Talk:Snap Caster (5e Feat)

Balance

Let me critique the power level of this feat. I see three main problems.

1. The feat doesn't presently specify cantrips can't benefit. A sorcerer, warlock, or even evocation-school wizard would be buffed to have more damage output per round than virtually anyone else who isn't using a once-between-rests feature. A 5th level warlock could easily be throwing out four 1d10+4 attacks every round—more damage on average than fireball. Anyone with blade ward could have constant resistance to weapon damage, with the versatility to drop it to cast a spell whenever they wanted. There are numerous exploits which can make this feat way more powerful than it is seemingly intended to be, and that's only using cantrips, let alone real spells.
2. "Any spell as a reaction" technically includes spells which have a cast time of 1 minute or longer. I'm not sure how intentional that was.
3. This is incredibly powerful even if used as seemingly intended. For a full caster, this is basically getting an extra action every turn you use it. Even if you were to only limit this to only magic missile cast as a first-level spell, that's still 3d4+3 (average 13.5) damage you can throw out in an addition to your regular turn's damage—at any level. Even if you could only cast magic missile as a reaction a few times per day, that alone is borderline too strong for a feat, let alone when you get into better spells or clever combinations.

I don't see how this can be balanced unless it only applied to low level spells and has limited between-rest uses, but even then it's difficult for me imagine a scenario where it is not too strong for a fear nor too narrow/weak to be interesting. - Guy 15:21, 29 June 2019 (MDT)