How fast should magical power return to a caster?

[Nyeshet]

I chose 'regenerates over the course of the day', although that is not my preferred choice.

I am currently (on and off, in what little spare time I can manage to find during the week) trying to fiddle with the EoMR,ME system - the idea being that the DC would vary on how potently and how recently the mage has cast. Powerful spells would raise the DC for hours or even days, while minor spells might raise the DC only for minutes or even rounds. Likely each category would need to be tracked separately, with all catagories (rounds, minutes, hours, days) stacking with each other. Also, I can see the + to casting DC over a period of time decreasing. So perhaps after that major spell it is +5 to all further casting DCs for 2 days, but after that it is reduced to +4, then after a couple more days to +3, etc. Thus the penalty slowly vanishes over the course of about ten days.

This would be much closer to my preferred form of magic system, but it would also require a notable amount of bookkeeping, so I can see it perhaps lacking in popularity.

 

[FrostedMini1337]

I'm in favor of once a month, but giving 'em cleric bab.

 

[Megatron]

In my system MP regens at 1 MP per minute.

 

[Nifft]

I'm in favor of once a month, but giving 'em cleric bab.

"The mage looks irritable."
"Must be that time of month."

-- N, thinking of Vaarsuvius

 

[Turjan]

I'm in favor of "per encounter" so I don't have to keep close track of time but still don't have to worry about classes being balanced toward an encounters per day paradigm.

Ditto. Many games look like that, anyway. Encounter, followed by rest, encounter, followed by rest...

 

[mythusmage]

How often do you want them to cast?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I voted 1/day but I would also advise spell casters not to fire their spells off left, right and centre just before they tuck themselves in for the night. Who knows what may attack in the middle of the night or whether the spellcaster's rest may be interrupted, stopping them from refreshing their spells in the morning.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Tonguez]

A suggestion I got from Enworld was that of 1 day per spell level

ie a 2nd level spell would take 2 days to replenish and a 9th level spell would take 9 days to 'replensih' (allowing 3 uses per month). 0 level spells could be cast continuously (as they took 0 days to replenish)

The system allowed a spell of any level to be cast using a spellcraft check (for this I used Spell level x 3 (ie a level 1 spell had a DC of 3 and a level 9 spell a DC of 27)

 

[Gold Roger]

I'd favor many spells to be regained once per encounter, but you can't have all spells regenerate that fast, unless you want to see unlimited teleporting/healing/divining. I know many people will hate the idea because it's taken from videogames, but maybe a "cooldown" (like in warcraft3 and many MMORPGs) could be tested out (you memorize every spell you know only once, like maneuvers from ToB, and once you've cast a spell you have to wait x rounds/minutes/hours, before you can cast it again. Changing memorised spells takes one hour).

 

[hagor]

"The mage looks irritable."
"Must be that time of month."

-- N, thinking of Vaarsuvius

Since I prefer a more gradual regaining of magical power, I voted 'regenerates over the course of the day'. However, this may take longer than that, especially if the caster has cast (almost) all his available spells (or, in other words, has (almost) 'depleted' his magical powers).

... the spellcasters should not be limited, but spellcasting should be taxing, and big spells when you're tired should become dangerous to cast for the caster's health.

I like this as well.

Hagor