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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5975678" data-attributes="member: 54877">Here's another mechanical option that I'm going to throw out there more because of the thinking behind it than necessarily the option itself: Assuming spells starts with a model something like a hybrid of AD&D and 3E (i.e. spells by levels increasing, but toned down compared to top-end 3E casters), then use a recharge mechanic on slots. Specifically, every time a slot gets used, the slot itself becomes "exhausted." Once a slot is exhauted, it regains one level per day. So if you cast fireball in a 3rd level spell slot, it turns into a zero level slot. After you rest, it's a 1st level spell slot, and thus takes 3 rests to get back to full power. If spell slots get completely out of control, that might get unwieldy. But it does a pretty good job of providing a reason for why you can't cast spells again without "preparation." You've got the knowledge of the spell all the time, but the slot has no energy left until it recharges. In fact, I'd even be tempted to extend that model so that you don't need a spell book to regain the spell, if you want to leave it the same. You wait three days and don't touch that 3rd level slot, it's still got a fireball in it. Save the (big, thick, troublesome) spell books for changing the spell in a slot. (You could still allow a "traveling spell book" with a handful of spells for some utility swapping.) But I digress. The more interesting aspect of this mechanic, IMHO, is that it addresses the "wizard's run out of things to do" AD&D problem with "more slots" the way 3E tried, but the more powerful slots become less and less accessible, thus curbing the runaway power. A 9th level slot is something so powerful that you can't use it at full strength but once in 9 days, maximum.  That's especially interesting if the power of the spell is scaling with the slot instead of the caster level. That is, with that idea, a caster might already want to put a fireball in a higher level slot, to get more dice. So say a wizard puts fireball in a 5th level slots. Say it does 9d6 damage. When he casts it, it's a major effect around 9th level or so. After 3 days or rest, he's got 3rd level spell power recharged into that 5th level slot, meaning a 5d6 fireball. But using this today means setting the clock back to getting the bigger effect. So it removes some of the "all or nothing" effect of spells organically, with a built in reason for the wizard to restrain himself as well.  You could extend this to magic items as well. A simple wand of cure light wounds has a bunch of charges--and can be used 1/day by definition. But then you have a more expensive version of the wand that casts the spell in a higher slot, and thus packs more healing into a short time, at the expense of taking longer to recharge.  (More complex magic items could also have multiple effective "slots" per day, but I'd probably leave those to staves and other such flavorful items.) Finally, when a party is really beat down but trying to press on, you get a defacto "encounter power" effect (in the math if not the fiction). That is, a caster that has finally used up all of their high level slots, grudgingly, that can take an extended rest, has got an awful lot of lower level spells available, meaning that it will be difficult to exhaust them in extremis.</blockquote>

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