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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8974806" data-attributes="member: 20323">Bringing back an older thread...I noticed several comparisons were made between "caster casts a cantrip" and "warrior swings a sword"...and it got me thinking. The big difference between equipping a sword and having a cantrip is that (a) the sword takes up some weight/space in your hand, and (b) people cannot see that you have a cantrip but they can see you have a sword.This is an experimental idea...What if you had to equip cantrips if you wanted to use them at-will? "Equipping" a cantrip might look like some kind of 10 minute magic rite/exercise (comparable to donning/doffing armor, casting a ritual, searching a room, or a house ruled 10-min short rest), channeling magic into a token/object, inscribing magic henna on your arm, infusing one of your hands with crackling magic, bookmarking/dogearring/underlining sections of your spellbook, etc.The idea is that if you've "equipped"/charged a cantrip you can now cast it at-will, but a close observer can tell that you have magic around you. For ex, "equipping" light might cause your eyes to glow slightly or it just might mean your staff is lit up like a candle even when you haven't actively cast the cantrip, whereas "equipping" eldritch blast might indicate swirling arcane energy wreathes one of your hands.Casting a non-equipped cantrip that you know is still possible, but doing so would expend your use of that cantrip until taking a short rest.Some sort of limit on how much can be equipped would keep all cantrips from being equipped. In my house rules, PCs can equip 5 things, with heavy armor = 3, medium armor = 2, most things =1, little things not counted. Narratively, this might hint at some kind of interference different object materials or object psychic impressions have with entrapping magical energies in the caster's body.What I'm trying to do with this is...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Making at-will vs. short rest cantrip casting a player choice, based on how obviously magical they're comfortable with their PC coming across in a scenario.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tighten the # of "equipped" cantrips to make the player's selection a bit more strategic, thinking about the dungeon or scenario in the same way PCs think about what gear they're bringing. Also, this "equipping" phase signaling to the GM what approach that player has in mind.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Allow for non-ideal scenarios which present a hard choice to casters (in the same way a warrior could lose or just not have their sword), such as having to help support a wounded person or carry a McGuffin taking up 1 equipped item/cantrip slot, getting ambushed at night before having a chance to equip cantrips, a curse or exhaustion level that eats up an equipped item/cantrip slot, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Making the cantrip "equipping" phase encourage players considering if they're going all-in on the exploration mode (light, mage hand, mending), then if they do get into a combat situation, they'll either need to use spell slots or short rest cast an offensive cantrip. Or conversely, if their "Equipped" cantrips are all combat focused, during exploration they'd need to short rest cast exploration cantrips. So there's a bit of thought about: what do I want at my fingertips, versus what am I ok having to switch up with 10 minutes?</li> </ul>Obviously, this is not as OSR as other suggestions, but I'm hoping it might be more palatable / interesting for players who balk at the idea of a hard cap on # cantrips/rest?</blockquote>

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