[Feat] Study is Power....

[Leather_Book_Wizard]

Powerful Study[General]
By spending longer studying your spells, your magic becomes more powerful
Prerequisites: Int 13+, Iron Will, Reserves of Strength, wizard level 10+, Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks
Benefit: By spending longer studying your spellbook, you may increase the effective caster level of a spell. For every additional hour you spend studying your spellbook, increase the caster level of a selected spell by +1. If interrupted, you must make a Concentration check (DC 15+ Spells level) or start over. You can increase the caster level of up to three spells, but for every additional spell increased, the study takes twice as long.

I would really like to hear your opinions on this. Is it overpowered, underpowered, useless? Any feedback is appreciated.

[Macrovore]

What is Reserves of Strength?

[AoiRorentsu]

Well, I guess my only issue is that, in the standard dungeoncrawl scenario, time isn't necessarily of the essence. The way the feat reads to me, some sense of urgency would be necessary to make using the feat costly in any way.

Other than that, I really like the premise, and it doesn't seem particularly overpowered to me. Where is reserves of strength?

[Fizban]

It's in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. It allows you to up the caster level of a spell when you cast it, while breaking normal damage caps (13d6 fireballs for example) in return for being (stunned? paralyzed?) pretty much helpless for the next few rounds. It has no limit to it's uses per day however, and if you're undead or otherwise immune to the disabling effect all you take is a few d6's of damage.

[Icewalker]

I like the idea, but AoiRorentsu is right, in most scenarios the party will not be pressed for time, allowing this to easily be applied almost any time. It makes it come out slightly overpowered. Maybe to increase multiple spells at a time you have to take the feat multiple times? I think that'd even it out. an additional level to a spell is quite a big bonus, speically with the spells like Scorching Ray, which gets an additional 4d6 fire damage every four levels.

[Leather_Book_Wizard]

I like the idea, but AoiRorentsu is right, in most scenarios the party will not be pressed for time, allowing this to easily be applied almost any time. It makes it come out slightly overpowered. Maybe to increase multiple spells at a time you have to take the feat multiple times? I think that'd even it out. an additional level to a spell is quite a big bonus, speically with the spells like Scorching Ray, which gets an additional 4d6 fire damage every four levels.

I was going to make it so that every day spent studying took away so many hitpoints, but decided against it. Do you think that might balance it?

[Icewalker]

like took away hit points for the rest of the day? That might work, sacrifice health for spell power. Maybe it lets you sacrifice one spell to spend more time powering up another. Like you sacrifice a spell of level that is greater than or equal to 1/2 of the level of the spell you are powering up. For example, to power up a 5th level spell, you would have to sacrifice the casting of a 3rd, 4th, or 5th level spell (or higher) to increase the level. for a fireball you would have to sacrifice a 2nd or 3rd level spell, or higher. Then make it so you can only do this 3 times per study, and maybe still make it take more time, but that might make it underpowered.

[Maglor_Grubb]

I don't think the studying time is worth nothing and I think it's pretty balanced. Which party would want to wait 3 extra hours on the wizard who just sits there reading his book? Most of my non-wizard characters wouldn't.