Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
BryonD said:The cost of spending an action to throw a second magic missle seems steep. Even if a simple Spellcraft check makes it just a move action, that is a high oppurtunity cost compared to now. I understand that the price has to be paid somewhere to offset the gains, but this seems a bit high and doesn't quite seem to fit "D&D".
Well, the spontaneous caster just expends a different spell and refreshes the one he just cast. (Functionally this system lets sorcerers remain the most unchanged, in terms of losses. It's pretty much all gain.)
I don't think it's a huge loss for the wizard to only be able to cast each spell once, without opportunity cost; this is very often the default situation in a lot of campaigns: with the notable exception of magic missile. But generally speaking, given the diversity of spells wizards have available, most of them like to be prepared for all sorts of things, so they don't memorize a lot of duplicates.
This compromise does force that decision on the wizard, I admit; however, with an appropriate opportunity cost, even the wizard may have some ability to cast the same spell multiple times, just possibly not in round-to-round rapid succession.
By the same token, limiting a 1st level cleric to one cure light wounds per day for the entire party seems really harsh (even 1/encounter is harsh, I think).
Hey, man, I said I was going to come back to that. Extrapolate what I've already said about spontaneous casters to the cleric's spontaneous healing. He never has to ready cure spells-- he expends any ready spell and it becomes a cure spell.
Perhaps (shooting from the hip here) spontaneous healing could be re-imagined here. You can cast and refresh bless as much as you want. Or you can burn that (simple) bless as a (complex or exotic) cure light wounds and "burn out" the energy. I don't know.
Yeah, see, you do know.
CLW every ten minutes would be too much (clearly)
Hey! I'm not sure it's clear at all!
The context is rebalancing the game to a per encounter format, to keep the game moving and avoid the pitfalls Monte pointed out in that article linked above.
In Henry's world, if cure spells are complex, he'll keep the players moving by finding things to keep them on their toes every 10 minutes. That's certainly no more monumental a task than finding ways to keep the player from just heading back to the inn because the casters are spent. Right?
How do Spontaneous caster's know what spells they may choose their ready spells from?
They don't. Their list of spells known is so short that every morning, all their spells are ready. That's how sorcerers work now, of course.
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