New idea about "spell points"?

[RangerWickett]

Tell me if this is a new idea, or if you've heard it before. Also, please tell me if it sounds like an interesting way to handle spell points.


For a spell point system, usually you have each level cost a different amount of points, so you could cast, say, 3 1st level spells, or 1 2nd level spell, and use the same amount of spell points.

Instead of having every spellcaster have a caster level equal to her class level, why not have a base cost for each spell level, and then multiply it by the caster level you want.

For example, Mialee has 5 spell points, and she wants to cast a burning hands spell. A 1st level spell like Burning Hands costs a base of 1 spell point. She could choose to cast it as a 1st level wizard and do 1d4 damage, or cast it as a 3rd level for 3d4, etc. Even if she's only 1st level, she can still choose to cast as a 5th level spellcaster, though it will use up all her spell points.

This would be sort of a mix between the way psions use their powers, and the way normal spellcasters work. Spells _can_ scale, if you want to spend enough spell points. I know that this rough version isn't going to be balanced, but here goes nothing.

Spell Level (base spell point cost)
0th (1)
1st (2)
2nd (3)
3rd (4)
4th (5)
etc.

Every spell is treated as if it were cast by a 1st level character. Then for every point above the base, increase the caster level. We'd probably want to put a requirement that you have to spend at least enough extra spell points to get a caster level that could normally cast the spell. For instance, for a Meteor Swarm (9th level spell, normally a minimum caster level of 17), you'd have to spend 26 points for 24d6 damage. This would be opposed to a fireball that would cost at least 8 points for 5d6 damage.

Alternately, we could require you to multiply the cost of spells by the caster level, but then a Meteor Swarm that does 24d6 points of damage and costs 153 points would be far more expensive than a fireball that does 10d6 points of damage and costs 30 points.

I know it will require a lot of tweaking, but I think this is better than just having each spell have a flat cost based on its level, like what was published in the old 2nd edition Spells & Magic book.

 

[Gldm]

My spell point system.

I'm currently running a game that has a SP system. It makes spellcasters significantly more powerful, but I've got other modifications in place for other classes that balance it out (everyone's overpowered compared to standard rules).

The system looks like this:

Spells cost 2^level points.

0th = 1
1st = 2
2nd = 4
3rd = 8
4th = 16
5th = 32
6th = 64
7th = 128
8th = 256
9th = 512.

As for how many points spellcasters have, they get their level x ability modifier at each level. Enhancement bonuses count but only if they've had it effective at least 24 hours before gaining the level, so no "I cast eagle's splendor and gain extra points!" stuff.

Oh, and sorcerers get 1.5x this number of points at each level, wizards gain 1x. This reflects the sorcerer's increased spells per day allowance.

Also, I've changed how casting works. Sorcerers in my system can cast any spell they know at any time. There's a progression table for spells/level known (which goes up faster than the one in the DMG) but it caps out at your ability modifier for each level.

Wizards in my system still have spells/day (with a progression table similar to the DMG, again capped at max of ability mod), but they don't "lose" the spell when cast. They know the spells they've memorized for that day, and can cast them if they have the points left. However, changing a spell for a new one in a spellbook takes 8 hours. Thus, wizards are much more flexible with time to prepare, but sorcerers are more flexible on the fly.

We tend to see alot of fireballs (hey 8 points is cheap when you get high enough in level) but higher level characters usually find ways to buy protection vs cheap spells, and counterspelling is pretty easy when you don't have to worry about "Gee I can only cast that particular spell one time today!" Dispel magic becomes a favorite for everyone. Also, at high levels even if you had a starting stat of 20, and bought magic items to increase it and gain spellpoints, it's very very hard even for a sorcerer to get the points for more than 4-5 9th level spells per day, so don't worry about "Oh I just cast wish or timestop AGAIN." Usually the system seems to balance out pretty well that they can only cast about 1-4 of their highest level spells at any time, depending on how many points they've been getting per level. The sum of 1-20 is 210, so that x the average ability mod during that time (x1.5 for sorcerers) will be their final point total. So you wind up with people with 1000-2500 spell points (2-5 512point 9th level spells).

As for clerics, they get balanced out in yet a third way. They still have the spell level system, like X 1st level spells per day, and Y 2nd level spells per day, etc. But they're ALL dynamic cast. Basicly you can cast any spell allowed for that level (provided you have spells of that level left for today) as a "miracle" from your deity. This makes the cleric the guy you really want to have around when the unexpected happens. That and the healing abilities tend to go well together, as this is who the party runs to when they need to get out of a jam.

This is still kinda in beta test stages for the group I play with weekly, but so far it's worked out well with some of my other changes like class redesigns and alternate damage systems for melee, etc.

 

[Crothian]

RW, the biggest problem I see is for spells that don't scale or the scaleing is not as meaniful. Certains spells one doesn't need to make their highest caster level or anything close. Overall it seems to be a pretty good idea. Any idea how many points mages of different levels will have?

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

You could use the psion rules and implement power scaling.

The power scaling rules come down to the cost for a spell is its caster level for damaging spells (Psionic powers cost 1 psp per die, and can be cast at any cost from (lvl*2-1) to (lvl +5).)

This means that magic missle would cost 1 sp + 2sp per extra missle.