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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 1406661" data-attributes="member: 7464">Some ramblings off the top of my head: Mages gain one new spell per level. This spell is always unique and specific to the particular mage. After the player designs the spell they want, the DM arbitrarily decides what level the spell is. There's no going back. If the DM decides that a fireball-clone is a 5th level spell, so be it. The player doesn't get to change his mind. The more the DM doesn't think the particular spell fits the magic system of the world, the higher the level he gives it. The DM is free to give spells levels higher than 9 if he wishes. All wizards can cast all their spells spontaniously. All wizards always have access to all of their spells. All spells are extraordinarily difficult to cast. To cast a spell, the caster must make a spellcraft check where the DC=25+(3*spell level). Note that the DC goes up considerably faster than the wizard's ranks in spellcraft. Modifyers can add to the caster's spellcraft check. For every hour added to the casting time of the spell, the caster gains a +1 bonus, to a maximum of +5 at five hours. Expensive components can also add bonuses (measured by the cost of the components): 10gp for a +1 bonus100gp for a +2 bonus500gp for a +3 bonus1000gp for a +4 bonus3000gp for a +5 bonus Researching the current signs and portents can add bonuses. For every full day the mage observes signs and portents of the natural world (alignment of the starts, behavior of animals, eating specific foods at certain times, etc...) the better he can specifically modify his upcoming spell to be more successsful. Every day so spent provides an additional +1 bonus, to a maximum of a +5 bonus for five days of study and observation. No other spells can be cast during this observation time. The wizard can opt to take ability score damage to get a spell to be more likely to work. This ability score damage is applied randomly to either Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. This is always temporary damage. If the damage taken reduces any score to 0, then the spell fails. The amount of damage taken is based on the amount of bonus desired, based on the following chart: +1 - 1d4 points of ability damage.+2 - 1d4 points of ability damage to two separate ability scores.+3 - 1d8 points of ability damage.+4 - 1d8 points of ability damage to two separate ability scores.+5 - 1d8 points of ability damage to all three scores. Results: 1st level mage has a +9 spellcraft (+3 ability, +2 skill focus, +4 ranks) and one spell. Unless they were greedy, this spell is a zero or first level spell, for spellcraft DCs of 25 or 28. Now, if this mage takes five days of research, and increases the casting time to 5 hours, he has a +19 spellcraft and a decent chance of pulling off a spell. If he tries to cast a spell on the fly, the chances go down drastically. A 9th level spell requires a spellcraft check DC 52 to cast. With all the bonuses above, he'd have a total spellcraft modifier of +48 (at 20th level), giving pretty decent odds of casting the spell, but only if he's taking all that damage, spending the gold, and taking the full time to research and cast. Of course, this mage will only have a total of 20 spells in his repitoire. What do you think?</blockquote>

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