Creating a non-epic Spell Seed System

[Sylvaroth]

Some time after I had purchased my copy of the ELH I started thinking about this. I find the spell seed system not only interesting, but also think it could be a pretty handy system to be used with non-epic spellcasting respectively the creation of new non-epic spells.

I am playing with the thought of a mixture of the spell point system from UA and a somewhat powered down spell seed system resulting in a slightli different way of spellcasting.

To cast a spell a character must make a Spellcraft check against the spell's DC

• To determine a spell's Spellcraft DC: Max. ranks in Spellcraft available for the level or Spell Points for the spell level + Min. INT modifier (Min INT to cast a spell of the level)
  
  Example: Merinster is a 1st level wizard with an INT of 11 and 4 ranks in spellcraft so he wouldn't even have to roll the d20 to cast mage armor (DC 4 respectively 1).

To throw in a little randomness you could rise the Spellcraft DC by 5 or even 10, but then you would not be as likely to succeed in casting a non-epic spell. Probably you could achieve wild magic like effects if you rolled a 1.

Using the UA spell point system, the base spell points for spells of a certain levels and the additional spell points to increase the effective caster level of spells could be used as starting point to determine the non-epic seeds and their factors.

In the end there should be a spell casting system that makes every spellcaster a whole lot more versatile and a little "how to"-guide to create new and hopefully balanced non-epic spells.

What do you suggest? What are your thoughts wishes and ideas?


Btw - I'd like to know what would be allowed to be posted on the boards. Would I be allowed to post tables or text from UA concearning the spellpoint system? What about the ELH's chapter about epic spellcasting and the creation of epic spells?

See also Creating a non-epic Spell Seed System at WotC.

 

[Ferret]

You confoose me.

but on the BTW, nope. It isn't OGC. From the SRD is ok.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Take a look at the d20 Modern SRD, the Urban Arcana section, the document about incantations or something similar. It is OGC and sounds like a better starting place for what you want to do.

http://www.wizards.com/d20/ and look for the d20modern SRD.

Cheers

 

[fourthmensch]

Actually, I've been toying with something similar myself. I've been getting kind of burned out by the complexity of spellcasting at high levels (it slows the game down a lot as I often need to reference the spell being cast, etc.). The best solution I've come up with, in concept at least, is a hybrid between the spellcasting seeds system and the way that Star Wars handles Force powers as skills.

Basically, the seeds become new magic skills, 20 in all (clearly this requires adjusting the spellcasting classes by giving them more skill points per level). Instead of casting a spell with a predefined range, effect, etc., each skill allows a broad use of a power like "Animate." The caster makes a skill check, and the result determines the relative sucess of the "spell." So we're not dealing with a straight success or failure, but rather the degree of success based on the check result.

I was also planning on using spellcasting to tie in with the VP/WP system (which I like anyway for various reasons), so using a magic skill drains a certain amount of VP. Again, this is going to require adjustments to the magic using classes (some of them, anyway), increasing their VP to d6 or even d8.

As you can probably tell, I haven't gotten very far in terms of nailing down the specifics of this system. At this point its more of an idea that I just really like.

 

[Gilwen]

I have started this as well and I am in the process of reworking the epic seed effects to fit in a non epic system but will hopefully scale into the epic levels without much effort. After I get them reworked I will build up several key spells from each level and tinker with the stats to get them balanced and then build all the PHB spells using this system.
Anyone interested in combined efforts or tossing ideas back and forth?

Later,

-Gil

 

[Gilwen]

Btw - I'd like to know what would be allowed to be posted on the boards. Would I be allowed to post tables or text from UA concearning the spellpoint system? What about the ELH's chapter about epic spellcasting and the creation of epic spells?

See also Creating a non-epic Spell Seed System at WotC.

You could post the stuff from UA with a link to the OGL since IRC the spell point system is OGC and the stuff from the epic spellcasting and spell creation from the ELH is off limits except for the stuff in that was placed in the SRD.

-Gil