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Make SPELLS Balanced
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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8843153" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>The itemlessness is precisely what makes the cantrip feel innately magical.</p><p></p><p>To use an item like a mundane crossbolt or even an enhanced crossbolt feels more like buying hardware, and feels less like doing magic.</p><p></p><p>The always-on capability of cantrips actualizes a talent for magic and helps the character feel personally magical.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I stopped playing 3e for two reasons: convoluted gaming imbalance generally, but also its lack of cantrips specifically.</p><p></p><p>I like magical characters and require a game whose mechanics express magical flavors well.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Damage-Over-Time spells are inherently problematic because focus fire is a more effective tactic, by far.</p><p></p><p>There can still be − and are − spells that grant or swap one kind of damage type for an other.</p><p></p><p></p><p>If a "consumable" magic item has charges, such as ten uses of a specific cantrip, that would be valuable enough. As a player, I would appreciate such an item as a treasure.</p><p></p><p>As a DM, its consumability allows for a less personal more industrial magic, that magic items can purchase. It is an expendable resource.</p><p></p><p>A one-time scroll use, for a noncombat ritual or even a combat slot spell that any character can cast, can be purchasable as a service. A player character can go to a Sage to prepare such a scroll for a fee. And if the Sage is willing to do the magic, then the item from this Sage will work for the character as a consumable magic item. One would still need to attune to the magic from the Sage to cast such a scroll successfully.</p><p></p><p>If a character finds such a scroll randomly, one can try attune it, to see if it will work. DM decides. This allows Rogues and Fighters the opportunity to one-off spells.</p><p></p><p>A caster can first see if it is possible to attune a certain scroll, and if so, attempt to translate its magic style into the ones own personal magic style, in order to acquire it as a known spell for the spellbook or its equivalent. Normally, spellbooks are for noncombat rituals. But the Wizard class specifically can add combat slot spells to their spellbook.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I would use certain skills to determine if the character can cast certain spell themes successfully, from any ritual instructions or scroll:</p><p>• Arcane: force, force constructs, telekinetic flight, metamagic</p><p>• Nature: elementalism (earth, water, air, fire)</p><p>• Survival: plant</p><p>• Animal Handling: beast, shapeshifting, body, athletics</p><p>• Medicine: healing</p><p>• Insight: mind, enchantment</p><p>• Religion: divination, teleportation, planarity</p><p></p><p></p><p>I see two kinds of magic items: permanent and consumable.</p><p></p><p>A consumable wand can run out of charges − something like a magitech memory stick for several scrolls.</p><p></p><p>A permanent wand is an inherently valuable magical item − an entity − an event.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Cantrips are valuable. There are many good ones to choose from. Even high level casters only have a few cantrip. Magic items that grant cantrips are useful and valuable.</p><p></p><p>But the ability to cast cantrips without items is what makes the character oneself feel magical.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Recently but strongly:</p><p></p><p>I want spell descriptions to delete the spell components. These Verbal-Somatic-Material components are normally ignored, inflexibly precise, convoluted, and obsolete.</p><p></p><p>Instead.</p><p></p><p>There should be only the "spell focus". There can many different kinds of focuses.</p><p>• Implement (such as magitech wand, mentally imbued item, etcetera)</p><p>• Symbol (holy symbol, tattoo, etcetera)</p><p>• Familiar</p><p>• Ingredient (material components, classical protoscience, plants, rocks, animal products, potions, herbal bags, etcetera)</p><p>• Gestures (somatic components, dance, handsigns, nose-wiggle, etcetera)</p><p>• Thought (visualization, prayer, trance, etcetera)</p><p>• Voice (spontaneous song, artistically crafted poem, traditional verbal formula, etcetera)</p><p></p><p>Each class or character concept can have signature method to cast spells: a personal spell focus.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 8843153, member: 58172"] The itemlessness is precisely what makes the cantrip feel innately magical. To use an item like a mundane crossbolt or even an enhanced crossbolt feels more like buying hardware, and feels less like doing magic. The always-on capability of cantrips actualizes a talent for magic and helps the character feel personally magical. I stopped playing 3e for two reasons: convoluted gaming imbalance generally, but also its lack of cantrips specifically. I like magical characters and require a game whose mechanics express magical flavors well. The Damage-Over-Time spells are inherently problematic because focus fire is a more effective tactic, by far. There can still be − and are − spells that grant or swap one kind of damage type for an other. If a "consumable" magic item has charges, such as ten uses of a specific cantrip, that would be valuable enough. As a player, I would appreciate such an item as a treasure. As a DM, its consumability allows for a less personal more industrial magic, that magic items can purchase. It is an expendable resource. A one-time scroll use, for a noncombat ritual or even a combat slot spell that any character can cast, can be purchasable as a service. A player character can go to a Sage to prepare such a scroll for a fee. And if the Sage is willing to do the magic, then the item from this Sage will work for the character as a consumable magic item. One would still need to attune to the magic from the Sage to cast such a scroll successfully. If a character finds such a scroll randomly, one can try attune it, to see if it will work. DM decides. This allows Rogues and Fighters the opportunity to one-off spells. A caster can first see if it is possible to attune a certain scroll, and if so, attempt to translate its magic style into the ones own personal magic style, in order to acquire it as a known spell for the spellbook or its equivalent. Normally, spellbooks are for noncombat rituals. But the Wizard class specifically can add combat slot spells to their spellbook. Personally, I would use certain skills to determine if the character can cast certain spell themes successfully, from any ritual instructions or scroll: • Arcane: force, force constructs, telekinetic flight, metamagic • Nature: elementalism (earth, water, air, fire) • Survival: plant • Animal Handling: beast, shapeshifting, body, athletics • Medicine: healing • Insight: mind, enchantment • Religion: divination, teleportation, planarity I see two kinds of magic items: permanent and consumable. A consumable wand can run out of charges − something like a magitech memory stick for several scrolls. A permanent wand is an inherently valuable magical item − an entity − an event. Cantrips are valuable. There are many good ones to choose from. Even high level casters only have a few cantrip. Magic items that grant cantrips are useful and valuable. But the ability to cast cantrips without items is what makes the character oneself feel magical. Recently but strongly: I want spell descriptions to delete the spell components. These Verbal-Somatic-Material components are normally ignored, inflexibly precise, convoluted, and obsolete. Instead. There should be only the "spell focus". There can many different kinds of focuses. • Implement (such as magitech wand, mentally imbued item, etcetera) • Symbol (holy symbol, tattoo, etcetera) • Familiar • Ingredient (material components, classical protoscience, plants, rocks, animal products, potions, herbal bags, etcetera) • Gestures (somatic components, dance, handsigns, nose-wiggle, etcetera) • Thought (visualization, prayer, trance, etcetera) • Voice (spontaneous song, artistically crafted poem, traditional verbal formula, etcetera) Each class or character concept can have signature method to cast spells: a personal spell focus. [/QUOTE]
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