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<blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 7967621" data-attributes="member: 6750908"><p>Like I said before, I never really dug into Chapter 6 of <em>Spells & Magic</em>. Massive oversight on my part, and something I should rectify immediately.</p><p></p><p>Chapter opens with a Spell Points system. The <em>common objection</em> to spellpoints systems is that they encourage the spellcasting adventurer to blow all of their points in the first encounter of the day-- in which they're <em>grossly overpowered</em>-- and then either force the rest of the party to break for the day or carry them around like a cursed lodestone.</p><p></p><p>My objection is a little different: there are a lot of lower-level, mostly non-combat spells that are okay if you can cast them three or four times per day with their low-level slots, and maybe a couple more times per day with higher-level slots, but become <em>utterly ridiculous</em> when (the equivalent of) <em>each</em> higher-level slot lets you cast it three or four times. Spells like <em>ESP</em> or <em>suggestion</em>, many low-level divinations and enchantments.</p><p></p><p>This system has a nice bonus, wherein a Mage can prepare their spells in advance as <em>fixed magic</em> and leave however many points unallocated to spend on <em>free magic</em>-- any spell they know, on command, for twice its usual cost.</p><p></p><p>Our first alternative magic system is <em>Channeling</em>, in which casting arcane magic is mentally and physically taxing. Channeling Mages allocate fixed and free magics according to their maximum spell points, but this merely sets what their casting options are for the day, like a 5e Wizard. Actually casting your spells expends your spell points and <em>automatically</em> makes you fatigued, which you must recover to shake off. Casting spells at less than half HP or less than half SP increases the fatigue, and you can totally kill yourself to death if you're not careful.</p><p></p><p><em>Witches & Warlocks</em> use a similar method of spell preparation and casting, but instead of the short-term risk of dying of fatigue, you run the long-term risk of getting cool superpowers from monster daddy, becoming evil and insane, and eventually having to hand your character sheet to the DM so he can kill your friends with it.</p><p></p><p><em>Defilers & Preservers</em> is <em>basically</em> the same idea of the same name from <em>Dark Sun</em>, but it's twenty years too late for me to say if they actually work the same way.</p><p></p><p><em>Alienists</em> is... more like <em>Call of Cthulhu</em> magic than the 3e class... same cosmic horror theme, heavily nerfed from the previous options, with my <em>absolute favorite feature</em> of practically every single horror roleplaying game of the 80s and 90s, rolling for debilitating mental illnesses on a random table to signify the slow chipping away of your precious "humanity".</p><p></p><p><em>We are moving on now.</em></p><p></p><p>Priests get the same spell point system, with an added wrinkle: instead of Minor Spheres being 1-3 level and Major Spheres being 1-7... the spell point costs for fixed/free spells of Minor Spheres are substantially (around 30-50%) more expensive than for your Major Spheres. I like this.</p><p></p><p>Priests get the same Channeling option Mages do.</p><p></p><p>Next up is <em>Ritual Prayers</em> which require extended casting times for higher-level spells-- modified by conditions like locations and divine favor-- and <em>Conditional Magic</em> which affects the spell's point cost and effects based on the conditions under which the Priest is casting the spell.</p><p></p><p>Finally, there's a note saying that Druids might use the <em>Defilers & Preservers</em> rules.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, these rules are <em>entirely </em>DM-facing, and other than Channeling, they're mostly pretty hefty nerfs to the standard spellcasting rules-- the ability to overcast notwithstanding. The simplest way to use these rules is to choose one of the Mage options for Mages and Bards, and one of the Priest options for Priests, Rangers, and Paladins. Or maybe one system for Cleric-priests and Paladins, and another system for Druids and Rangers, like that final note suggests.</p><p></p><p>But if we take a look at 3.X and PF for a moment... we have the Wizard, Sorcerer, Arcanist, Warlock, and Warmage that are all "arcane magic" but all have different systems for acquiring and casting spells. On the divine side, Clerics, Oracles, and Druids all have meaningful differences. If we look at 4e, the "martial" power source isn't of interest to us here-- but Arcane and Divine are joined by Primal and Shadow, and Pathfinder has <em>psychic magic</em> that is distinct from psionics.</p><p></p><p>That means we have three separate variables: how we learn spells, how we prepare them, and how we cast them. If we delve into houserules and draw from later games in the D&D family, we get a few different possible combinations. Changing these mechanics between classes in the same group, combined with changing their spell list, makes them feel radically more different than changing either variable alone.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DammitVictor, post: 7967621, member: 6750908"] Like I said before, I never really dug into Chapter 6 of [i]Spells & Magic[/i]. Massive oversight on my part, and something I should rectify immediately. Chapter opens with a Spell Points system. The [i]common objection[/i] to spellpoints systems is that they encourage the spellcasting adventurer to blow all of their points in the first encounter of the day-- in which they're [i]grossly overpowered[/i]-- and then either force the rest of the party to break for the day or carry them around like a cursed lodestone. My objection is a little different: there are a lot of lower-level, mostly non-combat spells that are okay if you can cast them three or four times per day with their low-level slots, and maybe a couple more times per day with higher-level slots, but become [I]utterly ridiculous[/I] when (the equivalent of) [I]each[/I] higher-level slot lets you cast it three or four times. Spells like [I]ESP[/I] or [I]suggestion[/I], many low-level divinations and enchantments. This system has a nice bonus, wherein a Mage can prepare their spells in advance as [i]fixed magic[/i] and leave however many points unallocated to spend on [i]free magic[/i]-- any spell they know, on command, for twice its usual cost. Our first alternative magic system is [i]Channeling[/i], in which casting arcane magic is mentally and physically taxing. Channeling Mages allocate fixed and free magics according to their maximum spell points, but this merely sets what their casting options are for the day, like a 5e Wizard. Actually casting your spells expends your spell points and [I]automatically[/I] makes you fatigued, which you must recover to shake off. Casting spells at less than half HP or less than half SP increases the fatigue, and you can totally kill yourself to death if you're not careful. [I]Witches & Warlocks[/I] use a similar method of spell preparation and casting, but instead of the short-term risk of dying of fatigue, you run the long-term risk of getting cool superpowers from monster daddy, becoming evil and insane, and eventually having to hand your character sheet to the DM so he can kill your friends with it. [I]Defilers & Preservers[/I] is [I]basically[/I] the same idea of the same name from [I]Dark Sun[/I], but it's twenty years too late for me to say if they actually work the same way. [I]Alienists[/I] is... more like [I]Call of Cthulhu[/I] magic than the 3e class... same cosmic horror theme, heavily nerfed from the previous options, with my [i]absolute favorite feature[/i] of practically every single horror roleplaying game of the 80s and 90s, rolling for debilitating mental illnesses on a random table to signify the slow chipping away of your precious "humanity". [i]We are moving on now.[/i] Priests get the same spell point system, with an added wrinkle: instead of Minor Spheres being 1-3 level and Major Spheres being 1-7... the spell point costs for fixed/free spells of Minor Spheres are substantially (around 30-50%) more expensive than for your Major Spheres. I like this. Priests get the same Channeling option Mages do. Next up is [I]Ritual Prayers[/I] which require extended casting times for higher-level spells-- modified by conditions like locations and divine favor-- and [I]Conditional Magic[/I] which affects the spell's point cost and effects based on the conditions under which the Priest is casting the spell. Finally, there's a note saying that Druids might use the [i]Defilers & Preservers[/i] rules. Obviously, these rules are [I]entirely [/I]DM-facing, and other than Channeling, they're mostly pretty hefty nerfs to the standard spellcasting rules-- the ability to overcast notwithstanding. The simplest way to use these rules is to choose one of the Mage options for Mages and Bards, and one of the Priest options for Priests, Rangers, and Paladins. Or maybe one system for Cleric-priests and Paladins, and another system for Druids and Rangers, like that final note suggests. But if we take a look at 3.X and PF for a moment... we have the Wizard, Sorcerer, Arcanist, Warlock, and Warmage that are all "arcane magic" but all have different systems for acquiring and casting spells. On the divine side, Clerics, Oracles, and Druids all have meaningful differences. If we look at 4e, the "martial" power source isn't of interest to us here-- but Arcane and Divine are joined by Primal and Shadow, and Pathfinder has [I]psychic magic[/I] that is distinct from psionics. That means we have three separate variables: how we learn spells, how we prepare them, and how we cast them. If we delve into houserules and draw from later games in the D&D family, we get a few different possible combinations. Changing these mechanics between classes in the same group, combined with changing their spell list, makes them feel radically more different than changing either variable alone. [/QUOTE]
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