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Message: <blockquote data-quote="xXxTheBeastxXx" data-source="post: 5388301" data-attributes="member: 90543">I'm attempting to create a "spells readied" system for my PF games, similar to what was established in Arcana Evolved. The idea, if you don't know the "readied" system already, is that prepared casters have a number of spells "readied", or memorized, and this essentially becomes their list of spells known until they decide to ready new spells. Their spells per day become a separate list altogether.This alters the existing system by granting prepared casters an amount of spontaneity in their casting. No longer do they have to prepare 3 fireballs to cast fireball 3 times. They only have to ready it once, then they can expend as many spell slots as needed on it throughout the day.At the moment, the readied list of any caster is equivalent in size to his spells per day list. So a 5th level wizard can ready 4 0-levels, 3 1st-levels, 2 2nd-levels, and 1 3rd level (with bonuses for a high int thrown in), and then freely choose to spontaneously cast from this readied list.Understandably, this gives a significant boost to the power of prepared casters (whose massive spell lists already gave them the advantage). And that's where I take issue. I love the idea of a readied list. The concept of a wizard "forgetting" his spell after he casts it has always been ridiculous, and this system solves it. However, this makes spontaneous casters nearly worthless, except from a flavor standpoint. A sorcerer might know N spells, and be able to cast them at will, but a wizard knows 3 to 4N spells and now he can ready them, creating his own spontaneous list.My question is, what do I do to balance this? I don't really care about balancing with martial characters, as I usually treat magic as being more powerful than martial talent by definition anyway. But how do I balance--or at least moderately balance--the rift a "ready" system creates between prepared casters and spontaneous casters?My ideas so far are as follows:1-Allow spontaneous casters a bonus to their spells known based on their charisma modifier. The main boon of this is that it allows the sorcerer more versatility. As their charisma increases, so does their selection of spells and--thus--so does their power. I've actually been in favor of this idea for a while. I hate fixed numbers in classes, and think that the character itself should come into play more often.2-create a separate, smaller list for spells readied rather than use the spells per day list as a basis. This gives the advantage (from a balance standpoint) of reducing the spontaneity of the prepared casters. However, I hate taking something away from a class, and am really leaning away from this one.3-give spontaneous casters some other bonus. Whether it be a class feature bonus or something else entirely (enhanced BAB and HD? an extra good save? Feats?) One idea I have is sort of a "primal boost" ability. A pool of points that a spontaneous caster has that they can use to increase their effective caster level whenever they cast a spell.As I mentioned before. Flavor-wise, I consider magic to be greater than martial prowess by definition. And, in that vein of thinking, I would think that natural magic would be on par--if not better than--learned magic. If I do implement this "readied" system (which I most likely will, since it works so well), I would like to balance my casters against each other.Any input is more than appreciated. Should I use any of these ideas? Should I forgo them all and just live with the consequences of powerful prepared casters?Thanks in advance.</blockquote>

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