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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 2944898" data-attributes="member: 63">As Pinotage mentioned, E.N. Publishing has 'Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth,' which is a skill-based magic system. However, the extended playtest I've put this system through over the past year (over the course of running a campaign from 2nd to 9th level) has shown some of the flaws in my design. I'd like to share some of them, as lessons of what to avoid.In your system, a maxed-out 1st level wizard with skill focus and that other spellcraft feat could have a +13 Spellcraft check. This would allow him to succeed cantrips 80% of the time, and 1st level spells 65% of the time. Whenever he gains a new spell level, the DC increases by 3 but his skill ranks only increase by 2. (This is assuming you don't allow him to buy a spellcraft-boosting magic item, because that would really skew the system.) Do you know what is ridiculously irritating as a spellcaster? Failing to cast a spell in combat. Already your foes get saves to resist your spells, so if you add in a chance that your spell might simply do nothing in the first place, you've got a recipe for irritating the mage.Additionally, while some spells are alright to be cast multiple times a day (things like burning hands are powerful, but hardly broken), there are a lot of spells that simply ruin the game if the PC has the chance to cast them an unlimited number of times. I discovered this to my chagrin when the party mage (at 7th level) was on the run from the city guard, and managed to charm just about everyone he ran into.When we got up to teleport, well, then things just went crazy. It's kinda hard to have a logical setting when a few high-level people can just zip across the world at a whim.Simply put, I've come to the conclusion that skill-based magic is not an optimal ruleset in the d20 system. The game is just not designed for it. If the game were re-tooled so that your spellcasting check determined whether you affected a target (instead of him getting a saving throw), then maybe it could work, but given how d20 works, I think there are better options.I still don't particularly like the 'spell slot' approach, though, so I came up with a new option. Start with a magic point/power point baseline. Whenever you cast a spell, you spend MP. If you rest for a time, say ten minutes, you replenish your MP. However, some spells cause 'MP burn,' which reduces your maximum MP for the rest of the day. MP burn can only be recovered by resting 8 hours.The spells that cause MP burn are ones that have long-reaching effects. Any spell with a duration greater than a minute (or a round/level) causes MP burn, as do most things with instantaneous effects other than attacks. Fireball you can cast all day, but magical healing, teleportation, and divination spells all have their limits.</blockquote>

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