D&D 5E All Spells *At Will*??? (+)

[nevin]

Yes a cure light wounds wand cost 750 gp for 50 charges. 15 gp per spell for 1d8+1 hp of healing. Half that if you craft it.

That cost was quickly trivial with wealth per level.

As a PC I usually carried around one to three of them as a practice starting about as soon as I could afford them, usually by third level, but sometimes a DM would let starting first level characters start with a not fully charged one.

Wands for healing became ubiquitous. It was a bit Harry Potter with everybody having a wand.

At will healing means you do not need the cheap wand to be at that default fully healed between fights level of combat readiness.

yep. Unless you played games where the party was always broke there was no real difference in the between fight healing in 3e and 5e other than the description in the rule book.

 

[nevin]

I think portions of this have already been mentioned (so credit where it is due), but I'll summarize them here. The consequences I can see for all this (full hp each fight and all spells at-will) is that:

• Fights will have fewer win/lose/win-with-consequence states (potentially making most fights inconsequential, making all fights consequential but then need to be very rare, and/or simply making it harder to telegraph that a given fight should be climactic).
• With no incentive to hold back, players will have rather set fight strategies unless the game is set up such that the particulars of the fight scenario dictate optimal strategy to a great degree.

you are not wrong but this has been an issue since 1e where you could carry cases of healing potions, scrolls, or wands, once you killed the first monster that had a big horde. this isn't a 5e only thing.

 

[Willie the Duck]

you are not wrong but this has been an issue since 1e where you could carry cases of healing potions, scrolls, or wands, once you killed the first monster that had a big horde. this isn't a 5e only thing.

Isn't is a 'proposed new system with at-will spells' thing? Isn't that what we are discussing?

Re: 1e -- it certainly was. One of the big questions about 'how hard was AD&D?' is always how each table played loot accessibility and how hard the DM made going back out of the dungeon and resting to get your spells back.

 

[nevin]

Isn't is a 'proposed new system with at-will spells' thing? Isn't that what we are discussing?

Re: 1e -- it certainly was. One of the big questions about 'how hard was AD&D?' is always how each table played loot accessibility and how hard the DM made going back out of the dungeon and resting to get your spells back.

and in 5e if i want to make it hard to take a long rest or short rest I just keep throwing baddies at the party. Still same issue.

 

[Willie the Duck]

and in 5e if i want to make it hard to take a long rest or short rest I just keep throwing baddies at the party. Still same issue.

Um, okay?
I have no idea why you are fixating on 5e or 1e. Isn't the discussion at hand this proposed new system with all spells at-will?

 

[Redwizard007]

Um, okay?
I have no idea why you are fixating on 5e or 1e. Isn't the discussion at hand this proposed new system with all spells at-will?

Based on OPs post, this looks more like modifications to an existing system. I assumed 5e, and I doubt I was the only one.

 

[ezo]

Um, okay?
I have no idea why you are fixating on 5e or 1e. Isn't the discussion at hand this proposed new system with all spells at-will?

Based on OPs post, this looks more like modifications to an existing system. I assumed 5e, and I doubt I was the only one.

To clarify, @Redwizard007 is correct, for the most part.

My thought (for me anyway) is to take existing 5E spells and rework them to become at-will, thus removing spell slots. There are different things that might happen to achieve this:

1. All spells are nerfed to the level of cantrips. This means a lot of spells would really be removed as nerfing them to this power-level is not really effective. I mean how would you nerf wish or meteor swarm to that extend and still keep the spell concept or feel???

2. Spell power stays relatively the same, but since I don't want PCs fireballing every round, etc. the spells are reworked in any manner of methods (or in combination); such as increased casting time, costly spell components, etc. to keep them balanced.

3. New mechanics can be introduced such as a spell casting check, spell drain / fatigue, and so on as a balacing or limiting factor.

In one way or another, many posters have touched on these ideas (and probably others that I've overlooked as I don't have much time until tomorrow to do them justice).

Considering healing spells, for instance. If at-will, they could be used to "instantly" heal an entire party given multiple castings. Different ways of reworking a spell such as cure wounds might be:

1. The spell only cures a single hit point with each casting. So, at most 10 hp could be healed per minute.
2. The spell might simply allow the creature to spend a Hit Die as if they had finished a short rest. So the limit is the creature's allotment of Hit Dice.
3. The casting time might become 10 minutes or more.
4. Holy water or some costly component, expended with the casting, could be added.
5. The caster must make a spell check to successfully cast the spell.
6. After casting the caster makes a drain check or suffers a level of exhaustion (or whatever).
7. The spell heals a target by draining hp from the caster.
and so on.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I think portions of this have already been mentioned (so credit where it is due), but I'll summarize them here. The consequences I can see for all this (full hp each fight and all spells at-will) is that:

• Fights will have fewer win/lose/win-with-consequence states (potentially making most fights inconsequential, making all fights consequential but then need to be very rare, and/or simply making it harder to telegraph that a given fight should be climactic).

The fights will need to balanced on the assumption that the pc's are always starting at full health - trivial fights are truly trivial as they don't even add up over the day, and climactic fights need to be climactic for reasons other than "requires more resources" - that could just be narrative reasons (named enemies) or perhaps more challenging in other ways.

• With no incentive to hold back, players will have rather set fight strategies unless the game is set up such that the particulars of the fight scenario dictate optimal strategy to a great degree.

This is already a best practice in DnD, but it does become more important here - ou need to vary terrain, objectives, and enemies in meaningful ways, because attrition isn't creating an automatic change in how battles play out.

These aren't necessarily bad things, although they are important differences.

 

[Maxperson]

Biggest in world building implications.

Its possible to balance at will spells, though might not be what many caster players really want.

Healing spells may have to go. Maybe that’s good or bad. Probably could convert them to temp hp spells or invent some 4e healing surge like mechanic to limit them.

They wouldn't have to go I don't think. Healing spells would just have to take longer to cast and/or use expensive/rare components as limiters.

 

[Maxperson]

That could be interesting.

Free action at the beginning of combat to begin charging up, first round can cast a first level spell slot only, second round can cast up to a second level slot, etc. Possibly cantrip only on first round to get cantrips into the regular rotation.

It would mean combat casting higher level spells are only for later in longer combats. Shield can get accessed fairly early on. Dimension door and counterspell are only mid combat and on.

Higher level spells are more for long term buffs or utility casting outside of combat.

It would add a momentum build up for combat so that Voltron's sword is not the first round go to.

You'd need to address surprise and attacks where you have time to prep. If you are on top of a castle wall you can probably cycle through 8 levels of spells before the attacking army reaches you and then drop a meteor swarm on top of it in round 1 as it gets within range.