Semi-Spontaneous Casting: What would it take to balance it?

[Archimago]

After much bemoaning of players in my group, and my acquiesence, I ventured to come up with a method of blending the sorceror's tactical flexibility and the wizard's strategic flexibility. I think I've done it with a semi-spontaneous casting system, but how to balance it?

Semi-Spontaneous Casting
Memorize one spell for every spell slot (spells must be of equal or lesser level than slot); cast spontaneously from these memorized spells; learn spells as Wizard does in PHB

I was thinking to would simply remove all the bonus feats from the wizard to balance this (the wizard and sorceror class would be merged into one because of this change). Is this a too big/too small/proper penalty?

I have a second question for my proposal regarding metamagic, namely how should it work?

1) As a wizard: so a metamagic'd spell would take up a slot from the its level. Ie. one would memorize
0-detect magic, prestidigitation
1-magic missile, sleep
2-silent magic missile

2) As a sorceror: one would apply any known metamagic to any of the memorized spells, as a full round action, and have it use up a slot from a higher level, as determined by the metamagic used.

Any comments are appreciated.

 

[peterka1]

?

I don<t understand... You cast the number of spells per level of the wizard with known spells = total spells per day ?

 

[Archimago]

Let me clarify with an example...

I am a Wiz5 with 16 int.
I cast 4/4/3/2 spells per day.
I know, however, as many spells there are in my spellbook
I memorize:
0-detect magic, prestidigitation, flare, daze
1-magic missile, sleep, shield, ray of enfeeblement
2-invisibility, cat's grace, agannazar's scorcher
3-fly, hold person
(just like a regular wizard up to this point)
Now, when I go out adventuring I can spontaneous cast off the list of spells I've memorized. Ie. I may cast detect magic two times, flare once and daze once to use up my 0 level slots, and shield four times to use up my level one, I can even use a level two slot if I wanted to cast shield a fifth time. (This part is like a sorceror)
That is how the semi-spontaneous spell system functions.

 

[The Iron Mark]

I get it, you pick what spells want to be able to cast, then cast them as a sorcerer.

 

[Archimago]

Exactly!

So, what do I need to do to balance it? And how should metamagic work for this class? (See my original post)

 

[Dr. Zoom]

So, what do I need to do to balance it?

Not much, IMO. If you take away the bonus feats, you hurt the class too much. I would rather play a regular wizard with them than yours without them. Just tell your players that sorcerers no longer exist and that wizards can cast spells semi-spontaneously.

And how should metamagic work for this class?

Both ways, of course. The wizard can either prepare a spell with metamagic or spontaneosly cast a spell with metamagic. It all depends on what he wants to achieve.

BTW, nice idea.

 

[Geoff Watson]

So it's like a Sorceror, but they can change their Spells Known each day?

Geoff.

 

[Archimago]

More clarity...

In case I wasn't making myself clear, this institution of this system removes one of the sorceror or wizard leaving only one arcane spellcasting class, which I happen to call a wizard. This class will have the wizard's spell progression though, but for special abilities which class should I model? The sorceror with just summon familiar or the Wizard with 5 extra feats (including scribe scroll).

At this point I'm leaning towards giving my unified wizard class scribe scroll at lvl 1, and using the sorceror method of metamagicking. Does this sound okay?

Let me put it another way...

Questionnaire

Knowning what you know about Semi-Spontaneous casting answer the following questions keeping balance in mind.

1) Should this class...

A) get only scribe scroll at lvl 1, and no extra feats
B) get extra feats as a wizard does
C) no extra feats at all

2) Should this class...

A) cast metamagic as wizard does
B) cast metamagic as a sorceror does
C) both

 

[The Iron Mark]

I'd say A and B

 

[Geoff Watson]

I vote C and B.

Geoff.