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Cantrip Auto-Scaling - A 5e Critique
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<blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 7535629" data-attributes="member: 20564"><p>And now for something completely different. I want to bring up how another d20 game like 5e handles cantrip and spell scaling. This is from 13th Age by Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo, so it's got D&D DNA chops. It came out a bit before 5e.</p><p></p><p>There are a few parts. This uses spell selection like earlier editions where you pick spells in slots - not you have spells known/prepared and then can cast any combination of them using your slots.</p><p></p><p>Your number of spell slots grows slowly. A wizard starts at five at 1st level to twelve at the highest level. But these slots drift up through the spell levels. So a 1st level character has five 1st level slots, a 3rd level character has only three 1st level slots but four slots of the next level up. At the highest class level, you have NINE slots of the highest spell level, and three slots of the level before it.</p><p></p><p>Every spell scales up based on slot, and stays competitive with higher level spells.</p><p></p><p>Now onto cantrips - every spell is either At-Will, Per Encounter, or Per Day. (And some special cases). Spells you can use less frequently are more powerful. (Oh, 13th Age is balanced around 4 encounters per day.)</p><p></p><p>So if you want At-Will casting, it's for you on how many of your slots you want to pick at-will spells for flexibility. And what level. Use one of your highest level slots at your at-will is strong, but there's the opportunity cost of not having a per encounter (more powerful) or per-day (even more powerful) spell available.</p><p></p><p>So the power of all spells including at-will scale with level just because you don't actually have lower level slots anymore. And the choice of more nova vs. more at-will is up to the player.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue, post: 7535629, member: 20564"] And now for something completely different. I want to bring up how another d20 game like 5e handles cantrip and spell scaling. This is from 13th Age by Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo, so it's got D&D DNA chops. It came out a bit before 5e. There are a few parts. This uses spell selection like earlier editions where you pick spells in slots - not you have spells known/prepared and then can cast any combination of them using your slots. Your number of spell slots grows slowly. A wizard starts at five at 1st level to twelve at the highest level. But these slots drift up through the spell levels. So a 1st level character has five 1st level slots, a 3rd level character has only three 1st level slots but four slots of the next level up. At the highest class level, you have NINE slots of the highest spell level, and three slots of the level before it. Every spell scales up based on slot, and stays competitive with higher level spells. Now onto cantrips - every spell is either At-Will, Per Encounter, or Per Day. (And some special cases). Spells you can use less frequently are more powerful. (Oh, 13th Age is balanced around 4 encounters per day.) So if you want At-Will casting, it's for you on how many of your slots you want to pick at-will spells for flexibility. And what level. Use one of your highest level slots at your at-will is strong, but there's the opportunity cost of not having a per encounter (more powerful) or per-day (even more powerful) spell available. So the power of all spells including at-will scale with level just because you don't actually have lower level slots anymore. And the choice of more nova vs. more at-will is up to the player. [/QUOTE]
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Cantrip Auto-Scaling - A 5e Critique
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