be because all my wizards have been Good-aligned; imps and quasits are definitely very strong contenders for being worth a feat!
As for the feat only having effect while the wizard is in contact with his arcane bond, a wizard would already be in deep trouble if he lost that item, so that would likely be the least of his problems in that situation :)
Hm. Having said all that, I'm going to amend my earlier statement to this feat still being a very powerful feat, but not as much so as I initially thought, and perhaps not overpowered after all (although I'm still leaning that way, mainly due to the permanent SR).
Edit: Consider that drow, who already have a weaker form of SR, must be 13th level and take three other feats before they can take the Noble Spell Resistance feat, which does little other than grant a similar level of SR as this feat grants.. Granted, that series of feats are fairly underpowered :)
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Faerie dragons and Lyrakien are Good and also some of the best Improved Familiars. That said, I think this feat is more powerful than IF, and also OP, because:
- It does everything Spell Penetration does
- Gives you good Spell resistance (IMO worth more than a feat)
- Half of what Combat Casting does
- A spontaneous spell of your choice. Worth a feat.
- Resistance bonus comparable to the Protection domain power. Compare to Iron Will etc; definitely worth at least a feat.
- Significantly harder to take away your bonded object; worth at least half a feat.
All in all that's about 6 feats together for the price of 1.
Design Manager
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Improved familiar allows you to break action economy, that is worth much more than you allare giving it credit for. Beyond that a scaling resistance bonus is not even close to worth a feat because craft wondrous item exists. And spell resistance is often considered a draw back rather than a boon. And no one takes the feat that grants a spell slot. And while a familiar may be easier to take away (which is debatable) an arcane bond that is taken away is much MUCH more painful.
I have to agree with this. Losing an Arcane Bond item sucks bad for the caster, and the extra action economy of the Improved Familiar can be huge. An imp on your shoulder drawing and firing wands can be a big deal.
Awesome. Thanks everyone! Since I got the ok from the DM, I guess come 9th I'll be picking this beauty up then.
When I stop to think about something that's overpowered, I ask myself: "Would I be hurting myself at my intended role if I passed on this feat?"
An example of a feat that I would call Overpowered is Power Attack. You basically can't play a martial character without Power Attack; its too much of a damage boost to ignore.
But Improved Arcane Bond? Its nifty. I'd probably take it if I felt like I needed the abilities. But as it stands, I can live without it. I can't live without Power Attack.
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Improved familiar allows you to break action economy, that is worth much more than you allare giving it credit for. Beyond that a scaling resistance bonus is not even close to worth a feat because craft wondrous item exists. And spell resistance is often considered a draw back rather than a boon. And no one takes the feat that grants a spell slot. And while a familiar may be easier to take away (which is debatable) an arcane bond that is taken away is much MUCH more painful.I have to agree with this. Losing an Arcane Bond item sucks bad for the caster, and the extra action economy of the Improved Familiar can be huge. An imp on your shoulder drawing and firing wands can be a big deal.
I think it's much easier to lose a familiar than an arcane bond. If you take a ring for example, that's not a target for Disarm, hard to Steal, and if you take an Adamantium one, also hard to Sunder. It has the added benefit of letting you enchant a ring slot without a feat.
Meanwhile, as soon as your familiar starts casting spells, it becomes a target, and most familiars are still quite fragile. They have AC in the 15-25 range and half your hit points; one or two hits from a level-appropriate monster kills it.
If a monster wanted to improve its action economy relative to the party, a nice opening move might be to kill all the really squishy party members that contribute to the PCs' action economy: the familiars. Isn't that what players would do to an NPC as well?
Don't get me wrong, I like familiars more than arcane bonds. But I prefer familiars as advisors and scouts, rather than as combatants.
I also think that the action economy argument tends to be used "in a vacuum", where NPCs don't react to the familiar.
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Can we apply an action economy argument to the bonded object? Yes! The spontaneous spell it lets you cast is basically one free scroll every day, of exactly the right spell, at your full caster level. You basically "earn" 12.5*((level+1)/2)*level gp per day (the cost of a self-crafted scroll). And the action economy is better than a scroll, because you don't have to spend an action retrieving the "scroll".
Compare this to the level*200gp you pay every time your familiar gets killed because it made itself a valuable target in combat.
My conclusion: Improved Familiar is good, but not so infinitely good that we don't need to seriously consider the alternative as well. And the Improved Arcane Bond, worth about 6 feats, is a strong argument to skip the familiar.
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Ok, let's pause for a moment. Most improved familiars can fly, many have some defensive spell like abilities, like invisibility or the like, and will benefit from the wizard's defensive buffs, keeping the familiar safe from most enemies isn't difficult at all. Beyond that, have you seen the difference between what happens if a familiar is killed vs. what happens if a bonded object is destroyed (or even just disarmed). That matters.
1) By level 7, many monsters can also fly or at least attack flying familiars.
2) If your familiar starts casting spells from a wand or suchlike, it's invisibility won't be constantly active.
3) In PF, familiars don't automatically share the spells the wizard casts on himself. Your Mage Armor doesn't also affect your familiar.
4) It's worse if the bonded object is lost, but that's probably harder to achieve. Sundering at range is pretty rare, and anything that can sunder it in melee can probably outright kill you as well, making the sundering a bit of a moot point.
Yes and no. Tell me, what would you target if you were a swordsman, the little fluffy looking thing flying 20 feet off the ground by the guy at the very back of the group or the guy who just turned into a giant dragon at the front of the group, just a couple feet away from you?
If the fluffy thing starts doing useful stuff in combat, it becomes a target. If YOU are fighting a wizard and his familiar is using a wand, don't you also try to shoot it down?
If shooting it down isn't a priority, why not? Is the familiar not powerful enough to care about?
Something tells me you don't play a god style wizard.
I've done that. It works better in theory than in practice. In reality monsters don't do what YOU think is reasonable, but what the GM thinks is reasonable, and that can be pretty bad for you.