Alternate spellcasting

In a coming campaing I´m going to try (for several reasons) an alternate magic system. The idea behind it is vaguely similar to the recharge magic rule in unearthed arcana, but more restrictive. I´ve doing the math for it, and some playtesting, but if you want to offer your feedback, that would be great.

The campaing would use a modified wounds/vitality alternate rules and generic classes. Note that the spellcaster can only use wizard/sorcerer spells, though he has much more spells known, and magic can´t “heal” vitality points. Said that:


- To cast a spell, a spellcaster must spend a number of energy points equal to the spell level plus the caster level. The caster level can´t be lower of the minimum level needed to cast the spell and can´t be higher than the character´s levels in the spellcaster class.

For example, an 8th level spellcaster that casts a fireball can use between 8 energy points (the minimum for a 5d6 fireball) and 11 energy points (for an 8d6 fireball)

- A spellcaster can store a number of energy points equal to his levels in the spellcaster class plus the level of the highest spell he can cast. Notice that this is just the needed to cast his most powerful spell once.

For example, said spellcaster has a limit of 11 energy points. If he casts a 4th level spell at maximum power, he´s spent.

- Each time the spellcaster casts an spell with a duration lower of 1 day/level, this limit decreases by an amount equal to the level of that spell. The limit returns to the previous limit when the spell expires, and the decreases are cumulative.

If the same wizard has cast Invisibility and Fly, either on himself or anyone else, his store limit would be 7 (11-3-2).

Why?: Since the number of spells per day is unlimited, that puts a limit on the number of protections and wards a spellcaster will want to cast at the same time.

- A spellcaster can use a standard action to extract energy from the elements that make the world. The number of energy points extracted depends on the spellcaster level, as shown in the following table:

This is enough to cast the spellcaster´s most powerful spell once every 2 or three rounds, or less powerful ones between once every other round or two every three rounds.

- It´s possible to have more energy points acumulated than your maximum. However, if you start your round having more points than your limit, you lose them at the end of the round unless you devote a move action to hold them and succeed at a Concentration check of DC 20+the excess points.

Why?: Otherwise it wouldn´t be possible for a spellcaster with his reserve lowered to cast most of his more powerful spell. The price for having spells active is to have to use a round to build energy, or resign to cast a less powerful spell.

- As a free action you can choose to suffer 1 point of Con damage to add 1 energy point to your reserve.

Why?: This is mostly flavor, though very useful at low levels.

How the system works: spellcasters become very useful and flexible outside combat with this system, being able to cast the same spell once and again, but in battle they lose a lot of punch, having to choose very carefully what and when to cast. Metamagics (specially quicken spell) and wands needs reworking, not to mention a lot of feats that could be designed for this system (It screams Increased reserve and Faster recharging)

For what it's worth, you could probably take inspiration from Slaine d20 to further develop your system. Slaine d20 magic sytem is summarized in this thread.

Thanks, though it seems that the similarity isn´t great. I hope to playtest it soon and tell how it went.

You have an interesting concept, but the system does have a number of consequences:

No more Mind Blank, Heroes Feast, Create Food and Water etc.... (and I am assuming that spells with a 'permanent' duration does not lower the caster's daily limit). A 15th lvl wizard casting Mind Blank on himself practically limits himself to 5th lvl spells while he has it up. If he wants to cast a Mage armor and False Life too, the best thing this wizard can do in a pinch is cast an 8d6 fireball (which costs 11 points in your system, if I understand correctly, and not the 13 points you mentioned in your example).

I think that you will find that during playtesting the PCs will gravitate towards the instantaneous effects, or spells with a 1/day level duration, since the opportunity costs of casting other duration spells are generally too high. At least, they will be for combat situations, on other situations though, the limit does not really matter.

If casters cast spells with a duration, they will concentrate such spells on themselves and will not buff their allies, because of this opportunity cost. Giving a party member an advantage at great cost to yourself will discourage teamplay and sharing of resources. They made spontaneous curing possible in 3rd edition precisily to combat this problem that was prevalent in earlier editions.

A similar effect will be seen for spells that can be cast on the enemy. Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, Fear, Heat Metal, these spells will probably be a thing of the past, since having enemies (or even dead bodies) around with these spells affecting them also bites into your scarce energy points pool. Better just to hammer them with instantaneous spells.

The penalty for 1 round/level, 1 minute/level and 10 minutes/level is the same. Since shorter duration spells are generally more powerful, these will increase in popularity, in comparison to those longer duration spells (all will lose ground to the instantaneous spells, though).

Since many longer duration spells are not dismissible, once a caster has a few of them running, he might actually begin casting dispel magic on himself (or his companions, if he has enchanted them), to regain energy points he needs.

It decreases the importance of spellcasting stats, since they won't net you any bonus spells nor will increase you pool maximum, recharge rate etc. It increases the importance of Constitution (and putting skill points in the Concentration skill) for all spellcaster. Nowadays, a Rogue/Arcane Trickster can get by with none of few ranks in Concentraition, in your system that would be almost impossible.

Spells that provide a set effect which is independent of caster level, will quickly become more popular. Casting magic missile for 10 energy points is a lot less attractive option than casting true strike for 2 energy points.

Time is on of the most scarcest resources during DnD combat, much more scarce than spells available. Your system makes time even more scarce, by making casters perform standard actions to regain lost spell power, and move actions to retain 'additional' energy. Thus, spellcasters will become significantly less powerful during combat.

Devices such as wands and staffs would become vastly more popular, because they do not suffer the drawback of casting spells yourself.

I think the system would create a huge gap between in-combat and out-of-combat spell use. Wizards would cast all kinds of spells the whole day long (Fabricate, Teleport, Charm Person, Remove Disease, Dispel Magic, Permanent Image) while in combat they can barely cast half the spells they could before. Current D&D is based on the reverse assumption: casters can cast a whole lot of spells during combat, but cannot cast spells the whole day long. Because most of the DnD spells are balanced on this assumption, reversing it will have a major impact on your game world. Don't be surprised if your PCs disintegrate every obstacle they come across. As long as they have the time, the wizard WILL cast disintegrate every other round to remove any obstacle that blocks the party's progress. Lower level casters WILL bypass any lock with a knock spell and Find Traps WILL be cast when scouting out the dungeon, effectively putting most Rogue types out of a job. Create Water will enable desert communities to spring to life, since even a 1st lvl caster can easily make thousands of gallons a day. Out of combat the opportunity cost for casting these spells will be close to zero, so be prepared to see a lot of them.

First, thanks for the answer.

Philip said:

You have an interesting concept, but the system does have a number of consequences:

No more Mind Blank, Heroes Feast, Create Food and Water etc.... (and I am assuming that spells with a 'permanent' duration does not lower the caster's daily limit). A 15th lvl wizard casting Mind Blank on himself practically limits himself to 5th lvl spells while he has it up. If he wants to cast a Mage armor and False Life too, the best thing this wizard can do in a pinch is cast an 8d6 fireball (which costs 11 points in your system, if I understand correctly, and not the 13 points you mentioned in your example).

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Yep, 11 points, I edited that (stupid) mistake. The penalty is pretty harsh, and likely a thing to be changed to maybe 1/2 the spell level, rounding up, but spellcasters without a ton of wards and protections on them are appealing, since the system is designed for a setting with a lower magic level.

I think that you will find that during playtesting the PCs will gravitate towards the instantaneous effects, or spells with a 1/day level duration, since the opportunity costs of casting other duration spells are generally too high. At least, they will be for combat situations, on other situations though, the limit does not really matter.

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Yes. The system obviously won´t work the same. (Also, I just realized this has the less obvious side benefit of reducing the bookeeping)

If casters cast spells with a duration, they will concentrate such spells on themselves and will not buff their allies, because of this opportunity cost. Giving a party member an advantage at great cost to yourself will discourage teamplay and sharing of resources. They made spontaneous curing possible in 3rd edition precisily to combat this problem that was prevalent in earlier editions.

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In my experience, this is not true. In regular games, where the limited resources is spell slots, you can´t also buff everyone; wizards can´t Mind Blank everyone, clerics can´t cast Death Ward and Divine Power in the same round. In this system it can be advantageous to cast Haste or to cast Fireball; depends on the player and the situation.

A similar effect will be seen for spells that can be cast on the enemy. Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, Fear, Heat Metal, these spells will probably be a thing of the past, since having enemies (or even dead bodies) around with these spells affecting them also bites into your scarce energy points pool. Better just to hammer them with instantaneous spells.

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Not exactly. Notice that you can exceed you limit of energy stored, and you don´t even have to spend any action in the following round if you cast an spell and spend them with a spell (the surplus points are spent if you start and end the round with them and fail the Concentration roll)

For example, say a 5th level spellcaster (max of 8 energy) casting Ray of Enfeeblement (caster level 5) vs Magic Missile (caster level 5). The Ray lowers your limit by 1, but in both cases you´ll have now 2 energy points. If you store energy over 7, that doesn´t really matter, because it´s very likely you´re going to spend it the next round.

But since the idea of the lower limit is that the mage has to maintain the spell continuously, it makes sense to add a (D) to all spells durations.

The penalty for 1 round/level, 1 minute/level and 10 minutes/level is the same. Since shorter duration spells are generally more powerful, these will increase in popularity, in comparison to those longer duration spells (all will lose ground to the instantaneous spells, though).

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In a regular, dungeon crawling game, that would be of concern. The idea of the spellcaster casting, for example, Haste, every minute is somewhat worrying, but not too much.

Since many longer duration spells are not dismissible, once a caster has a few of them running, he might actually begin casting dispel magic on himself (or his companions, if he has enchanted them), to regain energy points he needs.

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Good point. As said before, most spells should be dismissable in this system.

It decreases the importance of spellcasting stats, since they won't net you any bonus spells nor will increase you pool maximum, recharge rate etc. It increases the importance of Constitution (and putting skill points in the Concentration skill) for all spellcaster. Nowadays, a Rogue/Arcane Trickster can get by with none of few ranks in Concentraition, in your system that would be almost impossible.

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I don´t see it as a bad thing; many magic systems and sources put a high importance on the endurance of the spellcaster. But Concentration isn´t actally so important: the number of times you rechanrge over the maximum and don´t cast an spell the next round shouldn´t be high.

Spells that provide a set effect which is independent of caster level, will quickly become more popular. Casting magic missile for 10 energy points is a lot less attractive option than casting true strike for 2 energy points.

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Those spells are normally utility spells, and at higher level save or die. Supposedly, save or die spells dominate the game at higher levels, so there´s little change here. But see below.

Time is on of the most scarcest resources during DnD combat, much more scarce than spells available. Your system makes time even more scarce, by making casters perform standard actions to regain lost spell power, and move actions to retain 'additional' energy. Thus, spellcasters will become significantly less powerful during combat.

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As said before, move action to retain the energy should be rare. and yes, combat mages are reduced in power: that´s half the point. How much, the playtesting I have done says not too much, because the overall spells cast remains roughly the same, or is even higher. However, they are not able to obliterate everything in a few rounds of fireworks.

Devices such as wands and staffs would become vastly more popular, because they do not suffer the drawback of casting spells yourself.

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I have to work on that, sure: wands are too useful. Maybe yo have to pay a reduced cost to activate wands, in addition to spending a charge.

I think the system would create a huge gap between in-combat and out-of-combat spell use. Wizards would cast all kinds of spells the whole day long (Fabricate, Teleport, Charm Person, Remove Disease, Dispel Magic, Permanent Image) while in combat they can barely cast half the spells they could before. Current D&D is based on the reverse assumption: casters can cast a whole lot of spells during combat, but cannot cast spells the whole day long. Because most of the DnD spells are balanced on this assumption, reversing it will have a major impact on your game world. Don't be surprised if your PCs disintegrate every obstacle they come across. As long as they have the time, the wizard WILL cast disintegrate every other round to remove any obstacle that blocks the party's progress. Lower level casters WILL bypass any lock with a knock spell and Find Traps WILL be cast when scouting out the dungeon, effectively putting most Rogue types out of a job. Create Water will enable desert communities to spring to life, since even a 1st lvl caster can easily make thousands of gallons a day. Out of combat the opportunity cost for casting these spells will be close to zero, so be prepared to see a lot of them.

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Notice that actually there are at least three "spellcasters" in core D&D able to do that: high level psions, Warlocks, and to a lesser extent sorcerers. In a recent pbp game I was playing the party was scattered, and my sorcerer was able to locate and gather them in a matter of seconds spending only a fraction of his available spellcasting; to disintegrate every obstacle in his path would have been a child´s play. A Warlock´s incantations are of reduced power, but he can spend invisible all day and charm everyone he wants. Psions have hundreds of power points at medium-high levels: for example a medium level Shaper can create, literally, miles of rope without real effort, and a Seer manifest Clairvoyant Sense almost at will. This system makes that available at lower levels, and as you say shift part of the power of the mage from combat to utility, and that´s the other half of the point. Of course, some spell will need tinkering and some level shifting, but I don´t think it´ll be so hard.