Replacing XP cost with ability damage

[Kerrick]

I never really much liked the idea of burning XP for casting spells (or making magic items, for that matter). I didn't realize what others thought of it until the 4E devs announced that XP as a material component would go away and people were happy. When I was working on my level-based epic spell system, I used ability damage as a mitigating factor, and it works well. Since I've been tweaking various non-epic spells, I thought about ditching the XP costs and instituting ability damage there as well.

The way it works is this: Casting the spell, whether or not it's successful, deals 1 or more points of ability damage - the ability should be related to the spell in some manner. For instace, (limited) wish would deal Con damage (those of you familiar with old versions of this spell might recall that doing anything besides healing the party or moving them to safety required a day or so of bedrest). Awaken would deal, say, Int or Wis damage (pulling part of your personality to give it to the animal). And so on.

Ability damage cannot be healed by ANY means short of rest - it recovers naturally at the rate of 1 point per day. This eliminates people burning off wish spells without worrying about the cost ("Oh, I'll just get a lesser restoration!").

Here's a short list of spells with XP costs, and their ability costs:

Atonement: 2 Wis.

Limited wish: 1 Con

Miracle: 3 Con

Permanency: 1 Con/3 levels of the spell being made permanent (L1-3: 1 Con, L4-6: 2 Con, L7-9: 3 Con)

Planar ally, et al: No XP cost (I don't see the point of having an XP cost when you have to "request your deity to send you" someone in the first place).

Simulacrum: 1 Con (leeches your life force to give life to the clone)

Wish: 3 Con

 

[avr]

Nice idea; I'd make all the costs for spells which might be cast in combat be multiples of 2 though, on the basis that otherwise some casters would get a 'free' limited wish per day and others wouldn't, frex.

IMO Awaken should give a penalty to INT (I'd avoid using the term 'damage' to avoid grumps about restoration not working) as animals generally have plenty of wisdom but have poor intelligence scores.

 

[Deekin]

Use ablity burn, from the XPH

Ability Burn

This is a special form of ability damage that cannot be magically or psionically healed. It is caused by the use of certain psionic feats and powers. It returns only through natural healing

 

[Kerrick]

Nice idea; I'd make all the costs for spells which might be cast in combat be multiples of 2 though, on the basis that otherwise some casters would get a 'free' limited wish per day and others wouldn't, frex.

Yeah, that's true.. I'm not sure that limited wish is worth 2 points of Con, though. Wish certainly isn't worth 4.

IMO Awaken should give a penalty to INT (I'd avoid using the term 'damage' to avoid grumps about restoration not working) as animals generally have plenty of wisdom but have poor intelligence scores.

Ooh, forgot to list awaken. Int sounds good.

Use ablity burn, from the XPH

Ooh, sweet! Thanks!

 

[ceratitis]

nice idea

 

[Jack Simth]

So what happens when, say, a Lich (who has no Con score) casts Wish?

I mean, the case of the Lich is one where it's simply inapplicable - but there's also the case of "immune", such as undead physical ability scores, or ALL of a construct's scores.

Sure, you can hit the player on the head with a nice, heavy book... but it's nice to have an in-game response prepared ahead of time, to avoid resorting to physical violence.

 

[ceratitis]

thats easy, when a lich casts a wish it draws the energy with the power of its undead mind so the damage is to int.

 

[Jack Simth]

thats easy, when a lich casts a wish it draws the energy with the power of its undead mind so the damage is to int.

Decent, but gives an advantage to the Sorcerer or Clerical lich (for whom Intelligence damage doesn't mean much), and still doesn't address what happens when something is outright immune to all ability damage (such as a Construct... what was the class that did that to you - Green Star Adept, I think?).

 

[erf_beto]

I think ceratitis meant that the lich (or whatever caster) gets the ability burn in his primary casting ability, be it Int, Wis or Cha.
As for ability damage immunity: this isnt really ability damage, in the sense that you allow yourself to get 'burned' in order to cast the spell. It's not like you dont have an ability score in the first place.
Or just disallow liches to make Wishes

 

[Kerrick]

So what happens when, say, a Lich (who has no Con score) casts Wish?

Ooh, hadn't thought of that one.

thats easy, when a lich casts a wish it draws the energy with the power of its undead mind so the damage is to int.

Charisma. Cha always takes the place of Con for undead - it's their force of will that keeps them "alive".

Decent, but gives an advantage to the Sorcerer or Clerical lich (for whom Intelligence damage doesn't mean much), and still doesn't address what happens when something is outright immune to all ability damage (such as a Construct... what was the class that did that to you - Green Star Adept, I think?).

I'd go with erf and just rule it as a penalty, so constructs and undead can be affected also.