25th Level Spells - Hints from Past Podcasts

[Falling Icicle]

I just hope they don't do it like 3.5 psionics. I hated that system. The idea of spending the same number of power points for a single target energy damage spell as a large area one is just stupid, imo. I also fear that in a 25 level system, spells will be far too generic. One of the biggest things I like about D&D magic is the variety of the spells.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

You could have a flexible (yet restricted) polymorph spell which works kind of like the summon monster spells in 3.5, with each higher level version giving you a choice from a short list of preselected options for forms to transform into.

Not really. As per the design articles talking about the polymorph errata, the point is that if a spell has more than one effect it's nearly impossible to balance since you don't know WHICH effect will be generated each time the spell is cast.

This is the reason that as part of their design they split a lot of spell effects from 2E to 3E and more from 3E to 3.5E.

The idea being that even if choices are fairly close to being even, there will always be a 'best" choice and a "worst" choice when casting the spell. Often enough to bump the spell up or down one level of power.

That's the reason for the "form of.." spells. And you'll see more of that design in the future. I could see the summon spells becoming "summon ogre", "summon troll", and so on in 4th Ed. Especially with there being 30 spell levels.

 

[Jhaelen]

But unless they have decided that Time Stop is epic (which I guess they could do)

I'd appreciate that change Imho, that spell is decidedly unfun. There are worse offenders, but that spell should either be toned down, made epic or be gone completely.

 

[Seule]

Or HARP

Isn't that the same thing, really? I stopped playing RM when 3.0 came out, and it fixed most of the things that I didn't like about 2nd ed, that Rolemaster handled well.
I've never actually picked up HARP, although I have most of the RMSS and RMFRP books stashed away.

 

[Banshee16]

I think there will be NO polymorph self. Baneful polymorph (frog, rat, snail...). And various "form of the..." spells. Example : lvl2 : form of the wolf, lvl5 : form of the raven, lvl9 : form of the bear : lvl 12 form of the troll etc...
But the won't use something as freestyle as "lvl=hd" because this would be an open door to broken combo (fleshraker, outsider...)

Those "Form of" spells were far too restricted and useless. I think it would make more sense to say that if you have Polymorph, and cast it at lvl 1, you can turn into a dog or owl, or whatever. If you cast it at lvl 2, you could turn into a wolf, at lvl 4, and ogre, at lvl 25, an old red dragon.....that kind of thing.

I think this would be far more useful. I really don't like the idea of needing a whole chain of spells just to do something like change forms, or summon monsters. I'd prefer that the spell just scales, and gives you the ability to do different things, depending on how much juice you put into it.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

This has been clarified.

Any word on whether the rumor about 30 spell levels is true? If not, are we sticking to the original nine?

Posted by WotC_Logan: Power level corresponds to the character level at which you gain the power.

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=910164

Cheers!

That sounds very similar to the Legendary Abilities that FFG released for some of their books, including "Against the Shadow" for Midnight. You could choose an ability every time you gained a level in a legendary class, but depending on *which* level you took the ability, it had different power. For instance, one gave you 2 extra spellpoints. If you took it as a level 1 legendary class (Living Nexus??), you gained 2 extra spellpoints. But if you took at as a lvl 5 Living Nexus, you gained 10 extra spellpoints instead.

For that matter, what they're talking about for races sounds very similar in some ways to Dawnforge...as you gained levels, you gain more racial abilities, including ability increases that are determined based on race.

Banshee

 

[Thirsty]

Isn't that the same thing, really? I stopped playing RM when 3.0 came out, and it fixed most of the things that I didn't like about 2nd ed, that Rolemaster handled well.
I've never actually picked up HARP, although I have most of the RMSS and RMFRP books stashed away.

It's similar but simplified. One of the big things they did was overhaul the spell system. I don't want to hijack the thread any more than I have already so if you are interested in more details email me at sealck at gmail dot com.