D&D General It's Magic, You Know

[CreamCloud0]

Eh, I don’t like that. Do you prevent fighters from swinging their swords after they miss until they get a rest in?

that doesn't sound great to my ears either but for better or worse the fighter also posseses a significantly lesser capacity to manipulate reality, it's checks and balances.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Do not throw stones on me, but I still think AEDU is a perfect frame for spells.

I've played a 5e game where every caster had the warlock chassis and my short rest were 10 minutes (max 2 per LR).

Good times and pretty close to and AEDU system. Maybe just take the Battlemaster maneuvers and add them to the fighter and rogue.

 

[Laurefindel]

that doesn't sound great to my ears either but for better or worse the fighter also posseses a significantly lesser capacity to manipulate reality, it's checks and balances.

True, especially if the alternative is for fighters to swing their sword a few times a day until they run out of swings altogether.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Do not throw stones on me, but I still think AEDU is a perfect frame for spells.

Make it AEU and you've got my vote.

 

[jmartkdr2]

that doesn't sound great to my ears either but for better or worse the fighter also posseses a significantly lesser capacity to manipulate reality, it's checks and balances.

I’d rather rely more on balances than try to make everything a check.

 

[Vaalingrade]

that doesn't sound great to my ears either but for better or worse the fighter also posseses a significantly lesser capacity to manipulate reality, it's checks and balances.

Only the one subclass even gets to manipulate the battle.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Let see. Vancian Magic is built on three principles:

1) Magic is finite - a wizard can "run out of magic".

2) Magic is performed by casting spells.

3) spells take too long to cast. A wizard « memorizes » spells that are then ready to cast, like bullets in a loaded gun.

I always liked Earthdawn's way of recreating Vancian magic (which is unsurprisingly similar to Shadowrun)

1) Magic is damaging - a caster can kill themselves by casting spells.
2) magic involves spells - mostly true....
3) the faster you cast, the more likey you are to die and/or be possessed -yes, you could both die and become a demon's undead play thing. Yay cadaver men!

This last one was the control factor. Spell matrices can only channel a certain amount of power and a caster can only have so many at one time. Powerful spells require multiple rounds to collect enough power and it involves die rolls that can fail.

So you could totally kill yourself without ever successfully casting a spell.

Net result is a caster that only has a small number of spells available, the spells are either fast/weak or slow/powerful and in both cases tend to cause Strain (injury), which limits total castings.

 

[Voadam]

5e warlock chassis but instead of spell slots for non-cantrips they use the monster recharge mechanic for casting spells, recharge chance increases slightly as they level.

Can cast a spell but need to recharge before casting a spell again.

 

[M_Natas]

Beyond the complexity, I really like how DCC turns pretty much every spell into its own adventure hook. You could spend a session just dealing with the mishap roll on a spell.

The other system I'm aware that does something similar is the ritual spells in Beyond the Wall.

I like the Idea of DCC magic, the misshaps, the chaos, I would read a novel about Wizards casting that. But has anybody here ever played a DCC Wizard?

Because that sounds exhausting to play for longer games.

But for magic -

I would prefer for D&D more differentiated casting times and better rules to counter/Interrupt spells.
So, I would add an additional casting time of "till the beginning of your next turn" - so as an action you Start casting your spell on your turn and finish the casting, when your next turn begins.
And I would turn all the strongest 1 action spells on to that casting time, like fireball. You still have quicker spells that you can cast as an action, but the more impact full the spell, the longer the casting time.

What that does, is that it is an announcement of what is about to happen next round.
And now everybody can also try to interrupt the caster (like you can interrupt a spell with a casting time of a minute by attacking the caster, that forces concentration checks).
Now suddenly we have a more tactical dimension of the game. Protecting casters is now important. Now players and monsters can make tactical decisions, based on what the casters do.

I would also add such longer casting times to special monster attacks like dragon breath weapons.

 

[overgeeked]

But has anybody here ever played a DCC Wizard?

Yes, several times. They are an absolute blast to play. Casters in other D&D-like games are utterly dull and boring by comparison.