Advanced Arcane Feats
It’s Day Two of Advanced Arcana Week, a week devoted to the release of the latest in the line of our favorite spell tomes. Advanced Arcana Volume V, like the previous editions, is bound together by a theme, and features several groups of spells bound together by a mechanical identity. This edition of Advanced Arcana features automatic spells, which cast themselves—often when you least expect it! Once cast, interactive spells allow you to manipulate them in order to get more magical bang for your buck, while patron spells have different effects based on the will of a deity or similar otherworldly force beyond the caster’s direct control. Finally, there are also unsafe spells, which some of you will recognize from earlier editions of Obscure Arcana here on the website. With all these great new spell types, I figured you might want some new feats to make you better at casting them. If these five somehow aren’t enough for you, you can find even more feats in one of Advanced Arcana Volume V’s fine appendices, which go above and beyond the call of duty to elevate Advanced Arcana Volume V far beyond the normal collection of spells.
Delayed Spell [Metamagic]
You can prepare a spell to have its effects begin shortly after the spell is cast.
Benefit: When a delayed spell is cast, you may choose to delay its effects for any number of rounds up to 1/2 your caster level. The spell has no effect until that time has passed, at which point it has its normal effect. You make all decisions about the spell (including its target or the location of its area of effect, as well as any other choices the spell may present, such as what kind of creature to summon with a summon monster spell) at the time that the spell is cast, and cannot change them during this delay. When the delay ends, the spell’s effects kick in automatically, even if you are unconscious or dead. While the spell is delayed, it cannot be countered, but it can be dispelled, even if it normally has a duration of instantaneous and would not typically be able to be dispelled. If the delayed spell is dispelled before the delay ends, it never has any effect. A delayed spell has no visual elements, and cannot typically be detected except with detect magic and similar effects, until the delay ends and the spell has its normal effect. If the spell has a duration of 1 round/level or longer, any time that the spell is delayed counts against the spell’s duration. A delayed spell takes up a spell slot one level higher than normal.
Deny Spell
You can stop a spell from going awry
Benefit: Whenever you cast a spell, you can attempt a concentration check (DC 10 + twice the spell’s level) in order to stop casting the spell. You may make this check after making any checks that must be made as the spell is cast, such as those required by capricious spells and some unsafe spells. If the check is successful, the spell is not expended, and remains available to cast again. If the spell was an automatic spell, its trigger condition remains the same, and it will automatically cast itself again the next time that the trigger condition is met.
Interactive Penetration
You can make the interactive portion of a spell affect your opponents more easily.
Prerequisites: Spell Penetration, ability to cast any interactive spell.
Benefit: The interactive abilities of interactive spells that you cast are not subject to spell resistance, even if the spell’s main effect is subject to spell resistance.
Quickened Interaction
You can interact with a spell at instant speed.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast any interactive spell.
Benefit: You may choose to activate the interactive ability of an interactive spell you cast as a free action; if you do, the spell immediately ends.
Steal Interaction
You can interact with the spells of others.
Prerequisite: Quickened Interaction.
Benefit: You may activate the interactive ability of an interactive spell cast by another character. If the spell’s caster is not opposed to you activating the interactive ability of his spell, this does not require any more effort than activating the interactive ability of a spell you cast yourself. If the spell’s caster is opposed to you activating the interactive ability of his spell, however, you must succeed on a caster level check (DC 6 + the spell’s caster level) in order to do so. Either way, you cannot use the Quickened Interaction feat in conjunction with this ability. Using this ability does not prevent the spell’s caster from using the interactive ability of the spell, nor are you considered to be in control of the spell for any other purposes (such as the ability to dismiss it, etc.).