Alternate Magic System (Instead of spells per day.)

[Angcuru]

I believe I have thought up a good alternate magic system. Instead of spells per day, you have spell power. Converting from the spells-per-day system, you assign a number of points per spell +1 level in place of the memorized spell. I.E.

Spells per day 3 LVL 0, 1 LVL 1, would give the caster 5 spell points. 1 for each lvl 0 spell, and 2 for the lvl 1 spell. So instead of 3 lvl0 and 1 lvl1, the caster could toss out 2 lvl1 and a lvl0, using up all his points.

Simplified: Instead of having 3 cantrips and 1 lvl 1 spell memorized, you have 5 spell points, which you can use at will. A cantrip costs 1 spell point, and a lvl 1 spell costs 1 spell point. Simple and easy.

So if you were to have (as example) in SPD, 5 cantrips, 4 lvl 1 spells, 3 lvl 2 spells, 2 lvl 3 spells, and 1 lvl 4 spell, you would in my alternate system have:
5(5cantrips)+8(4 lvl 1 spells)+9(3 lvl 2 spells)+8(2 lvl 3 spells)+5(1 lvl 4 spell)=for a total of 25 spell points. A lvl 4 spell costs 5 spell points, so instead of casting all those other low level spells, the mage could unleash it all in 5 lvl 4 spells. The mage would burn out quickly, but would have been better able to display his mastery of the magical arts by unleashing his power as he so desires.

it doesn't upset the balance between sorcerers and wizards either. sorcerers still have WAY more power points, but know fewer spells. this works out fine, since magic is a learned ability for wizards, so they can unleash it in a great variety of ways, but not as often as the sorcerer, who has magic as an innate ability, and can cast more frequently, but in a less versatile manner.

Whatcha think of this one, guys? It would still have to use the mage's spells per day to figure out his spell points, but it's much easier on both the mage and the DM.

 

[Plane Sailing]

You will probably get more (and better) responses from this in the House Rules forum - plus as an added advantage it won't scroll off the front page so quickly!

Cheers

 

[Angcuru]

alrighty then.

 

[geezerjoe]

We played with something like this when 2e was out and really liked it ... this was before the Sorcerer though and dumped the idea with 3e since we were no longer familure enough with the system to start tinkering with it.

Laziness has kept me from attempting anything similar with 3e

[Cast Minor Hijack] One thing I've always thought would be cool is if you could burn ability points to cast spells on the fly ... though the expense should be high ... maybe this could be a feat in the new system or whatever ... [End Minor Hijack Duration]

Anyway .. just my $.02

l8r

Joe2Old

 

[Jeph]

I'm assuming that Clerics, Wizards, etc would still prepare spells? If so, seems fine (although it might get pretty skewed at high levels). If not, totally broken and stop thinking about it this instant, you just drove a diamond-coated blade through the sorcerer's brain.

Although you could just use the Psionics rules . . .

 

[Umbran]

I personally think the ability to change a bunch of low level spells for a couple high-level ones would be a bit of a problem. Spell power does nto increase linearly. Turn in a few magic missiles and such for a Wish? No thank you.

 

[KingOfChaos]

If you want to do this, then simply take the power point system from the PsiHB and combine it with the wizard or sorcerer spell progression.

 

[kenjib]

If you want to do this, then simply take the power point system from the PsiHB and combine it with the wizard or sorcerer spell progression.

You have to do one more thing to make this work, which is to tie damage dice for spells more closely to spell level. So, a fireball only does 5d6 damage, and does not scale with caster level. As an optional addition, for each additional caster-level of damage you want it to do (+d6 for fireball, up to maximum of your caster level of course) you must spend an additional power point.

Example 1: Fireball
5d6 = 5pp
6d6 = 6pp
7d6 = 7pp
etc.

Example 2: Magic missile
1 missile = 1pp
2 missiles = 3pp
3 missiles = 5pp
etc.

You will notice in the psi-handbook that all damage spells do fixed damage. With this one change, the wizard/sorcerer spells will, for the most part, be psi-handbook compatible. You can leave other effects tied to caster level as-is, like range and duration, since psi handbook powers do scale these types of things already.

 

[Stalker0]

Isn't this system basically just like the psionics system? I don't really see a difference.

I've seen many house rules to trade up lower slots for higher slots. For example 2 1st for a 2nd, 4 1st for a third, 8 for a 4th, etc. I'd say using 4 magic missiles to create a fireball is balanced.

 

[Asmodean]

I actually made a system almost exactly like this but I scrapped it when I saw that as you advance in level, your powerlevel just becomes ludicrous.

Example: under your system, a 17th level wizard would have 164 points, which is enough for 16 9th level spells!

For a more moderate example, a 9th level wizard would have 52 points, enough for 8 5th level spells when he really should only be able to cast 1.

This system is wonderfull at the low levels, but it quickly becomes a campaign-destroying magic system that is just not fun for anyone who isn't a magic user. Consider that the monsters you'd ordinarily throw up against a 9th level party would be easily delt with by these super mages. And if you throw stronger monsters at the party or magic immune monsters at the mage, either the non magic characters would suffer for it, or your mage would feel unjustly targeted by the DM.

If you really want a free form magic system that I think you're trying to create, I have not seen a better system than White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension. I recommend you take a look at it. Perhapes you can use this as a model for your future alternate magic systems?