Re: Sculpt Spell Possible Broke-ness


pluther wrote:
> aramil_silvermane@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > I was going through some possible feat choices for a wizard character
> > who is going up to 3rd-level soon (And already has the sudden widen
> > spell feat) and I've stumbled across this little combo.
> >
> > Take a 1st-level 15ft-cone type spell (burning hands, colour spray
> > etc.).
> > Apply the Sculpt Spell feat to it (from Complete Arcane - can change
> > the area of any area-effect spell to a number of different shapes -
> > including 40ft cone - for a cost of +1 level)
> >
> > Memorise as a second level spell
> >
> > When casting, choose the 40ft cone-shape then apply the Sudden Widen
> > Spell feat to it, doubling the spell area.
> >
> > So we have a burning hands or colour spray affecting an 80ft cone area.
> > With Burning hands, at third level that would be 3d4 fire damage.
>
> I'm not familiar with Sudden Widen (where's it from?) but doesn't it
> have a level adjustment, too? Widen Spell adds +3 levels, so I imagine
> that "Sudden Widen" would have at least that, and probably have Widen
> as a pre-req. So we're looking at at least a fifth-level spell here,
> doing only 3d4 of damage, though in a very large area. So no, I don't
> think it's broken from that standpoint.
>
> Although if Sudden Widen has no LA, then I'd say *it* is seriously
> broken, unless there's other disadvantages to it. (Like, say, can only
> be used once/day or something).
>
> -Pat

Sudden Widen is from a number of sources (I think complete Arcane is
the most recent). There's no level adjustment but it only works
once/day.
So we have an effectively second-level spell, plus a once per day feat,
doing either 3d4 damage (or having colour spray effects - with no cap
on number of creatures affected according to 3.5 description of the
spell) over an 80ft cone area.

Blath

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