[3.5] Spellfire Sword - PrC Balancing and Spellfire Discussion

[Flay Crimsonwind]

So, I was innocently looking through Faerun material, referencing a feat I'd forgotten about (actually, I was looking for ways to turn this class into a fire-based similar power class without making it a divine caster, or really a caster at all) when I came across spellfire, which I'd never payed much attention to. All you reading, if you can, try and look up the abilities granted by this 1st-level-only feat.

Note my second name (hint:it means fire)

I evil-gasmed, spilled pepsi, cursed, noticed the keyboard, cursed some more, apologised to my little sister while telling her not to repeat what I said, cleaned the area and keyboard, then came back and began plotting. In the process of this three-day plotting extravaganza (read:couple of hours not spent doing midterms, studying, or working. Sleep is irrelevant, strength is irrelevant...), I converted the aforementioned class, as outlined in Objective 1, and then started thinking about how my DM would ever allow this in the first place in Objective 2.

I now seek the help of people more intelligent/knowledgeable/less-sleep-and-sanity-deprived than me to balance and share.

I learned I like spellfire. I hope you will to. So ONWARD!

New Prestige Class: Spellfire sword
[spoiler]I based it completely off of the rewrite of The Shining Blade of Heironeous, by Risada. The intent was to make my namesake character a PrC, since the idea in my head is a bitch even in gestalt to work out without a class like this (pyrokineticist is kinda composed of major suck with some awesome in minor). It's a martially inclined roguish-swordsman class with fire-awesomeness. Think Inigo Montoya meets Natsuo of Fairy Tail(or really, a number of fire-wielding anime characters).

I have to thank Risada, for inspiring this search by total accident, and from whom some features of this class (from it's inspiration) have been shamelessly taken and reflavored. Yes, it's essentially a bastardized son of your shining blade, the pyrokineticist, and the old spellfire wielder class (also sucky), but still, without you, this class wouldn't exist at all. So, here's the class... I know it's strong, that's why I'm asking for help...

The class is currently going through revision, coming soon...

Spellfire Sword

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Balancing the feat:
[spoiler]First, it needs to be updated; 3.0 feats don't go well with a lot of DM's I know. Especially the ones that still play 3.5 and not 4th. Second, having a 1st level character always act as a rod of negation, and pwn people while doing so with fiery smite-ness, seems a wee tad powerful, at any level much less first when you can ass-rape any nearby wizard as a monk (unless I'm very much mistaken, which with wizardsI might be). So the questions are, A) Does the feat need to be balanced?, and B) How does one balance such a thing?

I'm thinking that, if needed to be balanced out, one could split it into one feat (a sort of Spellfire Realization) where the ability to gather and use is gained, then a second feat in a possible tree where the rod of absorption effect is gained. Any other suggestions/ways of building on this/"what are you thinking it's fine the way it is" remarks?
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[Flay Crimsonwind]

Aw, noone else likes spellfire?

[Shadeseraph]

Well, right now it's pretty late in my country (Spain), and I want to go bed ASAP, so I will comment only on the reasons why Spellfire Wielder isn't overpowered at all:

1-Action economy: You have to ready an action to absorb spells. Readying an actions means that you can't do any other thing that turn. That means no attacking and not using your other awesome abilities. Also, this means you have to ready your own action for something that may not happen at all, which means that you have a high probability of losing that turn for nothing.

2-Limited use: Spellfire Wielder only allows you to absorb spells with you as a target. That means that area spells (such as fireball), effect spells (such as grease or solid cloud), ray spells (such as enervation), and many other spells can't be absorbed. That means that, even if you ready an action to absorb an spell on the right time, it may not matter, because there are many spells you can't absorb.

3-You aren't a lightning rod. So, if you, for have such luck as to be targeted by a spell you can absorb in the moment you are readying an action to do so, the caster wil just target other characters in the next turns.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Thanks for the response; I wanted to give it some time to maybe attract notice, but we'll see what happens. I'm thinking of adopting the rules laid out by Bauglir in this thread, which I'll link to in the OP.

A way fixing that "standard action prep" issue should come into play, again I've discussed it in the further thread. Otherwise, things like Time Stands Still and Belt of Battle are just going to find that much more use.

Any thoughts on the class? Boring? Overpowered? Underpowered?