Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5972352" data-attributes="member: 54877">Break spells down into three groups, roughly by power for their level:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Minor spells - can pretty much be cast on a whim or as a reaction, feather fall being the prime example, but other defensive/reactive spells could fall in this group.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Standard spells - use the standard D&D casting mechanics.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Major spells - must be "prepared" in one round as an action, then "cast" in a second round as an action.  You can still move while doing this.  (And yes, I stole this blatantly from Dragon Quest casting.)</li> </ol>This makes using one of the "big gun" major spells something to consider a bit more carefully.  It's a spell that is much easier to interrupt, even if taking damage only makes you start over instead of losing it.  Plus, in this system, any opponent familiar with spell casting at all knows that if you start casting and haven't finished before they get to react, it's something big worth trying to interrupt. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> I agree that when things start taking three, four, five rounds, it isn't going ot work in a D&D system--at least not one that moves at a speed that most of us would find tolerable.  Two rounds to really let someone have it, though, is manageable.  Players already have instances where particular rounds aren't all that useful.  If they can start something that will pay off next round, then so much the better.  Major spells will be a lousy choice when a wizard gets surrounded, but I see this as feature, not bug.  Because each spell level will have minor, standard, and major choices, the player can choose the mix they want.  If someone wants to play uber-strategic wizard with carefully hoarded power, and depend on the rest of the group to keep him protected, he can.  Or if he wants to stick to traditional D&D, he can go all standard.  The most effective route is probably a mix--but playing to the choices you make will be more important than anything else.   That will help around the edges on the nova, because players prone to nova are going to be really tempted by the extra bang from those major spells.  Or if they get too char op, realizing that two standards are more effective in the moment than one major (but at the cost of burning twice as much resources), the DM and the rest of the group can more readily say, "Tough.  We aren't just playing for effectiveness in the moment.  You want to blow stuff up freely, take some majors and suck up the preparation time."</blockquote>

Verification