Best Magic System

[Aust Diamondew]

I see merits to all of them the one I really don't like is spell points.

 

[resistor]

I have a hypothetical system I'd like to see that's something of a hybrid of Mana Points, and Recharge Magic from UA.

Basically, a caster should have a pool of mana points, and spend them to cast spells. But rather than regenerating each day, the points spent should regenerate after a period of time determined by the spell.

I like spell points, and I like the IDEA of Recharge Magic, but the idea that you could have exhausted your 3rd level spell while still having 5th level ones available seems a bit silly.

 

[Nyeshet]

I'm actually working on a supplement that finally does go the last step and make everything a magical skill. It was going to be coming out before Gen Con, but ENnies duties pushed it back, so look for it at the end of August.

Basically I took what I liked best from EOM and Grim Tales. There are two ways to get magic. One is the research approach, where you find ancient texts and figure out how to cast the spells in them, or if you're really good you can create one or two spells.

[snip, due to length / space concerns]

It does a little bit of everything. There's even a section with advice on how to tweak a few rules here or there and easily change the tone of the magic system greatly.

Sounds very nice. I enjoyed EoMR and LA, so I'll keep a look out for this one.

 

[danzig138]

Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying Game. I really liked the magic system in that.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I liked the theory behind AU magic system... had a lot of funky ideas - particularly: Using a higher/lower level of spell slot to get different effects. Certain spells were recognised as more powerful and required a feat to learn, other groups just an expanded 'sphere' of magic. We played a campaign with it, but it never quite 'felt' right - not sure how that happened. I'd like to see the system transferred to core D20 spells.

Psionics works nicely as a power point system, few janky bits in there, but overall I like it.

Outside of D20, I really like both Ars Magica and Shadowrun systems. Although the only balance to AM is that everyone has a mage character - they're light years more impressive than normal people. Shadowrun is good, found it worked great for the setting and setting. IMO mages were well 'entertainment balanced' with other character types. A large part of this down to the way skills were picked - making it entirely possible for mages to have other areas of expertise to complement their magic.

However, the core DnD system has a certain familiarity to it. It's like wearing comfortable old clothes. It may not look the best but it feels great. Particularly like the way it works with sorcerors - a great 3rd ed addition IMO.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, as far as setting systems go, I am enjoying WFRP.v2's system, character 'points' dice are rolled against target number to cast spells and has a built in side-effect system if you roll doubles or triples or...skills, locations. items, give pluses to total rolled. Simple system used in other games but with setting built in.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

If you are sticking with Vancian, then AE is the way to go hands down. That or the Wheel of Time system.

Ah, hmmmm....AU/E isn't Vancian, man
Vancian != spell slots; Vancian = memorizing specific spells and forgetting them as you cast them.

I like AU/E, EoM[R], WFRP v2, and Grim Tales. I'm easy to please

 

[diaglo]

Vancian

 

[Rel]

I have a hypothetical system I'd like to see that's something of a hybrid of Mana Points, and Recharge Magic from UA.

Basically, a caster should have a pool of mana points, and spend them to cast spells. But rather than regenerating each day, the points spent should regenerate after a period of time determined by the spell.

I like spell points, and I like the IDEA of Recharge Magic, but the idea that you could have exhausted your 3rd level spell while still having 5th level ones available seems a bit silly.

This is sort of like an idea that I think would be neat where you have a pool of mana points based on character class and level to draw from but they regenerate at a rate set by the character class and level. So for example you might wind up with the Wizard class who has a pool of say 10 points per level and the Sorcerer who has a pool of 5 points per level. But the Wizard recharges 1 point per level per hour and the Sorcerer recharges 3 points per level per hour. This would mean that (like fighter types) they could keep on doing what they do, but they need to at least take a breather between battles if possible.

I'm too lazy to actually do this up right but I'd love to read it if someone else did the work.

 

[RFisher]

I prefer magic to be mostly reliable. (There's only a good chance of failure--& especially spectacular failure--when a mage is pushing the limits of his ability. Saving throws or resistance is OK, though.) Other than that, I'm pretty open to whatever seems to fit the genre.