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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 228000" data-attributes="member: 3051">Okay, this is obviously a major thing here, but I wanted to post this here for a while now.  A while back me, along with some DMing friends, tried to make a modified version of 3E for a custom world.  Among other things, no Wizard class (see below).Anyhoo, this whole "casting in armor" thing was a big sticking point.  If arcane and divine casters are all using somatic components (gestures), why is one penalized for armor and the other isn't?  If it's just training, then why is a multiclass Sor/Clr still penalized when casting as a Sorcerer?  If it's NOT just training, then why?So, we tweaked the whole concept of magic.  Basically, IMC there are four fundamental types of magic: Arcane (Sor/Brd), Psionic (Psi/PsyW), Divine (Clr/Pal), and Natural (Dru/Rng).  Arcane and Psionic (or Blood and Mind magic, or Chaos and Law magic) are innate; you're either born with the talent or not; Elves favor Sorcery (being more Chaotic) while Gnomes favor Psionics (being more Lawful in my world).  Divine is given by a god (so you have to act as he'd want you to), but anyone can learn it.  Natural is drawn from the world around you (and thus not subject to the whole good/evil debate as no one is monitoring your actions), and anyone can learn it.There were some nice advantages to this, like allowing multiclasses within a type to combine (i.e., a Cleric/Paladin combines caster levels and spell lists/slots while a Cleric/Druid couldn't).  But we're interested in the Arcane Failure part here.In the Netbook of Feats is:Armored CasterArcane Failure is reduced by 10%.  This may be taken multiple times.So, what we did was change "Arcane Failure" to "Somatic Failure".  Everyone is subject to it now, except Psionic casters since they don't use gestures.Arcane classes are treated the same as before.  (Well, I also changed the Bard class a bit, removing the healing spells but giving a few free feats from a very limited list, including Armored Caster and weapon proficiencies)Divine classes get free Armored Caster feats at various levels; Clerics and Paladins each get 2 or 3 spaced out over their levels.  This represents the training they go through.Natural classes don't get free Armored Caster feats, but for them all organic ingredient armors (leather/wood) have Somatic Failure of 10% less than listed (no negative numbers), while inorganic armors (metal/crystal) have 10% higher than listed.  Really exotic stuff that doesn't easily fit into either category is unchanged.  The reason is, beyond the difficulty of doing gestures in heavy armor, the magic itself doesn't flow through you as easily if you're in metal armor, while organic armors actually help focus it.So that's it.  If your Druid puts on platemail, he casts with a horrendous failure rate, but he's not cursed for the day because he doesn't answer to a higher authority.  If your Bard wants to cast without failure, he can learn.This is somewhat of a nerf of the Cleric/Paladin/Ranger classes, but I tweaked them a bit too, especially how Domains are handled.</blockquote>

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