erisred said:
Have you done anything more with this idea?
I was thinking about something very similar, and thought I'd post it in this thread.
Each spell *is* a skill, a class skill for Magic Users, cross-class for certain other classes (Bard, maybe) and off-limits for still others (Fighter). The Magic User can put skill ranks into spells, up to the normal max, at each level, and receive skill points each level at the same rate as a Rogue.
Spells have a DC of 10 + (Spell Level x 3). You roll the normal 1d20 + Ability + Skill against the DC as per normal with 20 being a "critical success" and 1 being an automatic "critical failure."
A couple of examples:
Will the Level 1 Wizard has +3 INT and maxed his Ray of Frost for 1st level at +4. He casts it, rolling 1d20+3+4 against a DC of 10+(0x3) and succeeds 85% of the time. Will also maxed Magic Missile (+4), when he casts it he rolls 1d20+3+4 against a DC of 13 succeeding 70% of the time. However, he didn't put any skill points into Light (lvl-0) or Sleep (lvl-1) although they *are* in his Spellbook, so he *can* attempt to cast them. His attempt to cast Light succeeds only 65% of the time, and his Sleep spells succeed only 50% of the time.
Later in the game Will has leveled up a few times, added more spells to his book and more points to various spells and a point to his INT ability. His Lvl-0 are almost automatic and his Lvl-1 spells are almost automatic, but his newest spell...let's say Fireball...only has 4 ranks in it has a DC of 19. Will rolls d20+4+4 against that 19 DC with only a 50% chance of success. He'll get better as he adds Levels and more skill points, but the highest level spells remain harder for him.
Will is finally at Level 17 and he can now cast a 9th level spell. He picked Meteor Swarm (of course) and puts all 15 of his skill points from leveling up into it. When he tries to cast it, it's d20+5+15 against a 37 DC! Isn't that only a 15% chance of success? Oh well! He's still able to Fireball on almost every turn and Chain Lightning succeeds most of the time. He can always add more skill points to Meteor Swarm as he moves up to Lvl-18 and 19 and make this powerful spell a more reliable part of his game, but that will be at the expense of adding other high level spells to his Spellbook.
Thoughts?
It is gratifying and surprising to see this thread after so long.
I like that you have removed the per-level bonus to casting checks. It makes more sense than what I was trying to do before. Let's see if I can remember what I decided on, finally.
Wizards cast spells using a skill check based on one of the 8 schools. Call it Spellcasting (Evocation), etc. This can be further refined or combined as desired.
Each wizard level gained, the wizard gets X-number of skill points to be divided among skills, as usual, and the number would be a bit higher to accommodate the specific Spellcasting skills.
The wizard also gets one spell point times the new class level, plus one spell point for each point of intelligence modifier. The spell points are divided among spell levels, with a first-level spell costing 1 point, the second level costing two points, third costing three points, etc.
To cast a spell, the roll is 1d20 +(intelligence modifier) + (Spellcasting[school]ranks) +1/10 wizard levels, versus DC = 10 + spell-level(# of consecutive castings)+([spell-level]-[wizard-level]).
Will the 1st-level wizard has Ray of Frost as an apprentice spell, or a cantrip. It has a base DC of 9 on first casting, 10 on second, 11 on third, etc. DC = 10 + (0) + (0-1=-1) = 9. Versus his Intelligence modifier of +3 and his Spellcasting (Evocation) ranks of +4, a 2 or higher on a d20 casts the spell. A next-round casting of the same spell adds one to this DC.
If Will has a level of Armor and two of Magic Missile (using up all of his spell points for first level), he could cast Armor(1 point DR per level, disipates with strike/level, stacks with self) with a DC of 11 first casting, and Magic Missile at DC 13 first casting. Consecutive casting for each would be DC 12 and 15, respectively. Given Will's +3 intelligence mod and his 4 ranks in Spellcasting (Evocation), Magic Missile 2 is going to take a 6 or higher to cast. He let's say he wanted to be able to protect himself somewhat, and maxed out Spellcasting (Abjuration) also, so he has a +7 to cast those spells as well. Lowest success for Armor is 5 for the first casting.
For each round spent not casting, the DCs of all spells drop by 1, never going lower than their first-casting DC. Other spells cast do not add to the resistance of current spells, but any casting prevents this reduction of resistance.
EDIT: I also decided that a critical failure on a casting check (a second failure after a natural one) has an effect-related disastrous result, and a critical success (a success after a natural 20) has maximum effect. END EDIT.
I think that's all of it, but this is without looking anything up. Tell me what you think, if you'd like.
