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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DogBackward" data-source="post: 3446127" data-attributes="member: 50642">Monte Cook has an article I just read (linked from another thread), which got me thinking. Admittedly, I only got about halfway through it before inspiration struck, but I thought I'd pop in and see what other people thought of it.The article is <a href="http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?otherd20_Spellcasters" target="_blank">here</a>.My idea is rather simple. Like Monte said, there are certain spells that are both simple enough and ubiquitous enough that they really don't need to be limited to "I can do this once and it's gone." It wouldn't hurt balance to have them be available more often, even at will.I've been working, on and off, on a mana-based magic system for a year or so now, and this article kinda spurred me on with a new idea. Spells could be given two designations: Simple and Complex. You would have a mana pool, based on caster level and your primary ability score. This mana pool would regenerate at the rate of 1/round, as long as you don't cast a spell in that round.Simple spells use one mana per caster level, possibly using the psionics method of augmentation. So, you could sit here and use simple spells over and over again without doing much more than waiting a few rounds in between.Complex spells, however, only use one mana per spell level, and are more powerful or more useful, whatever. The drawback, however, is that using a Complex spell drains your mana for good. Mana spent to cast a complex spell does not return at the normal 1/round rate, but refreshes after you get your 8 hours of rest, like normal spells.This would serve to make sure that casters are always usefull, throughout the day. It will also serve to keep things balanced, as you can't just go off and use all of your best spells at will. And you still have to pay attention to resources. Even though you can use your Simple spells all day without worry, if you spend all your mana on Complex spells, you won't be able to use those Simple spells anymore, since they both draw from the same pool.So, what do you all think about that? I think I'll probably run with it, see how well it works out, though I'm not sure I'd be up to seperating all the spells into Simple/Complex. I'll damn well give it a try, though...</blockquote>

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