Battle of the ways to cast.

[Cheerful Coffin]

I figured this be a good idea to make a poll out of if any, vote for the most popularlist way to cast spells. There's two options, and after a three day commulative period all will be revealed on the best ways of spell-casting!

Here are the nominees..

SPD. (Spells Per Day.)
A d20 exsclusive idea, casters have a set placed number of spells for the day and can cast exsclusively that many. Simple, and efficient.. Newbies like it cause there's not much thought to it, oldies like it cause the number is ussually high and with spell-levels around nine to ten make spell-casting an exclusive sport of sorts. Some video games like pokemon have attempted this brand of exsclusive casting, but no digital game has come close to expressing the virtue of this system like a good old fashioned pen and paper adventure..

MP. (Magic Points.)
A more classic approach to magic. Many more video over table-top rpg games emphasize on a magic point or mana system. A pool of points that a player delves into depending on thier level and abilities, they draw from this pool to cast minor or great spells. In some ways it's flat-out better because they can waste enemies in a blink of an eye, but any veteran player knows that would be a mistake to put all your eggs in one basket. A tempting offer, but a ruling that requires a little more patience and understanding. Only recently has table-tops dabbeld in this spell-casting form with psionics and unearthed arcana.

Now it's time for you to pick your spell-casting style!

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I chose spells per day but with a caveat: I prefer the way it's run in Arcana Unearthed, with the spells readied/spell slots per day mechanics, as well as heightened/diminished spells, and so on. I think that's a vast improvement to the system, and I'd love to see standard DnD balanced with such an idea in mind.

 

[Ahnehnois]

The more generic the better. I kind of like spell points, but I would really like some system where caster accumulate mental fatigue.

 

[diaglo]

SPells per day is not exclusive to d02

 

[Jaws]

Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed

I chose spells per day but with a caveat: I prefer the way it's run in Arcana Unearthed, with the spells readied/spell slots per day mechanics, as well as heightened/diminished spells, and so on. I think that's a vast improvement to the system, and I'd love to see standard DnD balanced with such an idea in mind.

I agree with GoodKingJayIII. I recently played a wizard from regular 3.5 D&D. It was so boring. I now refuse to play any spellcaster from plain old D&D.


Peace and smiles

j.

 

[Felix]

Nor is "Spells per say" exclusive to "d20".

I really liked how Jack Vance portrayed his wizards as having to prepare way ahead of hand the spells they will need during the day. The closest thing to mana/spell points in my mind is Diablo, and I really don't assocaite that with too much role-playing. So... spells per day it is!

 

[Sado]

I picked points. You get more options for recharging other than "get a full night's rest or you can't cast anything". A point system allows you to partially recharge your magic instead of the all-or-nothing rest all night or else SPD method. If you only have a couple of hours to rest you could still get some points back. It would be a factor of how many hours you rest, maybe roll 1Dn for each hour you rest to determine how many points you get back.

I just don't like the cookie-cutter feel of completely recharging after a full night's rest, but half an hour less and your screwed.

I'm not the most qualified person to ask, however, as I rarely play magic-using characters. The D&D magic system as a whole is too complicated and convoluted for my taste.

 

[johfar373]

As a more traditional player, I prefer SPD over MP. I think SPD balances the differences between magic-user and fighter. In my opinion, using an MP based system would make magic-users even more powerful than they are now. Also, introducing MP to DnD would negate the Wizard class and converting the Wizard over to an MP system would require major changes. Since Wizards can potentially learn and memorize any spell, an MP system would give them the ability to cast any spell that they know without memorizing them - and even if they did have to prepare a certain number of spells per level before being able to use MP on them, the Wizard would become a Sorcerer.

 

[Wombat]

I like spellpoints, mutable spells, and other more "free form" systems over the usual (literal) "fire & forget" D&D version. The exact parameters do not concern me as much as flexibility and non-predictability.

This explains why, to date, Ars Magica is my favourite magic system.

 

[Aristotle]

I picked Spells Per Day; with the caveat that (in my opinion) the 3rd Edition rules, having casters who prepare as well as those who cast spontaneously, is the best implementation of spells per day thus far.

However... Had you included a third option of "Fatigue Based Casting" I would have voted for it immediately. I don't even know that a good (in my opinion) implementation of fatigue based casting has been produced for d20 yet, but the concept alone gets my vote. It just feels more like the fiction that I've grown up reading...