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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 2273362" data-attributes="member: 12332">Here's one of my problems, with playtesting, with a Skill DC based system (although I haven't playtested Wulf's, but I'd sho' like to).Too many variables.Too much variance.Between Skill Focus, Ability Scores, possibility to add Savant (if there), max ranks exceeding level:  By 5th level you have situations where most of the lower "high" DCs are consistantly reachable.  Of course you add penalties in there as well, but to me it eventually begs the question:  Why the skill roll at all?  It might add a moment of nail-biting, but it's usually the PENALTY that keeps people from doing whatever they're going to do, at least as far as I've seen.  The most effective method I've playtested for keeping people from using spells AT ALL was to spread different sorts of ability drain across the spell.  No way to reduce it, no rolls needed to cast:  You can cast Destroy My Foes whenever you want to, but your character will be a drooling idiot for a week thereafter. I've never seen somebody chew their fingers about casting a spell as much as then.With Black Company the DCs have done one thing:  Denied spells to the player.  But not quite the way I thought they would.  And, really, I should have thought of it ... instead it becomes easiest to do one thing and one thing REALLY WELL:  Dish out damage.  If DCs are hard to make, the DCs worth making are the ones that blast your foes to splinders.  All that fancy crud like utility spells just aren't worth it.  If they're hard to cast, then concentrate on the hard to cast stuff that does direct damage.  The only thing that limits his ability to do damage is his ability to take the penalties associated with it.Don't get me wrong, I love the CONCEPT of skill based casting, but I think it has some issues.EDIT:  I think this same problem exists with the core of GT's current casting system.  Casting is so HARD that unless you don't give them access to combat spells, the only spells that are worth the chance of getting totally buggered by the penalties are the spells that deal direct damage.  You can burn your Str for Protection from Evil or Burning Hands ... save it for Burning Hands.  Utility spells get more and more relegated to the "between adventures" times when the damage isn't going to be directly crippling.  The difficult Caster Level Check, then, becomes something that makes the player cast only a single type of spell.  (which you then have to deny to the players, for the most part, to force them to do something else)--fje</blockquote>

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