Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Okay, I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so maybe my searching didn't come up with an answer because I'm a little bleary-eyed, but... Potent Dragonmark gives you a spell slot of a level up to half your level (max level 5), which you can use to cast any spell you have prepared from your Dragonmark spell list, and makes it so all your dragonmark spells are always prepared. So, for the purpose of this experiment, if we're level 10, can a non-spellcaster cast a fifth-level spell from their Dragonmark spell list? Also, assuming that, is it also safe to assume that a spellcaster without full progression (say, a Paladin or Artificer) could cast one of their Dragonmark Spells with said fifth-level spell slot as well, yes? Basically, if I'm playing a tenth-level Artificer with Mark of Passage and Potent Dragonmark, could I cast Teleportation Circle, even though, as an artificer, I can only prepare and cast 3rd-level spells?
Reading through the feat, I'd say yes—a non-caster could in theory use this feat to cast spells. My rational:
Unless I'm missing a key detail, this feat seems set up to give anyone—even non-spellcasters—a way to cast some spells
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I see a potential issue when a spell from the Spells of the Mark list requires a spellcasting ability (for a save DC or attack roll), but you don't have a Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature.
Maybe, because Spells of the Mark says the spells on the table are added only if you have a Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, the intent could be that they can't be prepared if you don't have either feature (???)
(related thread: Potent Dragonmark and Spell Preparation. (Eberron: Forge of the Artificer))
Yeah, the part about "gated on having a Spellcasting feature" was the one I was questioning, where that choice is not there (but it could be used too, I guess)
Using RWinnie’s question: "if we're level 10, can a non-spellcaster cast a fifth-level spell from their Dragonmark spell list?" For example, Mark of Sentinel Spells and Bigby’s Hand (where you need a spell save DC for Grasping Hand).
I believe if you don't have a spellcasting ability, you treat it as 0
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My interpretation is that it requires at least one level of any spellcasting class but then, yes you can cast fifth level spells as a mostly non spellcasting class
I had inferred that, given that in the prerequisite Mark feat, you choose your spellcasting ability (Int, Wis, Cha) as part of the feat, you'd treat that as the "spellcasting ability modifier" for the purposes of attack rolls/spell save DCs (even in the absence of other spellcasting) when combined with the potent dragonmark.
~ My 2014 Homebrew Subclasses ~
Abandoned (Patronless) - Warlock | Accomplice - Rogue | Archaeologist - Artificer | Prophetic Sorcery - Sorcerer | Wave Roamer - Ranger
~ My 2024 Homebrew Subclasses ~
Abandoned (Patronless) - Warlock | College of the Chord - Bard | Joy Domain - Cleric | Fiendish Sorcery - Sorcerer
Technically, this wouldn't be correct. Only the other spells granted even without a Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature use this spellcasting ability score, it's a specific override and not a character-wide spellcasting ability score.
As a DM, I'd say it's fine, however.
Oh, weird. So normally you prepare the Spells of the Mark using a particular Spellcasting or Pact Magic class feature, but when you take Potent Dragonmark they just become “prepared”. In other cases, when you have a spell you always have prepared from a feat or species, it isn’t ever cast using the rules for a spellcasting class you have because it’s not actually a class spell. Technically you can’t use any spellcasting focii in place of material components with those spells, they don’t benefit from effects like Innate Sorcery, and they don’t gain or lose spell components from class features.
How does that work with Potent Dragonmark? Are they prepared by each of your classes with Spellcasting or Pact Magic? That interpretation is rife with problems and I don’t think Potent Dragonmark’s Dragonmark Preparation implies it works that way. Most logically they become just like other feat-prepared spells and use a spellcasting ability determined by the feat, or because Potent Dragonmark lacks specific guidance on that, you’d need to look at how the source feat (in this case the Dragonmark feat) says its always prepared spells are cast and treat the additional spells the same way.
That doesn’t mean you couldn’t prepare them as class spells in addition to having them always prepared as feat spells, because that’s what the Spells of the Mark benefit lets you do. It wouldn’t be different than preparing detect thoughts as a Wizard spell to cast it with Intelligence even if you had picked Wisdom when you took the Telepathic feat. You just wouldn’t normally want to do that.
This is just my opinion, but these kinds of doubts have been debated in other threads, so I'm adding some (*) for fairness and different POVs.
I use the same answer to determine if there are interactions between game features.
As for which spellcasting ability to use, I'm ruling that the ability depends on the source of that prepared spell: your own class feature, a feat, or a species trait.
(*) Some threads posted since the 5.5e SAC clarification on what counts as a class spell:
Some threads from before the 5.5e SAC, where some people argued "spells learned through feats or species traits don't count as class spells" while others disagreed:
EDIT: for clarity.