Complete Arcane's SLA Feats Expanded [3.5]

[Ziegander]

Just an idea I had, not sure if there's actually enough spells to work with to make chains for all of these worthwhile, but let me know what you think of the idea anyway.

Communicator
You possess a magical understanding of the essence of language.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 1st level caster:
1/day—arcane mark, comprehend languages, message.

Communicator Extended Chain

Initiate Communicator
Your magical gift for communications exceeds expectations.
Prerequisites: Communicator, Character Level 3rd
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 3rd level caster:
3/day—arcane mark, comprehend languages, message; 1/day—charm person, magic mouth, ventriloquism. The save DCs are Charisma based.

Journeyman Communicator
You have been gifted with a rare talent for magical communication.
Prerequisites: Initiate Communicator, Character Level 6th
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 6th level caster:
At will—arcane mark, comprehend languages, message; 3/day—charm person, magic mouth, ventriloquism; 1/day—sepia snake sigil, suggestion, tongues. The save DCs are Charisma based.

Advanced Communicator
You have begun to develop your communications talents in earnest.
Prerequisites: Journeyman Communicator, Character Level 9th
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 9th level caster:
At will—arcane mark, charm person, comprehend languages, magic mouth, message, ventriloquism; 3/day—sepia snake sigil, suggestion, tongues; 1/day—charm monster, lesser geas, sending. The save DCs are Charisma based.

Expert Communicator
You are making great strides in your abilities to communicate with magic.
Prerequisites: Advanced Communicator, Character Level 12th
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 12th level caster:
At will—arcane mark, charm person, comprehend languages, magic mouth, message, sepia snake sigil, suggestion, tongues, ventriloquism; 2/day—charm monster, lesser geas, sending; 1/day—contact other plane, geas/quest, mass suggestion. The save DCs are Charisma based.

Master Communicator
You are among the most powerful of magical communicators known.
Prerequisites: Expert Communicator, Character Level 15th
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 15th level caster:
At will—arcane mark, charm person, comprehend languages, magic mouth, message, sepia snake sigil, suggestion, tongues, ventriloquism; 3/day—charm monster, lesser geas, sending; 2/day—contact other plane, geas/quest, mass suggestion; 1/day—demand, mind blank, project image. The save DCs are Charisma based.

Grandmaster Communicator
You are unrivaled in the field of magical communications.
Prerequisites: Master Communicator, Character Level 18th
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 18th level caster:
At will—arcane mark, charm monster, charm person, comprehend languages, lesser geas, magic mouth, message, sending, sepia snake sigil, suggestion, tongues, ventriloquism; 3/day—contact other plane, geas/quest, mass suggestion; 2/day—demand, mind blank, project image; 1/day—power word blind, power word kill, power word stun. The save DCs are Charisma based.


Insightful
You possess a magical understanding of the workings of arcane detection.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 1st level caster:
1/day—detect magic, detect secret doors, read magic.

Insightful Extended Chain

More to come...


Necropolis Born
You possess a magical understanding of the essence of mortal dread.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 1st level caster:
1/day—cause fear, ghost sound, touch of fatigue.

Necropolis Born Extended Chain

More to come...


Night Haunt
You possess a magical understanding of the workings of the unseen.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 1st level caster:
1/day—dancing lights, prestidigitation, unseen servant.

Night Haunt Extended Chain

More to come...


Soul of the North
You possess a magical understanding of the nature of cold.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 1st level caster:
1/day—chill touch, ray of frost, resistance.

Soul of the North Extended Chain

More to come...


Spell Hand
You possess a magical understanding of the manipulation of force.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like abilities as a 1st level caster:
1/day—floating disk, mage hand, open/close.

Spell Hand Extended Chain

More to come...

[Daverin]

All I can say is... dang. That is alot of potential power for anyone to invest in.

[Ziegander]

All I can say is... dang. That is alot of potential power for anyone to invest in.

Well, those 7 feats are all anyone gets aside from bonus feats. And these aren't on anyone's bonus feat list. I'm not denying that they offer a lot of power, but, looking at it, I'm not entirely sure they are even useful for anyone. If you want a whole chain of these feats you give up all of your feats to become sort of 1/2 or so of a Warlock. It can lend a character some versatility and freedom with their gear, but beyond that I don't know that it would be worth it.

[Noctis Vigil]

OK, from the perspective of a GM known to hand out feats as end-of-quest bonuses, these are awesome. Any hopes of other chains? Also, do those uses per day stack (IE: the first one gives one use per day, the second gives 3; do I get 3, or 4 total)?

[NeoSeraphi]

Taking Journeyman Communicator qualifies you for the Mindbender prestige class (Complete Arcane) so I would gladly make a fighter 6/mindbender 10/some other prestige 4 with my first 4 fighter feats used to establish my combat and all my character feats taking these. It would be a really cool character in my opinion, not exactly powerful but something different.

[Andion Isurand]

I would put in a skill rank requirement so people aren't getting these abilities at too low a level. Make the first feat give Spellcraft and Concentration as permanent class skills.... then require ranks of Spellcraft to make it so the feats are gained at appropriate levels.

[NeoSeraphi]

I would put in a skill rank requirement so people aren't getting these abilities at too low a level. Make the first feat give Spellcraft and Concentration as permanent class skills.... then require ranks of Spellcraft to make it so the feats are gained at appropriate levels.

Why would he do that? You can only take these feats at 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level. They aren't on any bonus feat list and you don't get more than 7 feats in your career.

[Ziegander]

Why would he do that? You can only take these feats at 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level. They aren't on any bonus feat list and you don't get more than 7 feats in your career.

A Human could take them one step earlier, but still, they don't get terribly useful until you invest in several of them. A 1st level Human could, for example, have both Communicator and Initiate Communicator or a 15th level Human could have all the way up to Grandmaster Communicator, but I don't really see that as a problem.

@Noctis: The uses per day do not stack, so upon taking Initiate Communicator you have only 3 uses per day of arcane mark et al, not 4. If you're interested in the concept, I'll clean these up and work on more chains.

[The Dark Fiddler]

A Human could take them one step earlier, but still, they don't get terribly useful until you invest in several of them. A 1st level Human could, for example, have both Communicator and Initiate Communicator or a 15th level Human could have all the way up to Grandmaster Communicator, but I don't really see that as a problem.

@Noctis: The uses per day do not stack, so upon taking Initiate Communicator you have only 3 uses per day of arcane mark et al, not 4. If you're interested in the concept, I'll clean these up and work on more chains.

Flaws and human paragon could bump it up a few more, but it's STILL a rather large investment. And then the DM could still just say no. It's a little change, and I'm not entirely sure it's needed, but it might prevent some hard feelings down the line when somebody okays the feats but vetoes a level 1 character with Advanced Communicator. Worth it? Eh, your call.

Also, expressing interest in this concept being expanded further! I always found these feats interesting but lacking.

[Morph Bark]

Why would he do that? You can only take these feats at 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level. They aren't on any bonus feat list and you don't get more than 7 feats in your career.

Human with 2 flaws gets the final one at 9th level. Earlier with Human Paragon or Chameleon.

Even still at 18th level, at-will contact other plane, geas/quest and mass suggestion is huge. I advise making it go from 1/day -> 2/day -> 3/day -> at-will.

I recall there being feats or abilities for monsters that changed their SLA/day charges (either increasing them or lowering them for other benefits) that essentially counted at-will abilities as 5/day abilities.

[NeoSeraphi]

Human with 2 flaws gets the final one at 9th level. Earlier with Human Paragon or Chameleon.

Even still at 18th level, at-will contact other plane, geas/quest and mass suggestion is huge. I advise making it go from 1/day -> 2/day -> 3/day -> at-will.

I recall there being feats or abilities for monsters that changed their SLA/day charges (either increasing them or lowering them for other benefits) that essentially counted at-will abilities as 5/day abilities.

Shouldn't a 7 feat chain give huge return benefits?

[Morph Bark]

Shouldn't a 7 feat chain give huge return benefits?

Depending on the level you can get them at, yes, but not too huge.

The feats could be simply limited by putting a minimum character level requirement on each of them.

Hence why I suggest putting minimum character level requirements on the feats and making the progression on uses/day go from 1/day to 2/day to 3/day to at-will.

[Ziegander]

The feats could be simply limited by putting a minimum character level requirement on each of them.

Which I have just done, thank you Morph Bark. I don't care to balance feats based on the use or misuse of flaws, but a Human Paragon Chameleon with all the full 7 feat chain at 9th level is definitely not something I'm interested in making possible.

I've also cleaned up the Communicator feat chain and I'm preparing to look into creating other chains.

[Daverin]

I suppose I was looking at it from the potential of other chains with more generally applicable spells. Still, there a plenty of feats I would give up for other classes to get my hands on such powerful magic.

Its not broken by any means that I am aware of, but I do think it ups the power level of the characters some. Which probably isn't entirely a bad thing for many of the classes who would love something like this.

Overall, I really like it. So long as you are able to avoid anything outright broken, this definitely is cool. :smallsmile:

[Cieyrin]

@Noctis: The uses per day do not stack, so upon taking Initiate Communicator you have only 3 uses per day of arcane mark et al, not 4. If you're interested in the concept, I'll clean these up and work on more chains.

As far as I can tell, it doesn't actually say that anywhere in the feats. As far as the feats are concerned by RAW, you're getting a bunch of SLAs at a certain CL that are independent from one another. Throwing a disclaimer up to spell that out would probably work wonderfully.

Otherwise, I think this is quite interesting. Can't wait to see the new chains, maybe a PrC that grants the feat Chains at a more rapid pace so your feats are freed up, perhaps. :smallwink:

[Noctis Vigil]

I am much looking forward to the Insightful chain and the Soul of the North chain. :smallbiggrin:

[SamBurke]

This is a cool idea for making casters... I'll be watching.