Galethorn
First Post
Ok, so, I've come up with a spellcasting variant for a new campaign I'm starting in about two weeks...basically, my goal is to make spellcasting a little bit less dangerous to the caster, while keeping spells/spellcasters very, very rare. Oh, and this is combined with something else I thought up; non-lethal damage > con score results in a DC15 fort save vs. being [Clobbered] (so, in the same boat as 'non-lethal damage = current hp').
In the most basic of terms, spell burn does 1d6 damage per spell level to the caster (for example, a level 4 spell does 4d6 damage). If they have Magic Adept, they get their primary-casting-stat-mod in DR versus that damage, and the damage is non-lethal.
So, now the example: 3rd level smart hero with 16 intelligence (Burn Resistance 3), 10 con (and therefore 13hp; average) wants to cast a 3rd level spell (and he has Spellcasting Adept). First, he rolls a caster-level check, as usual. He spends an action point and succeeds. So, he takes 3d6 damage, rolls a total of 14 (11 modified), and has to make the fort save. He fails, so he's Clobbered.
Second example; level 1 smart hero with 16 intelligence and 10 con (6 hp) casts a 1st level spell. He fails at casting (despite an action point), and take 1d6 damage, rolls a six, and is reduced to 0 hp. He tries to cast a healing spell, and succeeds (healing 5 hp), but then rolls another six on the burn damage. He goes into the negatives, and starts bleeding to death.
All of this will be combined with the fact that I'm going to have healing magic convert lethal damage into non-lethal.
So,, what do you guys think this will do to achieve my goal? My other idea is keeping the damage the way it is as written for 'Learned' (Int-based) and 'Natural' (Wis-based) casters, but have the HP damage for 'Innate' (Cha-based) spellcasters, to sort of make up for their spells counting as a level high (for the DC to cast), and their much more limited spell list.
In the most basic of terms, spell burn does 1d6 damage per spell level to the caster (for example, a level 4 spell does 4d6 damage). If they have Magic Adept, they get their primary-casting-stat-mod in DR versus that damage, and the damage is non-lethal.
So, now the example: 3rd level smart hero with 16 intelligence (Burn Resistance 3), 10 con (and therefore 13hp; average) wants to cast a 3rd level spell (and he has Spellcasting Adept). First, he rolls a caster-level check, as usual. He spends an action point and succeeds. So, he takes 3d6 damage, rolls a total of 14 (11 modified), and has to make the fort save. He fails, so he's Clobbered.
Second example; level 1 smart hero with 16 intelligence and 10 con (6 hp) casts a 1st level spell. He fails at casting (despite an action point), and take 1d6 damage, rolls a six, and is reduced to 0 hp. He tries to cast a healing spell, and succeeds (healing 5 hp), but then rolls another six on the burn damage. He goes into the negatives, and starts bleeding to death.
All of this will be combined with the fact that I'm going to have healing magic convert lethal damage into non-lethal.
So,, what do you guys think this will do to achieve my goal? My other idea is keeping the damage the way it is as written for 'Learned' (Int-based) and 'Natural' (Wis-based) casters, but have the HP damage for 'Innate' (Cha-based) spellcasters, to sort of make up for their spells counting as a level high (for the DC to cast), and their much more limited spell list.
