Full Spellcasting Action

[Veril]

As a Full round action a spellcaster may cast multiple spells as long as the total number of spell levels cast is less than the highest level spell he can cast and less than or equal to the number of spells in the following table.
lvl 1-5: 1 spell
lvl 6-10: 2 spells
lvl 11-15: 3 spells
lvl 16-20: 4 spells

A Quickened spell does not count against this limit - it is not cast as part of the full spellcasting action. A spellcaster can still cast any one single spell as a standard action as per normal.


I'm thinking of introducing the above into my campaign. Any comments about it?

 

[RangerWickett]

I think that's interesting, but I'm not sure it's fair to warrior-types.

 

[wolff96]

I would really recommend against it.

Think about clerics -- they can easily out fight a warrior-type... *IF* they have time to buff themselves up. A high-level cleric under your system will only need one (two at the maximum) rounds to turn himself into a killing machine.

Let's see...
Fighter and Cleric, about to fight.
1) Cleric wins initiative. Casts Righteous Might, Divine Power, and a Quickened Divine Favor.

2) Fighter charges the cleric (incurring an AoO from the now larger cleric) and hits, dealing some amount of damage.

3) Fully buffed cleric proceeds to rip the fighter to shreds with his melee capability only, not even needing to burn any more spells.

4) Cleric burns a couple of minor healing spells.

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I'm sure others can come up with worse examples -- a druid could go nova in a rather interesting fashion by tossing a Flamestrike, starting Call Lightning, getting a Produce Flame ready, and then buffing himself with Barkskin in a single round -- but this looks like it would give spellcasters a *big* advantage over melee-types.

 

[Nifft]

This is nicely balanced, so long as you disallow all spells over 2nd level.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Jack Simth]

Full Casters already do enough Victory at high levels. This doesn't do anything for casters when they're weak anyway (low levels) and makes them even stronger at high levels (where they're full of Win).

It doesn't make a difference to any caster until 6th level, and at 12th, a Sorcerer (or Wizard) can start out with a "stay there" spell like Web, and Improved Invisibility for protection (six spell levels), THEN zap away with low-level attack spells (three Scorching Rays a round, perhaps - energy substituted so as not to burn up the Web) means that unless you're a full caster, what little balance their is between casters and non-casters at high levels is gone.

If you let it apply to Wands, too, the Wizard simply Wins (unless the fighter wins initiative and can one-round the Wizard) (at 7th level - Scorching Ray, Invisibility, Five-foot step; Scorching Ray, Invisibility, Five-foot step; Scorching Ray... and with a max caster level wand of Scorching Ray, that Fighter is taking 8d6 damage per round, every round, and has a fairly low chance of landing a hit in on the Wizard).