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I have notice a severe problem with the new Arcane Magic Specialist and Divine Magic Specialist in the new playtest. The problem is with the first feat of each of these specialties, why would anyone ever choose them. The first, Arcane Magic Specialist offers Detect Magic, Mage Hand, and Light once per day. Why in the world would you not offer these spells at will? Is light such a game breaking ability (considering you can buy a couple gold piece lantern that already does the exact same thing and does it better I might add, 30' vs only 20' for the light spell)? As for detect magic, it should be a innate ability for wizards rather than a spell anyway. As far as Mage Hand goes is it really so overpowered that you can only use it for 1 of the 1440 minutes in a day? Now if you were a Wizard most of these spells are already available to you and some if not all are already available at will, so that makes this feat completely useless other than its just a placeholder to get to the later feats in this specialty. If you are not a wizard how could this possibly make you want to take this feat over say literally any other feat.

Now this becomes even more severe with Divine Magic Specialist. The three spells offered by it once per day are on nearly every clerics spell list as at will. So there is almost no reason to take it as a cleric and even worse I couldn't fathom why any other character would bother with taking this to cast one of these spells once per day.

The point is that there is literally no reason that the three spells offered by both of these specialties should not be at will for any class that chooses them.

I"m also in agreement. Though I would expand and say the 3rd and 6th level feats aren't all that great either for Divine Specialists.

Also, is it just me or is taking a feat to grab a daily spell a little wierd in the first place? I like the concept of adding Specialties for wizards and clerics, and I like the concept of having magic specialities that can be used by non-spellcasting classes... but these are a flop. Most martial people will take other much more useful specialties and most spellcasters will ignore these as well. Well perhaps the wizard will grab maximize and quicken spell, but any cleric who wants to be a better healer (only reason for grabbing a daily cure spell I can think of) would be much better off taking the healer speciality... which absolutely rocks since potions can be stockpiled or sold

I am pretty sure that no fighter ever will pick up this feat just to gain a familiar which is pretty useless for them other than perhaps being able to scout 100' ahead which when given the negative of losing two feats for this ability I think I'll just let another party member handle it. However, if these spells were at will I may consider taking this feat as a fighter or especially a rogue since mage hand can be used to pick locks from afar and having a resistance spell or a tiny healing spell for my fighter could be useful or having mage hand to grap potions from my bag or ready another weapon. The point is there is really no gamebreaking reason why you should not be able to use all three of these spells at will if you grab this feat otherwise this feat will languish in limbo and never be used.

Nov 2, 2012 -- 7:11AM, Ogrenomnom wrote:

I think the feats were a bit underwhelming myself.  One of the design decision for the change, I believe, is to not make a feat that is better than the High Elf racial trait.  While this created an inferior version of a previous feat, it does keep it in line with not over-shadowing a racial.

However, I think, given the nature of what was involved, it could be equivalent, and work well with a racial.  The high elf racial should be:

Elven Cantrip:  All high elves have magic in their veins, and as such have a level 0 arcane spell slot as if they were a wizard.  They can use this slot to cast any level 0 spell they know, and if they use this slot in such a manner, it is at-will.  A character that does not know magic at level 1, can choose one level 0 spell to know, but is free to learn others through play.

Instead of how cantrip currently is. 

Then, with a minor change to the Arcane Initiate feat (which would be better named Arcane Dabbler), you change its description as well:

Arcane Dabbler 

You know a few secrets of magic, enough to preform minor arcane effects. 
Prerequisite: Intelligence of 11 or higher, Knowlege (Arcana)
Benefit:  A character with this feat gains a level 0 spell slot.  The character also learns the spells mage hand and light, and can prepare these spells as if they were at will spells.

I would agree that detect magic needs to become a wizard feature or a feature of the Arcana skill. 

I do agree with you and I like your solution but I disagreement with the premise of your argument. Your argument is that the feat should not overshadow the elven racial ability which I believe is a faulty assumption. The elven racial ability stands on its own for people who wish to gain magic from their race or tie that somehow into their charcter's background. It also lets you pick ANY 0 level spell and use it, far surpassing the feat since it could theoretically allow you to pick one of the combat spells. Imagine a fighter that can (when disarmed or without a weapon) still zap you with a shocking grasp. This is far better than the three listed cantrips that allow you to do such minor things that they will rarely have any severe consequences in game.

I am not trying to be argumentative (as I cannot put inflection in text) I am just pointing out how I see your premise from a secondary point of view.

Then I apologize, I misunderstood your topic sentence