Realmworld- magic

[Likodan]

Allrighty, this is a homebrew for a campaign I am working on. Slowly, oh so very slowly. Keep in mind that this is only a very rough draft.

The magic account is the idea I am thinking on replacing spell slots for spellcasters. An account is the character's ability to store/hold the energy needed to cast spells, alongside regents & focuses. It is determined much like a stat. Roll 4d6's, pick the highest 3, and that is the characters account. Each spell casted burns up the spell level of the spell casted. Say Corey the bard casts 4 1st lvl. and 1 2nd lvl. spells, and that he has an account of 11. He has used up 6 points in his account with 5 remaining.

Regaining points in your account is commonly done through passive and/or active mediation. ( I'll explain these later, after I've though throught everything).

One last thing on accounts. A character can continue casting spells even after their account is empty, by tapping directly into one's own lifeforce. However this should only be done in the most dire emergeny's, for each spell cast beyond the limits of one's account costs double x2 the level of spell in constitution damage. Example: James the wizard is attack by a worg pack. A couple are still alive and his accound is empty. Knowing that his life is on the line he casts fireball (3ed lvl.) and takes 6 temporary con. damage to his 12 con, with the penatiles. Of course, once con. reach 0 that character is dead.

that's it for now of magic accounts. So what do you think?

 

[Sado]

So...it's a mana pool?

I like the spell level=cost bit. I like the idea of using hp (as opposed to constitution drain, although in d&d constitution is probably more appropriate) to power spells (I always liked the thought of a wizard courageously sacrificing their last few hp to cast the spell that would save their companions).

Would anyone still have to prepare spells ahead of time? I'm not as familiar with the magic system as I should be (I usually play fighter-types) but wouldn't that negate much of the diference between Sorcerer and Wizard?

I like spell/mana point systems as a whole better than the standard d&d magic system (it feels so constraining having to guess every morning what spells you are going to need all day, although I like the 3.x explanation for that). Yours looks fairly straightforward. How do you regain points and increase your max points?

 

[Likodan]

Yes Sado, magic accounts are much like mana pools.

Here's how the Magi in my world refill their accounts:

There are two primary methods to refill one's account: passive and active meditation. With passive med. the character, even without rest, regains 1/2 their caster level in points per 24 hours. (miniamum is 1 point). To use active meditation, the caster must first enter a trance. (min. to trance entrance is 10 minutes to 1 hour max). To determine chars. time to enter a trance take 1 hour and subtract 10 minutes per bonus to constitution. Now while in the trance, make a concentration check DC 10 + 2 per point you wish to regain. Example regaining 2 pts. is DC 14, while regaining 10 pts. is DC 30.

It takes another 10 minutes per point regained that the char. remains in the trance. After the check and time spent in regaining points is made the caster now begins to recover from the trance. (recover time is equal to the time spent entering the trance). Now the caster is awake and aware of the world around him/her again.

Beware! Characters in a trance are helpless and easily killed. Plently of room for "interesting" things to happen in that time, hmm? If the trance is interupted at any time the effort is lost.

More detail later.

 

[Likodan]

Now that I've answered how to regain points, I'll answer the other questions.

In this homebrew, you can cast all the spells that you know, so long that you have the points, regents, and focus for the spell. In this world through, sorcerer's and wizards do not exist. There only only the Magi or Mages.

Since the magic account is determined like a stat. , it can be increased with your stat. increase at levels 4, 8, 12, etc. and with special items.

Thanks for the post.

 

[poilbrun]

How does this increase with level? Let's say I roll a 14 on my account characteristic. At level, it means I can cast 14 lvl 1 spells. At level 17, having put all my stat increase there, I can cast 2 level 9 spells, and that's it. Compared to a core spellcaster, I will never be able to cast as many spells (even though I would be able to cast more 1st or 2nd level spells than a core sorcerer, he still has many more higher-level slots).

Furthermore, since I would HAVE TO put my stat increases in that stat, I'm weaker than a core spellcaster who can put them in a stat that has another effect than increasing the number of spells (either skill points for INT, will save for WIS - BTW? is this system also used for clerics? -, or the social skills for CHA).

Also, this means you cannot use the point buy method for character generation unless you give more points, but then that means that a non-spellcaster is more powerful than a core one, which, in turns, means that spellcaster are even worse, since it looks like they are weaker than core. This might not be a huge issue, since, as you use a roll for that stat, it looks like you use rolls for character generation.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Don't like it because:

1) Doesn't increase with level.
2) Account size too random. What if you roll two 1's, a 2, and a 3? Yuck. This is like ruling that fighters get d10 bonus feats over the span of 20 levels instead of one every other level. You don't want to screw a character out of his major class ability forever because he made one lousy roll at character creation time.

If you're going to do something like this, at least base your account on something static, like your spellcasting ability score.

You could solve both of the above problems with something like: account is your spellcasting ability score modifier + 1 point/spellcasting level. Alternatively, you could have a non-linear increase in points per spellcasting level: +1 point at 1st level (total of 1 bonus point), +2 points at 2nd level (total of 3 bonus points), +3 points at 3rd level (total of 6 bonus points), etc.

 

[Likodan]

I've decided to abandon the separate magic stat. for account size. Using the spellingcasting ability score to determine account size is a better thing to do. But I've also considered using CON. to do that too.

For increasing account size: I'll go with increases at certain levels. Rough example: lvl 5 ("journyman rank), lvl 10 ("adept rank", lvl 15 ("master rank"), lvl 20 ("grandmaster rank"). I haven't decided how much of an increase there will be yet through.

Since I'm using points rather than spell slots, I've been wondering how to affect metamagic feats.

There's quite a bit to iron out still. Thank you poilbrun & Ulorian for your posts. It's helped alot.