Alternatives to At-Will Magic

[CleverNickName]

You might like at-will magic use in your games. If you do, please continue to enjoy it. However, not everyone likes at-will magic use. Some think that it is unbalancing and too easy to exploit. Others prefer magic to be rare and powerful, not ubiquitous and weak. Still others might have entirely different reasons for thinking so.

So my question is this: what is the best way to houserule them?

Me, I think I will assign a "per day" limit to zero-level spells...probably twice the number of 1st level spells the character can cast. Fast and easy.

 

[Janaxstrus]

I have less of a problem with at-will magic than I do with at-will impactful magic.

Prestidigitation is one I could see casting all day. Mage hand? Sure. They are flavorful spells that don't usually have lasting in game effects, but are definitely "magical". If I want my wizard to show off to commoners, cleaning their dusty clothes with a touch, or fetching himself a ladle of water with Mage Hand would be something they would do. Or maybe lighting a torch from across the room, or making their candle glow without flame.

I'm not quite sold on at-will magic missiles. Tonight's adventure saw the wizard cast her big spells, then the rest of the night "magic missile for 2", "magic missile for 4", "are they within 100 feet? Ok, magic missile". Is it much different than "Attack with my crossbow"? Not really, but it was a lot different than "I pour oil out and light it with my torch to try to seal the goblins off", which is what we used to do in AD&D when out of spells. Maybe some of that is a edition issue, where people unused to not having everything codified don't take the same imagination and innovation path, maybe some is the player in question, but I do place some of the blame squarely on the "we have to have something magical to do at all times or it sucks" idea that started a few years ago.

 

[howandwhy99]

So my question is this: what is the best way to houserule them?

I would drop 0-level and just call them all 1st level spells. And then treat them as 1st level spells are treated, 1st and 2nd, and so on.

Alternatively, "1 Encounter" becomes the duration of each spell and it can be cast at-will during. Having a few 0-level spells means a few different encounters in the day are okay, but within one it might be boring.

Another idea, go single encounter as above, but require every 0-level to be "recharged" after it's seen use in any encounter. That means a Short Rest.

Out-of-combat these last two couldn't be used for more than 5 minutes before running out of juice. I still think 5 on, 10 off is far too extraordinarily powerful for the spells as is though. They would deal 50 x their damage in one 5 minute swath out of combat.

 

[BobTheNob]

I think your suggestion is fine. Rest assured, there are those who agree with your position.

For my part, I dont mind at-will spells, I just dont want potent combat spams. A d4+Stat with save = nothing (or miss vs AC, but I prefer saves when dealing with spells) is about as kicky as I would get.

4e did point out some things like prestigintation. Great use for an at-will. Our wizard use to use it in all sorts of goofy ways, and it was great that its subtlety lent itself to player creativity, and player didnt have to concern himself with resource management. It was as good as he made it, not as good as the number of charges it had.

So yea, I think there is room for at-wills, just not combat spammers. For instance MM. If MM was just a "You throw 3 missiles" 1st level spell, it would have worked just fine. Great for low-level encounters, still got some reason to use later (when you should be pumping out higher level spells for effect anyway).

 

[VannATLC]

Prestidigitation and Mage Hand are spells I would consider to be always available. A wizard feels a LOT more wizard-y, in my experience, with those spells on-hand.

Light, I couldn't give two hoots about. Depends on the flavouring my players want. Some of them will want it to have a material cost (Oh, say.. that of a torch) and some won't care.

Magic Missile, I'm torn on. I feel I may make it re-charge after a short-rest.. or just leave it almost-as-is, and require it to be used against a target with an animus (So, includes basically all monsters, and no inanimate objects - Also gives me some reason to allow it to be auto-hit.. although I may end up modifying, if it stays as-written.)

 

[Stormonu]

I think I'd prefer a recharge magic. We already have spells that recharge daily, and we've seen spells in 4E that recharge per encounter (or 15 minutes). Even spells/abilities that recharge on a die roll.

Mostly, I'd like to see "at-will" abilities have a recharge time equal to twice the spell's duration.

If you don't want a track absolute times, roll a die based on the length of time you want the wait to average. Roll max on the die, the spell is recharged. Say, magic missile has a recharge rate of 1d4. Knock might have a 1d20 - depending all on how fast you want the spell to be usable.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Just give a set, level-based number of total cantrips you can cast before resting for a certain period. I've been doing this in 3e, where not all of them are balanced for at-will use. It's simple. Works fine.

 

[Falling Icicle]

You could put a daily or even encounter limit on basic spells and give wizards proficiency with crossbows.

 

[variant]

Maybe the at-will spells need a consumed material component so it essentially needs 'ammo' like a bow.

 

[Ichneumon]

I'd suggest a first level spell called, say, "Cantrip" which lets you cast a set number of any minor magics that you know, for example, four.