D&D 5E Hot Take: remove spell slots, use Strain instead.

[Shardstone]

Classes that prepare/know more spells will be casting significantly more spells than those who only know a few. Sorcerers will be casting the fewest spells per day. So some classes have both more flexibility and more spells per day.

Effectively a ton more "high level slots", since the chance to lose them isn't much more than lower level ones. Fireballs are only 2 DC worse than Magic Missile.

Could turn sorcery points into successes on the checks or something.

 

[CleverNickName]

It's a bit too chaotic for my taste. There will be some days when casters get twice as many spells per day as other, for no reason other than luck, with little ability/notice to plan around it. This feels like turning resource management into herding cats.

Yeah, it gets rid of resource management entirely, as far as spells are concerned. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the style of play you're looking for. But yep...you make an excellent point. This will fundamentally change the way the game works for most characters.

 

[DND_Reborn]

FWIW, here's how some numbers work out:

When casting the highest level spell you can, you have about a 1 in 3 chance of losing it.
When casting the highest level spell you can later, you have about a 55% chance (on average) of losing it. (Which not surprisingly is the same as rolling the 1 in 3 with disadvantage.)
You get to a point, though, were the chances of failing drops off so much I wonder if it is even worth the bother of rolling?

This is why we decided to abandon the idea of making checks. Originally, we were going to use these checks to successfully cast the spell, not to resist strain, but the numbers work the same.

What I might do is just make it that if you are casting your maximum level spell, roll the d6 to avoid losing it. On a 1-2 it is lost. After the first casting, the roll is made with disadvantage. This would represent the strain of casting your most powerful spells (or at those spell levels). Just a thought.

 

[OB1]

Love the concept and think this would be a GREAT mechanic for a psionic class.

As for all spell casters, I feel like you may want to have it be 12 plus 2x Spell slot level, otherwise this is a major power up for casting classes. Also, I'd consider keeping 8th and 9th as 1 slot per day, otherwise, a high level wizard could load up with 4-5 9th level spells memorized and effectively get at least 4-5 ninth level spells.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

FWIW, here's how some numbers work out:

When casting the highest level spell you can, you have about a 1 in 3 chance of losing it.
When casting the highest level spell you can later, you have about a 55% chance (on average) of losing it. (Which not surprisingly is the same as rolling the 1 in 3 with disadvantage.)
You get to a point, though, were the chances of failing drops off so much I wonder if it is even worth the bother of rolling?

This is why we decided to abandon the idea of making checks. Originally, we were going to use these checks to successfully cast the spell, not to resist strain, but the numbers work the same.

View attachment 150751

What I might do is just make it that if you are casting your maximum level spell, roll the d6 to avoid losing it. On a 1-2 it is lost. After the first casting, the roll is made with disadvantage. This would represent the strain of casting your most powerful spells (or at those spell levels). Just a thought.

Just a note tho (and thank you for doing the math): you dont add the PB to the roll, its only a flat d20+ability modifier.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Just a note tho (and thank you for doing the math): you dont add the PB to the roll, its only a flat d20+ability modifier.

Here it is without proficiency bonus.

As an aside, as a player I would never agree to this system without the proficiency bonus. I would rather see higher DCs but with the proficiency bonus than without it. It just wouldn't make sense to me to not include it.

 

[Weiley31]

I feel like a number of class features, feats, and other stuff would completely trivialize this system of Spell Strain.

 

[ECMO3]

So my hot take of the day is this:

At my table, I'd remove spell slots, an instead have the player do a Strain check to avoid forgetting the spell after using it, like they do in the Black Hack 2e.

Here's the rule:

• Casters have know spells and prepared spells, like usual
• When a player casts a spell, after the action is resolved, they make a ability check based on their casting ability. The check is made against a DC 10+Spell level.
• On a failed check, the spell is forgotten and cant be used until regained by a long rest and re-prepared is necessary
• If the spell has been cast since the last long rest, the check is made with disadvantage.
• If upcasted, a lower level spell must make a strain check against the DC of the upcasted level, and if failed, the forgotten spell is one of the upcasted level. You must have a spell know or prepared of the level you want to upcast your spell.

ie: You, as a wizard, want to upcast magic missile as a 2nd level, after the casting, you must make a DC 12 intelligence check. On a failed roll, you forget a spell of 2nd level you are prepared.

Rituals and cantrips dont require Strain check, unless you use a variant where cantrips must pass a DC 10 Strain check.

How does it look?

I think this is workable for levels 1-5. It does not work with spells above 6th level because there is a huige jump in power between 5th and 6th level. RAW 6-7th level spells can only be cast once a day until 17th level, 8th and 9th level spells can never be cast more than once a day.

I also would not make strain go against your casting stat though. I would make it against Strength so it is a more difficult check.

If you made these two changes (only 1 spell at levels 6+, strain is a strength check) then I think you would have something that is pretty balanced. It nerfs full casters a bit, but it makes third casters more powerful.

 

[Fenris-77]

Various OSR properties already do variations of this. It works fine if some attention is given to balance.

 

[commandercrud]

I was with you until that last upcasting bit.