RangerWickett
Legend
At 2:30 in the morning, while working on the skill-based Modern Elements of Magic ruleset, I realized an idea that would have been great if I'd had it a month ago. But now I'm rather far into the book, and I don't know if it's worth the time to rework things, or even to devote time to exploring the idea.
The current system is roughly as follows:
There are 10 magical skills, and by spending skill ranks in those skills, basically characters of any class can gain the ability to cast spells of the appropriate type. Whenever you cast a spell, you make a skill check with the appropriate skill, with a DC based on spell level.
Spell levels go from 1 to 20, basically equivalent to character level, so at 1st level you ought to be casting 1st level spells, and at 10th level you should be casting 10th level spells. You can go a little higher or a little lower if you want, with lower or higher chances of success.
When you cast a spell that's the same level as your character level, you've got on average a 70% chance of success of the spell working. If you cast a weaker spell you've got a higher chance of it working. If you fail, you suffer a cumulative -1 penalty to your spellcasting checks until you get some rest. This gives you a lot of flexibility in how you dole out your power.
I realized tonight, though, that it might end up being a pain to have you make a spellcasting roll, then have your target make a saving throw, whereas the core system just has the target make a save.
And then I hit on the Wealth system from D20 Modern as a possible solution. In the Wealth mechanic system, anything with a Purchase DC that's less than your Wealth bonus you can buy without affecting your Wealth score at all. If it costs a little more than your Wealth bonus, your Wealth goes down a little, and if it costs a lot more you might run completely out of funds. You regain wealth by acquiring money in the game, or by Profession skill checks. It's an abstract system, keeping track of relative wealth instead of dollars and cents (or pounds or euros).
What if, I thought, you have a Magic Rating, maybe just a base of 10. You still spend skill points to get ranks in magical skills, but you never make skill checks. The skill points just determine what power spell you can cast. If you cast a spell the same level as your ranks in a skill or lower, your magic rating doesn't go down. If you cast a spell a little higher level, your magic rating goes down 1, and if you cast a spell that's very high level, your magic rating goes down by 1d6 or more. Your magic rating goes back to full when you sleep.
The benefit of this system is that you don't need to make both a casting check and a saving throw to resolve a spell. You just make one roll (or rather, the target makes one roll). The drawback is that, well, it's no longer really skill-based, is it? You spend skill points because they're a resource that happens to track fairly well to character level, but you're not spending them on skills per se.
Well, there's my ramble. I dont' know if it's enough information for people to comment usefully, but if you've got some thoughts or suggestions, I'd like to hear them.
The current system is roughly as follows:
There are 10 magical skills, and by spending skill ranks in those skills, basically characters of any class can gain the ability to cast spells of the appropriate type. Whenever you cast a spell, you make a skill check with the appropriate skill, with a DC based on spell level.
Spell levels go from 1 to 20, basically equivalent to character level, so at 1st level you ought to be casting 1st level spells, and at 10th level you should be casting 10th level spells. You can go a little higher or a little lower if you want, with lower or higher chances of success.
When you cast a spell that's the same level as your character level, you've got on average a 70% chance of success of the spell working. If you cast a weaker spell you've got a higher chance of it working. If you fail, you suffer a cumulative -1 penalty to your spellcasting checks until you get some rest. This gives you a lot of flexibility in how you dole out your power.
I realized tonight, though, that it might end up being a pain to have you make a spellcasting roll, then have your target make a saving throw, whereas the core system just has the target make a save.
And then I hit on the Wealth system from D20 Modern as a possible solution. In the Wealth mechanic system, anything with a Purchase DC that's less than your Wealth bonus you can buy without affecting your Wealth score at all. If it costs a little more than your Wealth bonus, your Wealth goes down a little, and if it costs a lot more you might run completely out of funds. You regain wealth by acquiring money in the game, or by Profession skill checks. It's an abstract system, keeping track of relative wealth instead of dollars and cents (or pounds or euros).
What if, I thought, you have a Magic Rating, maybe just a base of 10. You still spend skill points to get ranks in magical skills, but you never make skill checks. The skill points just determine what power spell you can cast. If you cast a spell the same level as your ranks in a skill or lower, your magic rating doesn't go down. If you cast a spell a little higher level, your magic rating goes down 1, and if you cast a spell that's very high level, your magic rating goes down by 1d6 or more. Your magic rating goes back to full when you sleep.
The benefit of this system is that you don't need to make both a casting check and a saving throw to resolve a spell. You just make one roll (or rather, the target makes one roll). The drawback is that, well, it's no longer really skill-based, is it? You spend skill points because they're a resource that happens to track fairly well to character level, but you're not spending them on skills per se.
Well, there's my ramble. I dont' know if it's enough information for people to comment usefully, but if you've got some thoughts or suggestions, I'd like to hear them.
