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<blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 3345891" data-attributes="member: 9789">I've created my own mana-point systems in the past, and my own observations are that the main issue that they all seem to share - which you've started to notice yourself - is the fact that it simply becomes too powerful to allow a mage to effectively swap out the &quot;power&quot; to cast a dozen 1st and 2nd level spells for a single 9th level spell.&nbsp; In your system above, a 17th level wizard could cast 20 9th level spells a day (almost 21).&nbsp; Sure, that means he can't cast hardly any lower level spells, and sure by your rule he'd have to wait a few rounds between each one, but in the end...&nbsp; he can still cast 20 9th level spells.&nbsp; That kind of power is - well, godly.&nbsp; And a far, far cry above the 1 9th level spell he can normally cast at that level.The main problem is that the power of DnD spells each spell-level does NOT increase linearly - it's closer to exponential, if it can be mapped at all.&nbsp; You could basically double the cost per spell level, and that still doesn't seem to be close enough in power, even though a 9th level spell would cost 16 times a level 1 spell.&nbsp; Quite frankly, the difference between a 9th level spell and a 1st level spell is more like 64 times the cost.&nbsp; Or maybe more.&nbsp; I mean, who can really even compare gate with mage armor?&nbsp; And just being able to give up 20 or even 40 castings of mage armor to get one casting of gate isn't enough.&nbsp; Not even close.The only way I've personally been able to create a system that even comes close to measuring up to the way the SRD lays it out has involved so much math and so many tables that the entire thing becomes effectively worthless.&nbsp; In the end, spell point systems are a really, really good idea that just do not work well with the current DnD spell level system, and the only way they could work and still be balanced would be so complex that no one wants to really play that way.Just my own two cents.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="evilbob, post: 3345891, member: 9789"] I've created my own mana-point systems in the past, and my own observations are that the main issue that they all seem to share - which you've started to notice yourself - is the fact that it simply becomes too powerful to allow a mage to effectively swap out the "power" to cast a dozen 1st and 2nd level spells for a single 9th level spell. In your system above, a 17th level wizard could cast 20 9th level spells a day (almost 21). Sure, that means he can't cast hardly any lower level spells, and sure by your rule he'd have to wait a few rounds between each one, but in the end... [I]he can still cast 20 9th level spells[/I]. That kind of power is - well, godly. And a far, [I]far[/I] cry above the 1 9th level spell he can normally cast at that level. The main problem is that the power of DnD spells each spell-level does NOT increase linearly - it's closer to exponential, if it can be mapped at all. You could basically double the cost per spell level, and that still doesn't seem to be close enough in power, even though a 9th level spell would cost 16 times a level 1 spell. Quite frankly, the difference between a 9th level spell and a 1st level spell is more like 64 times the cost. Or maybe more. I mean, who can really even compare [I]gate[/I] with [I]mage armor[/I]? And just being able to give up 20 or even 40 castings of [I]mage armor[/I] to get one casting of [I]gate[/I] isn't enough. Not even close. The only way I've personally been able to create a system that even comes close to measuring up to the way the SRD lays it out has involved so much math and so many tables that the entire thing becomes effectively worthless. In the end, spell point systems are a really, really good idea that just do not work well with the current DnD spell level system, and the only way they could work and still be balanced would be so complex that no one wants to really play that way. Just my own two cents. [/QUOTE]

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