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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 6639679" data-attributes="member: 40177">I really like what you went with.  It's a cool rule, and it fits a nice theme that we don't get in D&D.  It actually reminds me of Shadowrun (as opposed to Dragonlance, as another poster mentioned).  In Shadowrun, you cast spells, and it could cause stun damage to you.  Cast the big ones, or the ones you didn't know too well, and it could hurt you just as bad as a gun shot.  I've played games as the group mage where I was taking buttloads of stimulants, trying to keep my stun damage down, while throwing off all sorts of magical mojo, hoping I'd stay alive long enough in the now to probably die when the stims wore off.  It's fun, and it's a nice model of trying to heroically "push your luck". Now, for the down side on this.  And it's a problem that crops up in every role-playing game that tries to model this "heroic magical drain". A concentration check is a constitution check.  Basically, you've now created a system where many more concentration checks will be conceivably made.  Meaning, for wizards to succeed, they're going to want to have a high concentration score.  In other words, it's quite possible you'll see wizard players making constitution their second highest score, instead of dexterity or wisdom.  Which leads to big, beefy wizards.  Could be fine for your game, but I always feel there's a thematic disconnect.  How does Raistlin, scrawny pup that he is, get to be the best wizard evar?  Or, if Shadowrun went this route, why do all the good wizards have better health than the typical street samurai?My suggestion would be to change this to a different ability score.  Instead of being a concentration check (which can also be modified by feats!), make it it's own thing.  And make it a wisdom check, or even an intelligence check (having it key off the caster's prime stat is nice, mechanically at least).  It becomes less about enduring the pain of holding multiple spells, and more about, well, actually trying to concentrate on multiple spell formulae at once.</blockquote>

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