Mercurius
Legend
A quick note: Bear with me - this is a bit long and is not a worked-out optional rule (yet), but is more of a "let's try to figure it out as I write this" approach. I think it is an idea that could be quite fruitful so if you want to get in on the ground-floor and be able to say, "I was there, when Mercurius revolutionized 4E and paved the way for 5E", then jump right in! 
1. The Basic Concept
Remember when wizards were people to be feared, wielding awesome magics and able to alter reality itself? Remember when an 18th level magic-user could cast meteor swarm and wipe out a small army, or when gaining the ability to cast fireball or lightning bolt gave a magic-user’s player the feeling that they had graduated from their apprenticeship and become a true, powerful mage?
As we all know, one of the ways in which 3.5E and 4E differ is the relative power level of spellcastesrs at higher levels. In 3.5E, spellcasters eventually far outstrip non-spellcasting classes at upper levels (I haven’t played 3.5 in years, and never at high levels, but I believe the gap starts occuring around 10th or so, is quite noticeable by 15th and extreme by 20th). In 4E, all classes have powers of different sources; the net effect is that every class ends up feeling and playing rather similarly; or rather, the true classes of 4E are the roles—strikers, controllers, defenders, and leaders—that are window-dressed in the form of different power sources and become the various classes.
3.5E retains some of the, ah,magic of spellcasters – they are still able to do amazing things that other characters cannot do, yet the problem is that an RPG is not a novel or movie in which the protagonist (and/or antagonist) wields arcane energy that few or no others can. In other words, all of the characters are heroes and the rogue or warrior has to be capable of equally powerful feats of heroism as the spellcaster. I have heard of numerous high level 3.5E games in which all of the non-spellcasting PCs just stepped back and watched while their spellcasting companion went hog-wild and stole the show. Picking a lock or tracking a foe is not enough compensation – everyone wants to share the spotlight, and everyone should.
4E tried to address this through its admirable and quite proficient attempt at building the game around balance, but this “Path of Balance” ended up making all classes feel rather homogenous, as if they were all just variations on a formula with different “fluff” pasted on. Essentials somewhat rectified this, but I would argue that the problem remains, at least in that spellcasters still do not carry the aura of power that they should. As I see it, a 20th level wizard should be more powerful than a 20th level fighter; however, this does not mean that the 20th level fighter couldn’t defeat the wizard through heroism and fate…
2. How to Bring the Magic back into Magic
I’m a cake and eat it kind of person so I started thinking: There must be a way for spellcasters to both have that Wow!Magic!! effect, especially at higher levels, and for their non-spellcasting counterparts to be able to keep pace with them in some way at higher levels. In other words, how to embody a fantasy truism that spellcasters are more powerful than non-spellcasters, but in the context of an RPG where it is the non-spellcasting individuals that often defeat the evil wizards, whether through guile, luck, the blessings of the gods or some other X-factor?
I started thinking, what would this “X-factor” be? I backed up to some previous thoughts…maybe it has something to do with luck, with a god’s blessing, with being “chosen”, and with just a general quality of heroism. Which is where I came up with the idea of the Fate Pool.
3. The Fate Pool
The idea is simple: non-spellcasters have a kind of innate and/or god-given capacity for heroism and twisting the threads of fate. Spellcasters give this up through learning the arts of magic; divine spellcasters get this through their god’s blessing, while arcane (and other) spellcasters find it from within themselves, their own will-forces and capacity to twist fate consciously. Each power source would have some variation of this, but the idea is that a wizard or cleric abdicates the raw capacity to manipulate Fate through channeling it into a specific form or approach – their spellcasting or prayers. A wizard consciously and intentionally manipulates the raw power of the universe, whereas a fighter or rogue does not, but is instead able to draw upon a kind of “heroic capacity” from within themselves, whether we want to call it Lady Luck, Fate, Will, or what-have-you.
What is the Fate Pool? Well, the details are pending clarification but it would be a similar mechanic to Action Points yet, unlike AP, would increase with level and probably be more flexible in usage. A higher level fighter would have a much greater capacity for “twisting fate” than a lower level fighter – it is an embodiment of pure heroism.
4. OK, but what about Spellcasters?
More specifically, how to make spellcasters more powerful again? There are many ways that one could do this, but to some extent it largely comes down to increasing damage out-put for various powers, but also in other ways. Let’s go through some options:
Take One: Half level bonuses
In this version, damage is increased by the half level modifier. A fireball cast by a 5th level wizard with an 18 Int would then cause 4d6 + 6 HP of damage instead of 4d6 +4, a range of 10-30 instead of 8-28. Not much, huh? Well, at 15th level with a 20 INT rather than 4d6 + 5 (for a range of 9-29), it would be 4d6 + 12 (16-40).
That is a fairly mild adjustment and not quite what I was looking for.
Take Two: Full level bonuses
That same 5th level wizard would cast a fireball that would do 4d6 + 9 damage (13-33), or at 15th level 4d6 + 20 (24-44).
That’s looking a bit better. But is it enough? Not quite.
Take Three: Risky Business
One other element of spellcasting from various media that gets lost in D&D is that it can be dangerous and unpredictable. What if casting a fireball has a chance of backfiring in some way, especially if the caster tries to vamp it up a bit? Here’s a further adjustment to the evolving rule: the caster can take a penalty to their casting roll (perhaps up to their own level) and add the same bonus to damage, but if the total roll is below 10 (d20 + ability mod + half caster level + enhancement bonus - ) or if a natural 1 is rolled, then a Miscasting occurs. A general rule of thumb for a miscasting is that the caster and everyone within range of the caster takes half damage as per the specific power being cast. DM discretion, of course.
So a 5th level wizard could try to vamp up his fireball by as much as +5. This means that they’d make a d20 roll, add +4 for Int mod, +2 for half level, say +1 for an implement bonus—for a total of +7 modifiers—then substract -5 for a net modifier of +2. This would obviously only make sense against opponents with relatively low defenses, otherwise it would just never work. Plus the danger ofmiscasting is relatively great, which brings me to another option…
Take Four: I Wound Myself!
Perhaps the spellcaster could, instead of taking a penalty to their casting roll, use their own HP to increase their damage output (but not their chances to hit, I would think). This couldn’t really be a one-to-one exchange; I’m thinking that a caster could spend 2 HP per 1 damage bonus, or something like that.
Alternately the caster could use a healing surge to cause additional damage, say one surge for a bonus of the relevant modifier.
Take Five: The Return of non-combat Spells (Rituals)
Remember when spellcasters could do things other than simply kill? I know, we have utility powers and, of course, rituals, but it isn’t the same. It used to be kind of fun having to choose between dispel magic or lightning bolt, but 4E has made it easy for us. I can live with that, but what I can’t live with is the almost total loss of all of the spells now under the category of Rituals because of the long casting times. I mean, it makes sense but my experience has been that my players just don’t use them, and I’ve heard that this is similar in other campaigns.
Now I did try implementing a rule called “Ritual Stones” in which a ritual-caster can cast a ritual into a magical stone during their spare time as in the rules as written, and then be able to trigger it as a standard action whenever they want. I still haven’t seen much action since.
So in addition to all of the above, I’d like to bring rituals back into the show. Maybe following the pattern of ritual levels – a spellcaster gains a ritual at each level from 1st through 6th level, then every-other level after that. Or something like that.
5. Etc.
These are just some preliminary thoughts. But from jotting them down, a few basic points arise:
Obviously a lot still needs to be worked out – I need to make some choices, iron out some details, ask and answer questions I haven’t thought of. Which is where you come in. If you’ve made it thus far, please tell me what you think. Any ideas? Questions? Problems? Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Not your thing? Any feedback would be appreciated.
1. The Basic Concept
Remember when wizards were people to be feared, wielding awesome magics and able to alter reality itself? Remember when an 18th level magic-user could cast meteor swarm and wipe out a small army, or when gaining the ability to cast fireball or lightning bolt gave a magic-user’s player the feeling that they had graduated from their apprenticeship and become a true, powerful mage?
As we all know, one of the ways in which 3.5E and 4E differ is the relative power level of spellcastesrs at higher levels. In 3.5E, spellcasters eventually far outstrip non-spellcasting classes at upper levels (I haven’t played 3.5 in years, and never at high levels, but I believe the gap starts occuring around 10th or so, is quite noticeable by 15th and extreme by 20th). In 4E, all classes have powers of different sources; the net effect is that every class ends up feeling and playing rather similarly; or rather, the true classes of 4E are the roles—strikers, controllers, defenders, and leaders—that are window-dressed in the form of different power sources and become the various classes.
3.5E retains some of the, ah,magic of spellcasters – they are still able to do amazing things that other characters cannot do, yet the problem is that an RPG is not a novel or movie in which the protagonist (and/or antagonist) wields arcane energy that few or no others can. In other words, all of the characters are heroes and the rogue or warrior has to be capable of equally powerful feats of heroism as the spellcaster. I have heard of numerous high level 3.5E games in which all of the non-spellcasting PCs just stepped back and watched while their spellcasting companion went hog-wild and stole the show. Picking a lock or tracking a foe is not enough compensation – everyone wants to share the spotlight, and everyone should.
4E tried to address this through its admirable and quite proficient attempt at building the game around balance, but this “Path of Balance” ended up making all classes feel rather homogenous, as if they were all just variations on a formula with different “fluff” pasted on. Essentials somewhat rectified this, but I would argue that the problem remains, at least in that spellcasters still do not carry the aura of power that they should. As I see it, a 20th level wizard should be more powerful than a 20th level fighter; however, this does not mean that the 20th level fighter couldn’t defeat the wizard through heroism and fate…
2. How to Bring the Magic back into Magic
I’m a cake and eat it kind of person so I started thinking: There must be a way for spellcasters to both have that Wow!Magic!! effect, especially at higher levels, and for their non-spellcasting counterparts to be able to keep pace with them in some way at higher levels. In other words, how to embody a fantasy truism that spellcasters are more powerful than non-spellcasters, but in the context of an RPG where it is the non-spellcasting individuals that often defeat the evil wizards, whether through guile, luck, the blessings of the gods or some other X-factor?
I started thinking, what would this “X-factor” be? I backed up to some previous thoughts…maybe it has something to do with luck, with a god’s blessing, with being “chosen”, and with just a general quality of heroism. Which is where I came up with the idea of the Fate Pool.
3. The Fate Pool
The idea is simple: non-spellcasters have a kind of innate and/or god-given capacity for heroism and twisting the threads of fate. Spellcasters give this up through learning the arts of magic; divine spellcasters get this through their god’s blessing, while arcane (and other) spellcasters find it from within themselves, their own will-forces and capacity to twist fate consciously. Each power source would have some variation of this, but the idea is that a wizard or cleric abdicates the raw capacity to manipulate Fate through channeling it into a specific form or approach – their spellcasting or prayers. A wizard consciously and intentionally manipulates the raw power of the universe, whereas a fighter or rogue does not, but is instead able to draw upon a kind of “heroic capacity” from within themselves, whether we want to call it Lady Luck, Fate, Will, or what-have-you.
What is the Fate Pool? Well, the details are pending clarification but it would be a similar mechanic to Action Points yet, unlike AP, would increase with level and probably be more flexible in usage. A higher level fighter would have a much greater capacity for “twisting fate” than a lower level fighter – it is an embodiment of pure heroism.
4. OK, but what about Spellcasters?
More specifically, how to make spellcasters more powerful again? There are many ways that one could do this, but to some extent it largely comes down to increasing damage out-put for various powers, but also in other ways. Let’s go through some options:
Take One: Half level bonuses
In this version, damage is increased by the half level modifier. A fireball cast by a 5th level wizard with an 18 Int would then cause 4d6 + 6 HP of damage instead of 4d6 +4, a range of 10-30 instead of 8-28. Not much, huh? Well, at 15th level with a 20 INT rather than 4d6 + 5 (for a range of 9-29), it would be 4d6 + 12 (16-40).
That is a fairly mild adjustment and not quite what I was looking for.
Take Two: Full level bonuses
That same 5th level wizard would cast a fireball that would do 4d6 + 9 damage (13-33), or at 15th level 4d6 + 20 (24-44).
That’s looking a bit better. But is it enough? Not quite.
Take Three: Risky Business
One other element of spellcasting from various media that gets lost in D&D is that it can be dangerous and unpredictable. What if casting a fireball has a chance of backfiring in some way, especially if the caster tries to vamp it up a bit? Here’s a further adjustment to the evolving rule: the caster can take a penalty to their casting roll (perhaps up to their own level) and add the same bonus to damage, but if the total roll is below 10 (d20 + ability mod + half caster level + enhancement bonus - ) or if a natural 1 is rolled, then a Miscasting occurs. A general rule of thumb for a miscasting is that the caster and everyone within range of the caster takes half damage as per the specific power being cast. DM discretion, of course.
So a 5th level wizard could try to vamp up his fireball by as much as +5. This means that they’d make a d20 roll, add +4 for Int mod, +2 for half level, say +1 for an implement bonus—for a total of +7 modifiers—then substract -5 for a net modifier of +2. This would obviously only make sense against opponents with relatively low defenses, otherwise it would just never work. Plus the danger ofmiscasting is relatively great, which brings me to another option…
Take Four: I Wound Myself!
Perhaps the spellcaster could, instead of taking a penalty to their casting roll, use their own HP to increase their damage output (but not their chances to hit, I would think). This couldn’t really be a one-to-one exchange; I’m thinking that a caster could spend 2 HP per 1 damage bonus, or something like that.
Alternately the caster could use a healing surge to cause additional damage, say one surge for a bonus of the relevant modifier.
Take Five: The Return of non-combat Spells (Rituals)
Remember when spellcasters could do things other than simply kill? I know, we have utility powers and, of course, rituals, but it isn’t the same. It used to be kind of fun having to choose between dispel magic or lightning bolt, but 4E has made it easy for us. I can live with that, but what I can’t live with is the almost total loss of all of the spells now under the category of Rituals because of the long casting times. I mean, it makes sense but my experience has been that my players just don’t use them, and I’ve heard that this is similar in other campaigns.
Now I did try implementing a rule called “Ritual Stones” in which a ritual-caster can cast a ritual into a magical stone during their spare time as in the rules as written, and then be able to trigger it as a standard action whenever they want. I still haven’t seen much action since.
So in addition to all of the above, I’d like to bring rituals back into the show. Maybe following the pattern of ritual levels – a spellcaster gains a ritual at each level from 1st through 6th level, then every-other level after that. Or something like that.
5. Etc.
These are just some preliminary thoughts. But from jotting them down, a few basic points arise:
- Rather than completely bifurcate the classes, all classes would be granted a Fate Pool, but much more for Martial characters than for Arcane, Divine, or Psionic characters, with Primal and Shadow characters somewhere in-between. There would also have to be differentiation between, say, a Primal class that relies primarily on spell-like effects (the Druid) and one that is mainly non-magical (the Warden). But regardless, the power source itself is the primary determinant factor with the Fate Pool; the more “magical” a character’s power source, the less they can draw upon Fate (because they’re already channeling it through a specific form).
- Spellcasters are able to greatly enhance their spell capacities in some way or another, the more so by using up their own resources, whether through hit points or healing surges.
- Magic is more powerful but also more dangerous! If a spellcaster fails his roll and/or rolls a Natural 1, a miscast may occur. The more I think about it, the more I like a miscast occuring on a Natural 1 – it keeps a 5% chance for all spellcasters, no matter how powerful, which gives an element of randomness and the fickleness and danger of “playing with fire” (magic).
- Spellcasters can use rituals as standard actions, whether through ritual stones or just as an expanded utility power capacity.
Obviously a lot still needs to be worked out – I need to make some choices, iron out some details, ask and answer questions I haven’t thought of. Which is where you come in. If you’ve made it thus far, please tell me what you think. Any ideas? Questions? Problems? Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Not your thing? Any feedback would be appreciated.
