D&D 3E/3.5 Rebalancing Spellcasting in 3.5

[Gomer212]

From the creator of "Rebalancing the Rogue", and "A Less Terrible Monk", comes...

Rebalancing Spellcasting in 3.5

For some time now, I've been working on a variant to the spellcasting system presented in 3.5 D&D. I've finally come up with something that I personally think is pretty good. It's been play tested slightly, but not to a great extent. I will be trying to incorporate it into some of my groups. If it takes off, I may incorporate it into all. This system was cobbled together from bits and pieces of 2nd ed AD&D, 3.5, and D&D Next.

I am definitely interested in feedback, be it positive or negative.

The main points are.

• Wizards and Sorcerers are merged into one class, known simply as Mages.
• All classes are spontaneous casters.
• Spell progression tables are simplified. All classes use one of only two tables.
• Casters are stronger at low levels, more versatile at mid levels, and more balanced at high levels.

The specifics of the system are as follows...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Caster classes are broken into two categories.

Full Casters (Bards, Clerics. Druids, and Mages)
Full Casters begin casting spells at 1st level. They can prepare 0-level spells. They have a caster level equal to their class level.

Half Casters (Paladins and Rangers)
Half Casters begin casting spells at 4th level. They cannot prepare 0-level spells. They have a caster level equal to half their level, rounded down.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spell Slots/Level
The two groups each have their own spell progression charts. Each class of the group follows the same chart. The number of spell slots available are increased by the characters main spell casting attribute as normal. (Wisdom for Clerics, Druids, Rangers, and Paladins, Charisma for Bards, and Intelligence for Mages)

Full Casters

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th*	8th*	9th*
1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	4	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	4	2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	4	3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
8	4	3	3	2	-	-	-	-	-
9	4	3	3	2	1	-	-	-	-
10	4	4	3	2	2	-	-	-	-
11	4	4	4	3	3	-	-	-	-
12	4	4	4	4	4	1	-	-	-
13	5	5	5	4	4	2	-	-	-
14	5	5	5	4	4	2	1	-	-
15	5	5	5	5	5	2	1	-	-
16	5	5	5	5	5	3	2	1	-
17	5	5	5	5	5	3	3	2	-
18	5	5	5	5	5	3	3	2	1
19	5	5	5	5	5	3	3	3	1
20	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	3	2

*Bards ignore the columns for 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells.

Half Casters

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
4	1	-	-	-
5	2	-	-	-
6	2	1	-	-
7	3	2	-	-
8	4	2	1	-
9	4	2	2	-
10	4	3	2	1
11	4	3	3	2
12	4	3	3	2
13	4	4	3	2
14	4	4	4	3
15	4	4	4	4
16	5	5	5	4
17	5	5	5	4
18	5	5	5	5
19	5	5	5	5
20	5	5	5	5

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preparing Spells
All classes must prepare their spells following an 8 hour rest and before casting them. Mages can only prepare spells that are in their spellbooks. If a mage does not have his spellbook present when he prepares spells, he must prepare the same spells he prepared the day before.

Full Casters begin by preparing (4) 0-level spells from the appropriate list. Then all casters prepare one spell for each level of spell they can cast above 0-level. Finally, each caster prepares a number of additional spells equal to their caster level+main casting attribute modifier. These additional spells may be of any level the caster is high enough level to cast.

For example, a 3rd level mage with an Intelligence of 18 would first prepare (4) 0-lvl spells. Then he would prepare a 1st and a 2nd level spell for the two levels he can cast. Finally, he prepares 7 additional spells of his choosing. (level 3 + Intelligence Modifier 4) He prepares 2 more 0-level, 3 more 1st level, and 2 more 2nd level spells.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Casting Spells
When a caster casts a spell, it consumes a spell slot, not the prepared spell. A caster may use a slot of the spell's level or higher. For instance, If a caster has Magic Missile and Sleep prepared on a day that he has (2) 1st level spells available, he may cast each spell once, or either spell twice.

0-level spells do not have and never consume slots. If a caster has a 0-level spell prepared, he may cast it an infinite number of times/day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clerics, Druids, and Specialist Mages
When preparing their spells for the day, Clerics and Specialist Mages prepare one additional spell for each level they can cast. This spell must be a domain spell for Clerics and must be from the specialized school for Specialist Mages. The first time that the character casts this spell on the day it is prepared, it does not expend a spell slot. It is in fact, a free casting of that particular spell.

Good Clerics (or Neutral Clerics of Good Deities) automatically prepare all Cure spells that they are high enough level to cast. These do not count against their allotment of prepared spells. They may not prepare Inflict spells. Their 0-level domain spell is Stabilize.

Evil Clerics (or Neutral Clerics of Evil Deities) automatically prepare all Inflict spells that they are high enough level to cast. These do not count against their allotment of prepared spells. They may not prepare Cure spells. Their 0-level domain spell is Bleed.

Druids automatically prepare all Summon Nature's Ally spells that they are high enough level to cast. These do not count against their allotment of prepared spells.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...and that about sums it up. Would love to hear feedback. Thanks.

 

[Dethklok]

I don't see why you are getting rid of the Vancian system halfway. Of course it's industry standard to memorize spells and then have them disappear from the brain of the caster (so that a spell can be somehow memorized twice and then halfway disappear after one casting). But if you're not going to use this system, then how is it that you can memorize first and second level spells, then use up all your first level spells, but still have energy for the second level spells? I don't think it makes sense for spells on one level to somehow interact to deplete one another upon casting while leaving the other levels unaffected.

If you're willing to make changes on this scale of merging entire classes together, my suggestion would be to give full casters 1 Magic Point per level, and half casters 1 MP per level upon reaching 4th level. This would preserve the feel of life at low levels without the exponential growth that appears at high levels. If you wanted to more closely mimic the chart you have there, you could use a Fibinacci sequence, so that full casters got 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13 MP for levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (and so on). This would not only reduce bookkeeping, but would give better flexibility to spellcasters in your game.

On a final note, the prohibition against Evil clerics casting healing spells strikes me as severe. I like that good and evil clerics automatically prepare healing / harm spells, but I wouldn't entirely restrict clerics of different alignments from using broad classes of spells - particularly healing spells, which are virtually necessary for most adventuring parties.

 

[Gomer212]

Thanks for the input definitely.

To address paragraphs one and two, I didn't mention it specifically, but I would rule that casting a spell would expend a slot of the spell's level, or higher if that slot was unavailable. Or, as taken from the SRD "A spellcaster always has the option to fill a higher-level spell slot with a lower-level spell." This, would address your first issue. It would function almost the same as your system, except "points" would be referred to as "slots: and the higher level spells would still be throttled back in number.

The final paragraph, I have a less reassuring answer for. This one I'm going to simply have to chalk up to balance and campaign specific preference. For instance, even with the current system I wouldn't let me LG clerics prepare Inflict spells, so I was forced to counter with taking Cure spells away from the CEs. In this system it's even more critical, since either taking the other's spontaneous spell would effectively make a cleric that could both spontaneously cure and inflict.

This doesn't come up often in my groups since we play mostly good parties anyway and deny my Cleric inflict spells. The only other way I can defend this is by saying that the other classes, such as Druids, Bards, and Rangers will be better healers now with this spontaneous system, and perhaps they can pick up the slack should the cleric elect to go Evil.


Thanks very much for the review of the system. Any other questions or concerns, drop them here.

 

[Gomer212]

Edit

Indicated that higher spell slots may be used when casting spells.
Added a section for Druids to emulate their spontaneous Summon Nature's Ally spells.

 

[Dethklok]

To address paragraphs one and two, I didn't mention it specifically, but I would rule that casting a spell would expend a slot of the spell's level, or higher if that slot was unavailable.

Ah, yeah I can see this. It works. If everyone's used to a system, a series of fixes like you propose often make more sense than a total overhaul.

This one I'm going to simply have to chalk up to balance and campaign specific preference.

I figured it was something along those lines. I bet it adds a lot of flavor to clerics in your game.

For instance, even with the current system I wouldn't let me LG clerics prepare Inflict spells, so I was forced to counter with taking Cure spells away from the CEs. In this system it's even more critical, since either taking the other's spontaneous spell would effectively make a cleric that could both spontaneously cure and inflict.

This line of reasoning I don't agree with at all. Mages can inflict. Even fighters and Good Clerics can inflict - they use weapons. Healing, on the other hand, is a different matter, because only clerics can accomplish it. Further restricting it to only good clerics takes the cleric's strongest asset away from evil clerics. The only way I think you could get away with this would be to make healing more readily available through cheap healing potions or an increased natural healing rate.

Like I said, it may work well for your campaign, and it definitely has a lot of character, so I don't want to come across as insisting that you're making a mistake. But I do think you may need to do something to address the way it will change the dynamic of the game to prevent evil clerics from being able to use healing magic.

Maybe someone else can offer a second opinion?

 

[Gomer212]

I don't want to come across as insisting that you're making a mistake.

No problem at all, I like hearing opinions, and in this case you are right.

Of all the reasons people have told me they dislike the system, this is honestly the only thing I really don't have a good answer for. As mentioned, it works well for my current campaign being good aligned, but it would be problematic should I try an evil campaign.

Right now it's not a huge priority, but I will definitely continue to consider this shortcoming and attempt a way to resolve it without too heavily switching the balance of clerics by alignment

Again, I thank you for a calm and level headed opinion. It's quite refreshing compared to some of the ways others tend to react to the system.

 

[Dethklok]

That's hilarious. I have no idea why people get so touchy about rule changes, but some people really do!

Thinking about the issue of good and evil clerics, I would probably allow evil clerics to cast healing spells they prepare (they don't get free healing spells like good clerics do) but to cast such spells I would require that they spill their blood in sacrifice to their god, losing 2 hp per healing die rolled.

As before, I hope that someone else will weigh in on the topic.