I'm planning to run a small series of games(not sure if starting level 1 or 5 yet) with some variations on some things. So the primary goal is to promote working together more on players parts as well as create a more cinematic game for my group.
Optional rules I'll be using initially:
Success at the cost of failure - This is mostly for cinematic purposes and would only happen at times I feel it would really help advance the story.
Flanking - Again this is to foster working together for the most part and promoting people to actually think out how they are going to fight effectively, something my players have traditionally had an issue with.
Cleaving through creatures - This is mostly to balance out some changes I plan to make to the magic system to help out the non-casters a bit. Also it helps with creating the more cinematic system I'd like to see.
Exhaustive Casting:
For casters I'm thinking of allowing for casters to cast spells once they are out of spell slots, suffering a level of exhaustion per spell level of the spell they want to cast. Some limitations on this would be if you reach the final two levels of exhaustion(5&6) you can't be resurrected short of a Wish or True Resurrection spell as the magic coursing through you destroys your body. Casting a spell of 7th level or higher would prevent even a Wish or Resurrection spell from bringing you back. To me this represents a caster drawing on their own life to cast a spell in a desperate or critical situation, even unto death if need be.Potentially making a noble sacrifice to ensure their comrades survival. There are several examples of this throughout various fantasy literature and I really like the idea of how it could completely change the tide of things in a desperate and critical moment.
Problems I foresee with this rule or actually fairly minor. I feel it wouldn't be abused too often as exhaustion is a pretty inhibiting factor and by taking this course of action it could quickly lead to the characters death anyway. The limitation for not being able to resurrect easily is put in place to stop players from simply spamming a spell in a boss fight knowing the party can simply take them back to the temple after and bring that back as only a minor inconvenience.
The purpose of this rule is to create a more cinematic game again and I really feel it could help promote that idea of the desperate hero reaching into themselves for that last bit of power they can muster before they potentially die, especially if it could save everyone else.
Cooperative Casting:
I'm going to allow for two or more casters who cast the same spell at the same level to make it more potent, this may make the duration last longer, cast it at a higher level than they would normally be able to or even count as a critical hit for spells that can crit. I'm working out the details for that currently, again the purpose is to promote player cooperation and also gives a reason for casters to double up on the same spells sometimes. I feel this idea is supported in so much literature that I'm honestly surprised it isn't an optional rule I've seen before. Spells that don't scale can't be combined to become more powerful.
Option 1 - 2 casters casting a damage spell do max damage automatically and if it requires an attack roll they have advantage or if it requires a save the enemy take it at disadvantage. Utility spells would be handled on a case by case basis. This doesn't scale well with three casters though as most the time they would be better casting a spell multiple times. It also requires a fair amount of work for me, as I have to go through each spell to determine what would happen.
Option 2 - Each additional caster adds an effective +2 to the spell level, additionally add half of each spell casters spellcasting ability modifier(but not proficiency) to both the Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Bonus if applicable. This is quick and easy, requires very little work on my part and allows a party to cast a spell at a higher level than they normally would be capable of. Also it's going to be fairly rare for a party to have three casters with the same spells. And if they make their builds to take this rule into account, well honestly, more power to them(pun intended).
Option 3 - Metamagic... Each additional caster allows you to choose a metamagic feat and add its effect to the spell. You are considered to have 1 sorcery point per caster level you have for the purposes of calculating what power you may choose. The primary caster isn't considered for the purposes of calculation sorcery points. Again this is a fairly straightforward way of doing it and would likely need some tweaking on sorcery point calculation but is overall a simple system. My concern would be it taking away from Sorcerers a little bit. Although since I would allow a sorcerer, wizard warlock or any other caster to all combine spells regardless of class it may not be an issue. I would also make sure if I had a sorcerer they understood they could do this. As a compensation to the sorcerer though they would not actually have to spend any of there own sorcery points to do this but could choose to if they wanted to make it even more powerful.
So these are my initial idea's, more to come soon. Any comments, critiques or tweaks, along with the actual reasoning for why are welcome and appreciated.
Optional rules I'll be using initially:
Success at the cost of failure - This is mostly for cinematic purposes and would only happen at times I feel it would really help advance the story.
Flanking - Again this is to foster working together for the most part and promoting people to actually think out how they are going to fight effectively, something my players have traditionally had an issue with.
Cleaving through creatures - This is mostly to balance out some changes I plan to make to the magic system to help out the non-casters a bit. Also it helps with creating the more cinematic system I'd like to see.
Exhaustive Casting:
For casters I'm thinking of allowing for casters to cast spells once they are out of spell slots, suffering a level of exhaustion per spell level of the spell they want to cast. Some limitations on this would be if you reach the final two levels of exhaustion(5&6) you can't be resurrected short of a Wish or True Resurrection spell as the magic coursing through you destroys your body. Casting a spell of 7th level or higher would prevent even a Wish or Resurrection spell from bringing you back. To me this represents a caster drawing on their own life to cast a spell in a desperate or critical situation, even unto death if need be.Potentially making a noble sacrifice to ensure their comrades survival. There are several examples of this throughout various fantasy literature and I really like the idea of how it could completely change the tide of things in a desperate and critical moment.
Problems I foresee with this rule or actually fairly minor. I feel it wouldn't be abused too often as exhaustion is a pretty inhibiting factor and by taking this course of action it could quickly lead to the characters death anyway. The limitation for not being able to resurrect easily is put in place to stop players from simply spamming a spell in a boss fight knowing the party can simply take them back to the temple after and bring that back as only a minor inconvenience.
The purpose of this rule is to create a more cinematic game again and I really feel it could help promote that idea of the desperate hero reaching into themselves for that last bit of power they can muster before they potentially die, especially if it could save everyone else.
Cooperative Casting:
I'm going to allow for two or more casters who cast the same spell at the same level to make it more potent, this may make the duration last longer, cast it at a higher level than they would normally be able to or even count as a critical hit for spells that can crit. I'm working out the details for that currently, again the purpose is to promote player cooperation and also gives a reason for casters to double up on the same spells sometimes. I feel this idea is supported in so much literature that I'm honestly surprised it isn't an optional rule I've seen before. Spells that don't scale can't be combined to become more powerful.
Option 1 - 2 casters casting a damage spell do max damage automatically and if it requires an attack roll they have advantage or if it requires a save the enemy take it at disadvantage. Utility spells would be handled on a case by case basis. This doesn't scale well with three casters though as most the time they would be better casting a spell multiple times. It also requires a fair amount of work for me, as I have to go through each spell to determine what would happen.
Option 2 - Each additional caster adds an effective +2 to the spell level, additionally add half of each spell casters spellcasting ability modifier(but not proficiency) to both the Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Bonus if applicable. This is quick and easy, requires very little work on my part and allows a party to cast a spell at a higher level than they normally would be capable of. Also it's going to be fairly rare for a party to have three casters with the same spells. And if they make their builds to take this rule into account, well honestly, more power to them(pun intended).
Option 3 - Metamagic... Each additional caster allows you to choose a metamagic feat and add its effect to the spell. You are considered to have 1 sorcery point per caster level you have for the purposes of calculating what power you may choose. The primary caster isn't considered for the purposes of calculation sorcery points. Again this is a fairly straightforward way of doing it and would likely need some tweaking on sorcery point calculation but is overall a simple system. My concern would be it taking away from Sorcerers a little bit. Although since I would allow a sorcerer, wizard warlock or any other caster to all combine spells regardless of class it may not be an issue. I would also make sure if I had a sorcerer they understood they could do this. As a compensation to the sorcerer though they would not actually have to spend any of there own sorcery points to do this but could choose to if they wanted to make it even more powerful.
So these are my initial idea's, more to come soon. Any comments, critiques or tweaks, along with the actual reasoning for why are welcome and appreciated.
Last edited:
