D&D 5E 5E Homebrew Magic System and Class

[Isaac Ward]

Mage 5e class

Hit Dice: 1d6 per Mage level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per Mage level after 1st

Starting Proficiencies
You are proficient with the following items, in addition to any proficiencies provided by your race or background.

Armor: none
Weapons: daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows
Tools: none
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion

Starting Equipment
You start with the following items, plus anything provided by your background.

• (a) a Quarterstaff or (b) a Dagger
• (a) a Scholar's Pack or (b) an Explorer's Pack
• A Recipe Book

Alternatively, you may start with 4d4 x 10 gp to buy your own Equipment.

1 Spell Craft, Fast Casting
2 Archtype
3
4 Ability Score Increase
5
6 Archtype
7
8 Ability Score Increase
9
10 Archtype
11
12 Ability Score Increase
13
14 Archtype
15
16 Ability Score Increase
17
18 Mastery
19 Ability Score Increase
20 Archmastery

MP Gained per Level: 30 MP at first level, plus 30 for each level thereafter.

Spell Craft: A mage can cast any Spell Recipe they have prepared and have enough MP to cast. Spell Recipes may be prepared during a short or long rest. A mage can prepare a number of Spell Recipes equal to (1/2 Mage Level) + Int modifier, minimum 1.

Spell save dc: 8+prof+intelligence modifier
Spell Attack: prof+intelligence modifier

Fast casting: A mage can cast a Spell Recipe they don't have prepared by paying double the mp cost of the Spell Recipe, and succeeding at an Arcana check equal to half the adjusted MP cost of the spell. Any reoccurring costs after the first expenditure of mp are paid for at their normal mana cost.

3 Archtypes

Rogue
2- Expertise in 1 skill or tool, sneak attack 1d6
6- Sneak attack 2d6, Cunning Action
10- Expertise 1 skill or tool, Evasion, sneak attack 3d6
14- Reliable talent, Sneak attack 4d6

Fighter
2- Crit 19-20, Fighting style
6- Extra Attack
10- Action surge
14- Crit 18-20, extra attack 2.

Wizard
2- Magic initiate feat
6- 1 third or second level spell 1/day, one additional use of first level spell from MI.
10- 2 aditional cantrips, additional use of 6th LvL ability.
14- learn 6th lvl spell 1/day

18th Level: Mastery
Make one spell recipe that costs 20mp or less. You always have this recipe prepared, and it doesn't count against your total number of prepared recipes. Casting this recipe costs 0mp.

20th kevel: Archmastery
Make one spell recipe that costs 30mp or less. You always have this recipe prepared, and it doesn't count against your total number of prepared recipes. Casting this recipe costs half its normal mp cost.

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Spell Recipe System

Basics
-A Spell Recipe must have at least one of each of the following Ingredients: Target, Range, Challenge, Effect and Casting Time. It may also have up to 1 material component, 1 verbal component, and 1 somatic component. The total MP Cost of a Spell Recipe is the sum of its Ingredient's MP cost.

Target
-Caster: -1 mp
-Creature: 1 mp
-Object: 0mp
Note: If a Spell Recipe contains multiple Targets, the highest Target MP Value is paid. Example: If a Spell Recipe Targets both a creature and the Caster, the Target MP Value is 1. If a Spell Recipe Targets two creatures, the Target MP Value is still 1, as it isn't cumulative.

Range
-Bolt: 1mp/30 feet, additional bolts cost 2 mp/30 feet. Damage is evenly divided amongst all bolts, whether they hit or miss. The number of Bolts can't exceed the Caster's Proficiency Bonus. Each additional Bolt may select a different target, or a target already being selected.
Example: If spell has two bolts that both travel 60 feet, the Range Ingredient would cost 6 mp. If one Bolt hit and one Bolt missed, and the damage rolled was 6, the Bolt that hit would deal 3 damage.
-Touch: 0mp, can only target 1 enemy or object.

Challenge
-Caster: 0mp
-Saving Throw for Half damage: 3mp
-Saving Throw for No damage: 1 mp
-Spell Attack: 2mp
-No Save/Attack: Double spell cost after calculating recipe without Challenge. The spell automatically hits and the effect occurs. Can only be used with damage/healing effects.

Effects
-Damage/Healing:
1d4: 1mp
1d6: 2mp
1d8: 3mp
1d10: 4mp
1d12: 5mp
(Number of dice in a damaging/healing effect can't exceed the Mage's level. When determining Damage/Healing cost, increase the mp cost by 1 for every die used after the first. For example, 2d4 costs 3 mp, 2d6 costs 5 mp, 3d10 costs 14. Also, if a target of a spell saves against the spell for half damage, round damage down.)
Damage types:
Bludgeoning, piercing, slashing- 0mp
Fire, Cold, Lightning, Force- 1mp
Radiant, Necrotic, Poison, Thunder- 2mp
Psychic- 3mp
(Note: Your DM may allow you to use nondamaging elemental effects like lighting a campfire with Fire magic or amplifying your voice with Thunder magic, and these should generally cost 1 less mp than their normal cost. For effects like these, your DM has final say.)

-Movement: 1mp/10 pounds moved, when moving 9 pounds or less the cost is 0 mp. Range of movement is 1 mp/30 feet, 29 or less feet of movement costs 0 mp.

Status Effects
-Charmed: 1mp/round, if you or an ally attacks the charmed creature, charm ends. Can be saved against at the beginning of each of the targets turns in combat.
-Frightened: 1 mp/round. Can be saved against at the beginning of each of the targets turns in combat.
-Invisible: 1mp/round, attacking drains 1 mp from mana pool or ends spell, caster's choice.
-Sleep: 20mp/5d8 effect. If the total dice rolled for this effect exceeds the targets current HP, the target falls unconscious.
-Teleport: 1mp/30 feet. Willing target is teleported without error a number of feet equal to the effect purchased. Location of teleportation must be in the casters line of sight.

Casting Time
-Bonus Action: 3mp
-Reaction: 2mp
-Action: 0mp
-1 minute: -1 mp from spell total
-1 hour: -5 mp from spell total
Note: Spells that are cast as a bonus action or reaction must be prepared, and cannot be quick-cast.

Recipe Aids
-Material Component worth 1 gold or more: -1 1mp cost
Note: Component pouch and Arcane Focus fulfill the same requirement as a unique material component of 1 gold or higher, but do not stack with that material component.
-Material component worth 1 platinum or more: -5 mp cost
-Material component worth 10 platinum or more: -10 mp cost
-Verbal component: -2 mp
-Somatic component: -1 mp

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This is essentially an alpha build of the class, I've done some minimal balance vs. The wizard class. I'm by no means a professional content balancer, so any comments or constructive criticism is welcome.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Just from a skim, I'd suggest that you swap Poison into the cheaper damage types, and Force into the more expensive types. Force damage is very unusually resisted, whereas there are a lot more enemies resistant or flat-out immune to poison.

 

[Isaac Ward]

Just from a skim, I'd suggest that you swap Poison into the cheaper damage types, and Force into the more expensive types. Force damage is very unusually resisted, whereas there are a lot more enemies resistant or flat-out immune to poison.

Indeed.

 

[Blue]

I'm really concerned with this much flexibility, especially to pull out anything you didn't have prepared earlier at some additional cost. For example, being able to create recipes with any elemental type means that you can avoid all resistances and target all vulnerabilities.

What about if all start with some building blocks for recipes, and then learn new ones as they advance levels? This would also allow you to mix in more types of spells without allowing every caster to do everything.

 

[ccooke]

Hmm. I think you need to rethink a few things in your balancing. Some examples built with your material:

[sblock=Greater Greater Invisibility]
Greater Greater Invisibility
Target:
Creature (1)
Range:
Touch (0)
Challenge:
Saving throw for no damage (1)
Effects:
1d4 healing (1)
Status Effects:
Invisible 10 rounds (10)
Casting Time:
Bonus Action (3)
Recipe Aid:
Verbal component: (-2)
Somatic component: (-1)
Material (focus): (-1)

Total: 1 + 1 + 1 + 10 + 3 -2 -1 -1 = 14mp

This is a spell that a first level character can cast twice per day. It heals 1d4 hit points on the target (because by the RAW you must have an effect, and there's no option for "No effect"), then makes them invisible for 1 minute without concentration.
If that first-level character wishes, they can cast it twice per day *and* attack once per casting without breaking invisibility. At 2nd level, they can cast it three times and have a total of 16 rounds of attacks without breaking invisibility.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Magic Missile]
Magic Missile
Target:
Creature (1)
Range:
3 bolts, 120'. 4 for first 8 for 2&3 20p
Challenge:
No save/attack (double cost)
Effects:
3d6 (2+3+4) 9
Force: 1
Casting time:
Action (0)
Recipe aid:
Mat Foc (-1)
Verb (-2)
Som (-1)

-4 + 10 + 20 + 1 = 27 * 2 = 54

This is the equivalent of 1st-level magic missile. It's using 1d6 vs 1d4+1, because the average damage is the same. It has three bolts, which means it can't actually be cast until level 5, but that's reasonable because it's impossible to cast at 1st level anyway. Even a level 2 caster would have trouble casting anything else in the same day.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Firebolt]
Firebolt
Target:
Creature (1)
Range:
120', 1 bolt. (4)
Challenge:
Spell Attack: (2)
Effects:
1d10 (4)
Fire (1)
Aids:
Mat Foc (-1)
Verb (-2)
Som (-1)

12 - 4 = 8.

Here's the standard cantrip Firebolt. It comes out at 8 points, or around three castings for a 1st level character
[/sblock]

[sblock=Misty Step]
Misty Step

Target:
Caster (-1)
Range:
Touch (0)
Challenge:
Saving throw for no damage (1)
Effects:
1d4 healing (1)
Status Effects:
Teleport 30' (1)
Casting Time
Bonus Action (3)
Recipe Aids
Verbal (-2)

6 - 3 = 3

This is a version of the usually 2nd level Misty Step which a 1st level Mage can cast 10 times in a day. It also heals 1d4 points currently due to the effect anomaly.
[/sblock]

Some points:

• You're not taking Concentration effects into consideration, and that wildly affects balance on some of your effects
• Try rebuilding existing spells in your system. Right now, non-damage is far too cheap and damage is too expensive. Healing looks to be a bit too cheap, too. I believe I could make a 0mp recipe that allows you to self-heal 1d6 as a bonus action, for instance.
• As people mentioned, force damage should be at least as expensive as Psychic.
• I think you're taking too much in your archetypes, too - you're giving full-sized class features. I would scale back a lot, personally.
• You're missing which saves the class is proficient in.

Feedback aside, it's an interesting concept I'd like to see more of. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

No concentration mention? Is it assumed that all ongoing spells require it, or that none do?

I'd suggest teleportation and maybe moving objects have cost proportional with the square of distance/weight.

The maths for damage dice could do with clarification. Mentioning that you pay the dice cost for eachdice, plus the additional 1 per additional dice would help. (Initially I dead it as paying once for the size of dice and then once for the number of dice.)

Hmmm. With a level 1 dip, a Rogue could probably effectively have Improved Invisibility up throughout most of the day's combat rounds. Maybe a little less if they wanted to cast as a reaction so as to not waste any useful actions while in combat. I'd suggest reducing the MP per level a fair amount.

 

[ccooke]

Some more thoughts on balancing:
Your 30mp/level doesn't respect the tiering of magic. If you look at existing spells, levels 1 and 2 are comparable for their power rating - a 2nd level spell is often around twice the effective power of a level 1 spell, give or take. 3rd level spells - which you get at level 5, the first character tier transition - are much, much more powerful. 6th and 7th level spells are a jump from 5th, because you get them around the level 11 second tier transition. Effectively, these are two points when character power should jump noticeably to match the other classes.
Secondly, when you balance your MP system, consider the equivalent effects that a standard full caster can achieve at the same level. Ideally, you want the same power level with a distinct feel. Consider that there are effects that simply don't exist until later levels - basic invisibility, for instance, is something that only exists in level 2 spells or higher.

 

[Isaac Ward]

Okay, these are some good points and stuff to look into. Ill drop poison down a tier and drag force to psychics mp value. Maybe put minimum caster level on invisibility so you must be third level, and do something similar with other effects. Also make teleport have different levels, like lesser teleport for earlier spells and greater teleport later that is more cost effective. A note in concentration should be made, I honestly didn't take that into consideration. Not sure what ill do with healing yet. Thanks for the input so far!