Mage of the Arcane Order

[MiB]

Hi, I'm playing a Wiz5/Mage of the Arcane Order 10 and manage a similar character as a DM from time to time.

Anyone out there who has also played with a MotAO for some time? How did you handle the spellpool and calling of spells?
It's a pretty powerful ability, so you got to make sure it's balanced.

*Called spells and Magic Item creation
Since the spell is only retained for a short time, it's not possible to use called spells as prereqs for magic item creation

*Called spells and Metamagic Feats
The guild is large, metamagic feats are rather common with spellcasters. Can you call spells modified by metamagic feats if you have the correct spell slot? Can you call a spell and modifiy it with a metamagic feat you have? Example: I can call spell of level 1-6, have a 6th level spell slot free and have the maximize spell feat myself. Can I call a maximized fireball into that slot? What if I do not have the feat? Does the spellpool have a maximized fireball?

*Called spells and non-core spells
What sources do you allow to call spells from? If you play in the Forgotten Realms, can you call Realms specific spells?

*Called spells and "Recall spells"
If you combine called spells with Rary's Mnmeonic Enhancer or Mordenkainen's Lucubration, this opens up rather powerful possibilities. You could retain the spell for 24 hours, so that's long enough to scribe a scroll with it. From the scroll, you could scribe the spell to your spellbook. You could also burst the limit of how many times you can use a called spell in a day

*Spellpool limit
Bookkeeping of your spellpool debt seems rather senseless today, as you can have a positive balance and often a wizard has leftover spells, so you can, in the most cases, just accumulate a big positive spellpool value.

 

[Li Shenron]

*Called spells and Magic Item creation
*Called spells and Metamagic Feats
*Called spells and non-core spells
*Called spells and "Recall spells"
*Spellpool limit"

I haven't played it or seen played, but I remember that a couple of years ago I was considering it and spent some time trying to figure it out. However, it was a long time ago, so I may remember something completely wrong, ok?

I think that the first 3 points should be allowed (now I am trying to think as the DM I also have, therefore you can be sure that I don't necessarily want to "help" your PC ).

It all depends on how large the Arcana Order is, however. If you make it so that there are hundreds of such mages, then probably almost all of the spells in the PHB are covered; however, that may not be entirely true. You may discuss with the DM to agree on something like rolling a % to "find" the spell available in the spellpool at a specific time: maybe cantrips can be 100%, 1st level 90% and so on until 9th level 10%, but this is just an idea (and I think those % can be representative of a quite large Arcane Order).

But I see no problems in theory about using spellpool for item creation (incidentally, a 17th level cleric is only 2 levels above you and could do the same with Miracle every time) when you of course still need the item creation feat.

I don't remember the most important thing: when you call a spellpool spell, do you cast it immediately? In that case, you cannot probably apply your own metamagic feats on the fly, but you can call a spell already metamagicked, but the DM has the call if it is available or not (I would at least halve the %, but could be more).

About non-core spells, again it depends on the campaign, whether they are common or not among the Arcane Order. They could be anything from just as popular as any core spell to totally unavailable. In FR, spells from FRCS and MoF are probably as popular as the PHB spells, but no so if taken for example from regional books.

On the other hand, I would not allow the use of Mage's Lucubration or Mnemonic Enhancer on spellpool spells (unless spellpool spells becomes "prepared", but IIRC they are not). Admittedly, the 2 spells description talks about spells being cast and not spells being prepared, and a rule-laywer would surely allow such a use, then promptly declare the MoAO a broken PrCl. Those 2 spells are definitely meant to be used on prepared spells that you have used and later want to use once again, or at least that's my take.

About the last one. If there is no implicit limit on how many spells you can beforehand on the spellpool to get "credit" from them, you may agree with your DM simply to ignore the burden of keeping track of that credit at all, and simply assume that between adventures you go to the Arcane Order and cast enough spells in the pool. You can keep precise track if you wish, but I doubt that it may be worth.

 

[youspoonybard]

By far the more important limit is the "1/2 caster level level of spells per day". That limit cannot be ignored.