M.T. Black
Hero
Thank you for the suggestions, they've been very helpful! Here's the current draft (flavor from Hermetic magic):
D&D General Alternatives to spell slots and spell points
darjr
I crit!
That’s cool.
Are we talking lvl 1-20? D&D?
If so I might add an hour for each step in power of the spells. Or something else other than time that needs to be sacrificed, each step in power requiring something more dear.
In the games I run I might pull in mercurial magic and crit fails.
M.T. Black
Hero
It's a Black Hack variant. The spells are level-less (at this stage) and the stat numbers would scale with your level. I think you would top out at about level 10.
darjr
I crit!
Cool!
OK. Well then I still think an hour seems like handwaving, except for the panic in “combat” or some other immediate threat.
Or is that the intent. It’s a bit scary in combat or facing an imminent threat but you don’t want it to be a big burden outside of that?
darjr
I crit!
I don’t know if I’m suggesting this to you or just thinking to myself.
What if the daily recovery was removed? They can cast a number of spells equal to their level and then they need to test. Only when they fail can they meditate for an hour to get them back.
So they must fail first. No daily recovery. Only thru failure then the ritual do they get their allotment back.
What if the daily recovery was removed? They can cast a number of spells equal to their level and then they need to test. Only when they fail can they meditate for an hour to get them back.
So they must fail first. No daily recovery. Only thru failure then the ritual do they get their allotment back.
M.T. Black
Hero
I liked the idea of a ritual for recovery, but you are right that it might make recovery too hand wavy. It really depends on the DM. The one-shot scenario I'm using this for has a bit of time pressure, so it's probably ok.
At the very least, I might say you can only recover your equilibrium once per day. But I might just have it reset on a long rest instead. It was more the hermetic flavor of doing a ritual to get your balance
Andvari
Hero
I was contemplating exactly "cast 1 spell per level per day" for my homebrew as it's quite simple. But it meant too few spells at low level. But I didn't think about allowing a caster check after that for more spells. Not a bad solution.
M.T. Black
Hero
Yeah. My proposed system gives you two spell casts before you make a check, and a way to recharge on a short rest. So I think it will be ok.
I didn't want the magicians spamming cantrips in my system - spells are meant to be pretty cool. The magicians have handguns if they run out of spells
M_Natas
Hero
For my Homebrew-System I'm looking at some different casting options.
First Idea, whoch could replace the D&D system: you make a Spellcheck-Roll: you roll a d20+magic attack ability modifier to see if you succed.
You need to hit a 8+Spelllevel to successfully cast the spell. If you miss you get 1 stress.
A stress increases the difficulty the Spellcheck-Roll. So after one fail, the spellcheck roll is 8+1+spelllevel. After the next failed roll it is 8+2+spelllevel and so on.
With very low rolls you can also incorporate a misshap table and with very high roles a spell advantage table.
So with increased stress your ability to cast high level spells decreases and it gets harder and harder to cast even low level spells.
Of course you can adjust the numbers to modify the difficulty.
With the 8+Spelllevel, a level 5 wizard with 20 intelligence could always cast 1 level spells, because his roll will always be d20+1 - until he fails a higher level spell and gets stress.
Second Idea should work from the result similar to the first one, but it would be to different to incorporate it into D&D 5e, I think.
So, according to your level you have a spellcasting die. D2 at first level, d4 at second level d6, d8, d10, d12 (d14, 16 18?) And d20 at highest level.
You roll your Spellcasting Die to see If the spell succeeds. You need to roll higher than the spell level. So if you wanna cast a first level spell you need to roll at least a two. To cast a second level spell you need at least a 3 and so on. If you fail to cast the spell, your spell casting die reduces to the next lower one.
So your Spellcasting Die is a d6. You wanna cast a 4th level spell, so you need to roll a 5 or 6. But you roll a 4. Now you spellcasting die gets reduced to a d4 and you only get your maximum spellcasting die back after a long rest or a ritual or something. If you fail your d2, you can't cast spells anymore until rest/ritual.
If you want to have it a little less punishing, maybe two spellcasting die could be used, depending on class or abilities/attributes. Either like advantage or with like a pool of dice, which you can use up (but only roll one at a time).
First Idea, whoch could replace the D&D system: you make a Spellcheck-Roll: you roll a d20+magic attack ability modifier to see if you succed.
You need to hit a 8+Spelllevel to successfully cast the spell. If you miss you get 1 stress.
A stress increases the difficulty the Spellcheck-Roll. So after one fail, the spellcheck roll is 8+1+spelllevel. After the next failed roll it is 8+2+spelllevel and so on.
With very low rolls you can also incorporate a misshap table and with very high roles a spell advantage table.
So with increased stress your ability to cast high level spells decreases and it gets harder and harder to cast even low level spells.
Of course you can adjust the numbers to modify the difficulty.
With the 8+Spelllevel, a level 5 wizard with 20 intelligence could always cast 1 level spells, because his roll will always be d20+1 - until he fails a higher level spell and gets stress.
Second Idea should work from the result similar to the first one, but it would be to different to incorporate it into D&D 5e, I think.
So, according to your level you have a spellcasting die. D2 at first level, d4 at second level d6, d8, d10, d12 (d14, 16 18?) And d20 at highest level.
You roll your Spellcasting Die to see If the spell succeeds. You need to roll higher than the spell level. So if you wanna cast a first level spell you need to roll at least a two. To cast a second level spell you need at least a 3 and so on. If you fail to cast the spell, your spell casting die reduces to the next lower one.
So your Spellcasting Die is a d6. You wanna cast a 4th level spell, so you need to roll a 5 or 6. But you roll a 4. Now you spellcasting die gets reduced to a d4 and you only get your maximum spellcasting die back after a long rest or a ritual or something. If you fail your d2, you can't cast spells anymore until rest/ritual.
If you want to have it a little less punishing, maybe two spellcasting die could be used, depending on class or abilities/attributes. Either like advantage or with like a pool of dice, which you can use up (but only roll one at a time).
Voadam
Legend
A simple mechanics option would be to adapt the 4e/5e monster power recharge rules and assign recharge values to spells. This means they would be available every fight but there would be delays between casting a spell multiple times in a fight.
This is fairly easy to track at the table if you do not have a lot of spells.
It will incentivize novaing up front though and using magic every fight. There will be a little judgment call on using high powered low recharge versus more moderate higher recharge chance powers, though generally the incentives will be to use the biggest appropriate gun first.
This is fairly easy to track at the table if you do not have a lot of spells.
It will incentivize novaing up front though and using magic every fight. There will be a little judgment call on using high powered low recharge versus more moderate higher recharge chance powers, though generally the incentives will be to use the biggest appropriate gun first.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
