Not Used: The new....familiar...

After waitin for the updated version of this doodad dagger with zeal and anticipation i am......

Unimpressed...


i know your workin hard ad and i/we(wizards) appreciate you efforts...but when compared to the old dagger...

The new one just doesnt add up to the old one...

I can understand its hard to code the *extra spells* into it...as when you rest the powers go away and thus so would the bonus spells and thats ok.

But the mage focus feats it gives just dont cut the mustard as they say. By our level most wizzys have taken these feats and then its just a +6 dagger(or more) with just one dmg effect. On the old dagger we got infinite fireballs...either 5 or 10 i cant remember which. That dont seem like much...but for me it was a reason for taking the dagger as it gave me a kinda higher punch over the standard wizzy phaser beam we get.

I find myself still using the spear instead...at my level its +10 with all kinds of feats i dont normally get and it really burns out the dmg because of it.

What i would like to see is a more utilitarian type of dagger when juiced up....say...

(mind you im level 27...im goin off what it used to do)

1.infinite fireballs(10)
2.A spell(1/day)
3.A spell(1/day)
4.A spell(2/day)

or something similar...im not lookin to pwn stuff...but wizzys tend to have items that are useful and utilitarian to them...a melee weapon is the last thing on thier mind when they got all those spells at thier fingertips and thus so would a weapon/staff/item in thier posession have similar magics at its command.

I do like the fact its a dagger though...looks cool floatin off to the side and stuff. It just needs spells in it and not the focus feats it gets. maybe the fireball inf per day and a few other useful spells a wizzy could use at a few times per day and such. Maybe Crideas can chime in here and help me explain my thinking

At any rate ..this isnt a hate/flame rant...its just a concern of a master level 40 mage voicing his concerns so dont hang me...youd just have to wait in line anyway. (calling #2,256)

On a positive note...i can now beat skeletons back into their graves with a holdable spellbook now

I agree with Kef 100% here.

My main love for the old version was the bonus spell slots, but the new version still leaves a LOT to be desired.

In its current incarnation, its just not worth using....

If it's tweaked, I'd like to see the spell focuses stay in myself. Spell focus evoction isn't a given on every caster, so having the dagger is nice for the necromancy and illusionist types.

I tried casting the weapon spells on the dagger when powered up, and it didn't seem to take effect. Not sure if it was just that time, or if the weapon spells aren't keyed to work on the familiar, but if they're not, I think they should be allowed to function on it.

MannyJabrielle wrote:I tried casting the weapon spells on the dagger when powered up, and it didn't seem to take effect. Not sure if it was just that time, or if the weapon spells aren't keyed to work on the familiar, but if they're not, I think they should be allowed to function on it.

Are you saying that spells such as Shocking Weapon can't be applied to the Familiar? That's too bad....

MannyJabrielle wrote:I tried casting the weapon spells on the dagger when powered up, and it didn't seem to take effect. Not sure if it was just that time, or if the weapon spells aren't keyed to work on the familiar, but if they're not, I think they should be allowed to function on it.

Looking into this. Those spells should work properly on the dagger.

I reworked the dagger to bring it more in line with the other "leveling" weapons (such as Impaler). Infinite 10d6 fireballs won't return to it, since I think such a property is incredibly powerful. It's always been intended more as an aid to a wizard, which is why I went with the spellcasting-oriented bonus feats (that may otherwise be passed up in favor of other feats) instead of things like Cleave. The bonus spell slots never really did work properly, since in Aenea held items are unequipped upon sleeping (which removes and empties said slots).

The spells do work, but I found not when the dagger is in the left hand slot (acidic/shock/frost weapon spells can't target offhand weapons at all, and flame weapon targets it, but doesn't take effect).

It also removes the buffs when the dagger's buffed in the main hand, and then swapped out to be in the offhand.