Spell duration

[Sammael]

In my revision of the system, I decided to get rid of the spell durations, which were cumbersome to keep track of, particularly at high levels. I only retained a handful of spells with a fixed duration, which is usually 1 day.

Instead, the caster must spend an action each round to sustain the magic effects; since the number of actions is very limited, this also fixes the buffing problem. Most spells require a minor (swift) action to sustain, but some require move actions, and a few require standard actions. For some, the action varies depending on what the caster is doing with the spell. In other words, at most, a caster will be able to sustain 3 spells per round (using his 3 actions), but would have to forego all other actions. In practice, this means that casters usually have just 1 active spell.

There is an exception; clerics can maintain multiple "instances" of the same spell with a single action. For example, the cleric could cast magic weapon twice, and then spend a single minor action to maintain both effects.

 

[El Mahdi]

That sounds like a pretty cool idea. Do you have a list of what spells require what type of action to maintain?

 

[Sammael]

I haven't converted everything yet, just the spells that my PCs and NPCs have used thus far. Most require a minor action to maintain, to allow each caster the opportunity to have one ongoing spell without spending too much energy. Anyway, here's the list so far (includes spells from several sources, plus some of my own):

Minor:
Arm Hammers, Bane, Bless, Blessed Aim, Calm Animals, Charm, Chill Touch, Conjure Implement, Corrosive Grasp, Deathwatch, Doom, Disguise Self, Endure Elements, Infernal Wound, Keen Edge, Lesser Armor Enhancement, Mage Armor, Mechanus Mind, Resist Energy, Sanctuary, Shape Plants, Shield Other, Shillelagh, Survival of the Fittest, Swift Stride, Unseen Servant, Wieldskill, Wormtongue

Move:
Animate Air (effectively Summon Air Elemental I), Animal Empathy, Feather Fall, Heat Metal (but the effect persists for 2 more rounds when you stop maintaining it), Mirror Image, Silent Image (you can move the image whuile sustaining the spell), Spider Climb

Standard:
Sleep (creatures remain asleep after you stop sustaining the spell as if they had fallen asleep naturally)

Special:
Detect Metals and Minerals, Mage Sight (minor, move, or standard, depending on the precision required); Entangle (minor action to maintain the grasp plants have on enemies that are already affected, move action for the plants to make another grab attempt).

1 day:
Animate Skeleton, Gentle Repose

 

[El Mahdi]

The concept kind of reminds me of how spells are done in the Wheel of Time campaign setting, where a spellcaster can maintain a certain number of spells (slightly different than yours but very similiar, except for using an action to maintain). Personally, I like the idea of using some sort of action to maintain a spell. Seems more realistic to me. I can also see it freeing up the DM from having to keep track of spell durations (or at least monitoring whether the players keep track). If you're interested, some of the feats for the WoT campaign setting would probably work with very little modifying with your system - especially Tie Off Spell or a feat to allow maintaining extra simultaneous spells.

 

[Sammael]

I think I actually have the WoT book somewhere, so I'll try to dig it out and check their approach - thanks for the tip!

I already have a feat called "Efficient Concentration" that lets a caster sustain 2 "sustain minor" spells with 1 minor action.

I think this approach kills 2 flies with one hit - it makes recordkeeping a LOT easier, AND it removes the infinite buffing issue.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Nice! Also reminds me of two of the possible durations (Concentration and Sustained) for powers in Mutants & Masterminds 2e, whish happens to be my favourite 'd20 deconstructed' book. The first of those means that a standard action is required in order to keep the power going, whereas the second needs only a free action instead.

Has it seen playtesting yet? I'd be curious to hear how it goes, whether it's something that's happened already, or planned for the future sometime.

 

[Sammael]

As I mentioned in another thread, I have two ongoing playtest campaigns. Within those campaigns, I have 2 PC mages, 2 PC clerics, and 1 PC druid. The system seems to be working thus far, but my sessions tend to be combat lite so it certainly needs a lot more playtesting. Oh, and one mage persists on using her crossbow in lieu of her spells...

 

[Megahedron]

So can your character only have one buff out at a time? Seems like people who use them a lot would get shafted.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

OTOH, it could be a different way of implementing a "Low Magic" campaign setting.

 

[Sammael]

Reduction in the number of buffs at one time is intentional and in line with my overall decision to reduce the amount of various bonuses in play. Note that one character can still receive practically an unlimited amount of various buffs, as long as there are enough spellcasters willing to maintain them.

FWIW, I think the buffs are one of the more broken aspects of 3.x. If you take them into account when designing encounters and then the players don't actually buff, the encounters end up overpowering. If you don't take them into account, the encounters end up being cakewalks. IMO, there's really no good way to deal with them other than limiting the feasable number of buffs in effect at one time and making the buffs less important in the grand scale of things.