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Smallest rule, biggest change: Magic Edition
- Thread starter Ry
- Start date
Remathilis
Legend
Make all caster's spontaneous.
Replace Cleric, Wizard, and Druid with Mystic/Favored Soul, Spirit Shaman, and Sorcerer.
Tweak Rangers/Paladins to either have spells known as a hexblade/spellthief OR use the spell less variants in Complete Warrior.
Bards remain unchanged.
Magic becomes slower to advance (often needing to be a level or higher to gain new spell levels), casters must make difficult choices (remove disease or searing light?), crafting becomes harder (as spell pre-reqs become harder to meet and minimum caster level is higher for 2nd level or higher spells) disposable items become very desired (scolls and wands) and characters can go longer before resting thanks to more spells slots per level.
Replace Cleric, Wizard, and Druid with Mystic/Favored Soul, Spirit Shaman, and Sorcerer.
Tweak Rangers/Paladins to either have spells known as a hexblade/spellthief OR use the spell less variants in Complete Warrior.
Bards remain unchanged.
Magic becomes slower to advance (often needing to be a level or higher to gain new spell levels), casters must make difficult choices (remove disease or searing light?), crafting becomes harder (as spell pre-reqs become harder to meet and minimum caster level is higher for 2nd level or higher spells) disposable items become very desired (scolls and wands) and characters can go longer before resting thanks to more spells slots per level.
jefgorbach
First Post
Individual spells are a class skill useable an unlimited times per day provided the skill check is successful; each is bought at 1pt per skill level. Repurchasing the same spell gives a +1 on the skill roll. Material costs per standard rules unless have feat: Eschew Materials (sp?)
painandgreed
First Post
Crafting of magic items requires power components collected by the person who is making the item (instead of XP).
Low level items like healing potions could still be sold as local herbs and plants could be gathered by clerics or wizards. Even some lower level magic items could be made (at DMs approval) by raised animals or according to local resources. However, most magic items would have to be treasure or made by the party themselves. Perhaps they could capture live animals that act as power components and haul them to the wizard the needs to gather the compoents from them, but that would still be an adventure. Seems this would solve much of the "magic shop problems" some DMs have while still allowing characters possible adventures to get the items they want.
Low level items like healing potions could still be sold as local herbs and plants could be gathered by clerics or wizards. Even some lower level magic items could be made (at DMs approval) by raised animals or according to local resources. However, most magic items would have to be treasure or made by the party themselves. Perhaps they could capture live animals that act as power components and haul them to the wizard the needs to gather the compoents from them, but that would still be an adventure. Seems this would solve much of the "magic shop problems" some DMs have while still allowing characters possible adventures to get the items they want.
Warbringer
Explorer
How about all spells requires a focus; lesser, minor, major, greater. These replace all material components, but not xp cost. All spells require a focus, period.
Each school requires a focus
lesser (25 gp) -1 to DC, damage spells 1 less die: Can be purchased, found
minor (500 gp) +0 DC: Can be purchased, found
major (10,000 gp) +1 DC all spells do + 1 die: Must be made, or a greater focus found that now acts as a major focus
greater (100,000 gp) +3 DC all spell do maximum damage (+1 die); must be made by caster
For flavor, the focus should reflect the school: A major necromancy may be a necklace from the teeth of 10 vampires; lesser enchantment a brooch kissed by a nymph; minor conjuration an iron pentagram bathed in the blood of a lesser demon; major evocation a vial of red dragons blood (each spell requires drinking from the vial)... etc
Each school requires a focus
lesser (25 gp) -1 to DC, damage spells 1 less die: Can be purchased, found
minor (500 gp) +0 DC: Can be purchased, found
major (10,000 gp) +1 DC all spells do + 1 die: Must be made, or a greater focus found that now acts as a major focus
greater (100,000 gp) +3 DC all spell do maximum damage (+1 die); must be made by caster
For flavor, the focus should reflect the school: A major necromancy may be a necklace from the teeth of 10 vampires; lesser enchantment a brooch kissed by a nymph; minor conjuration an iron pentagram bathed in the blood of a lesser demon; major evocation a vial of red dragons blood (each spell requires drinking from the vial)... etc
humble minion
Legend
Warbringer: consider that idea yoinked...
Nyeshet
First Post
There are several ways to do this. Allowing all casters to have Eschew Materials as a bonus feat is a common house rule, as it allowing Sorcerers to use Meta-magic feats without spending a full round preparing to use it.
Another common house rule - at least around where I live - is that spells, once learned, are not forgotten. That is to say, if the spell book is lost, another can be created without bankrupting the wizard (or even the party). In effect, the wizard knows the spell well enough to rewrite it, but not quite well enough to cast it without first working it out in full again (by writing - or carving, see below - the spell out again). So the costs for writing in a spell already learned is only 1/10th the normal cost, although scribing a spell just learned is the normal price (which, as house ruled around here, is about half what the core rules suggest - in part because the cost of scribing spell is counted towards the character's suggested wealth per level, and having many spells quickly dries up that reserve otherwise.)
One I've played with a few times is using Spell staves instead of Spell books. Spells are carved into the staff, and each holds as many spells as the typical spell book (ie: 1 rune per spell level for each spell, each staff holding ~100 runes). The staffs can be brandished as a replacement for the somantic component, and each staff (to prevent easy breakage) gains a bonus to hardness and hit points equal to the level of the wizard wielding it (or the highest spell carved into it). It can be used as a weapon, but it works as if a typical quarterstaff. Spell sticks are smaller staffs - about the size of a wand and only able to hold about 25 runes.
Another (less common) house rule is to allow those researching a spell to draw from any accepted source (arcane, divine, WotC, third party, etc). Hmm, oh, I've seen it ruled that the monetary component of a spell (such as a 5k gp diamond or 25gp silver dust) can be replaced with xp on a 5 to 1 ratio (so it would be 1000 xp or 5 xp in the above examples). The reverse is also true: a spell that has a 100 xp cost could instead have a 500 gp material component used instead.
What else . . . .
Sorcerers get a feat every five levels - as with wizards, but unlike wizards, they are limited to heritage feats and meta-magic feats (not item creation feats).
I've seen various ways of altering familiars so that they are more like animal companions or other forms of enhancement, thus increasing their survivability a bit, but this tends to differ a bit each time I see it - each DM having his own style, and often altering that style from campaign to campaign as they seek to better balance their setup for this.
Most DMs adjust spell levels as they see fit for their settings. Some spells are raised a level or two, others (rarely) are lowered a level or two. Sometimes a spell is removed altogether. Sometimes the removal is permanent - no one can learn it. Sometimes it is not - the spell can either be researched or found, but it cannot be taken for free when a level is gained. Spells of the teleport, raise dead, scrying, true seeing, and so forth, along with many of the buffing spells, tend to often be raised a level or two or removed.
Sometimes the cost of creating permanent magic items (weapons, armor, wondrous items, and rings, usually) is increased - even doubled, or the level required for the feat is raised a few levels.
A less common houserule is to rule that magic is slightly chancy. Each time a spell is cast or a magic item is used a roll is made. If it rolls low (a 1 on d20, or perhaps a 1 on d10) then something odd happens - it fails, it has an opposite effect, it affects the caster or some random nearby target or area, a similar effect / spell (of equivalent level and same school of magic) occurs instead, a random metamagic or antimetamagic feat (or equivalent) is applied, something akin to psionic affects occur (such as a glow, sound, echoplasm, etc briefly reveals the casting of the spell), etc. This can be alleviated by taking one full round per each (or two) spell level(s) to cast the spell. This adds a bit of drama to casting, as rarely does combat allow for prolonged casting, and buffing is harder to prepare if it takes over long. They can take the chance - but it may have an unanticipated and even unwanted effect.
Lastly, some DMs will rearrange which spells are in which schools or may completely remake the schools. (For example, consider the Colors of Magic series, which removed the traditional 8 schools in favor of about a dozen color based schools.) Something as minor as this - by itself - can have a notable impact on the game.
Does any of this help?
Another common house rule - at least around where I live - is that spells, once learned, are not forgotten. That is to say, if the spell book is lost, another can be created without bankrupting the wizard (or even the party). In effect, the wizard knows the spell well enough to rewrite it, but not quite well enough to cast it without first working it out in full again (by writing - or carving, see below - the spell out again). So the costs for writing in a spell already learned is only 1/10th the normal cost, although scribing a spell just learned is the normal price (which, as house ruled around here, is about half what the core rules suggest - in part because the cost of scribing spell is counted towards the character's suggested wealth per level, and having many spells quickly dries up that reserve otherwise.)
One I've played with a few times is using Spell staves instead of Spell books. Spells are carved into the staff, and each holds as many spells as the typical spell book (ie: 1 rune per spell level for each spell, each staff holding ~100 runes). The staffs can be brandished as a replacement for the somantic component, and each staff (to prevent easy breakage) gains a bonus to hardness and hit points equal to the level of the wizard wielding it (or the highest spell carved into it). It can be used as a weapon, but it works as if a typical quarterstaff. Spell sticks are smaller staffs - about the size of a wand and only able to hold about 25 runes.
Another (less common) house rule is to allow those researching a spell to draw from any accepted source (arcane, divine, WotC, third party, etc). Hmm, oh, I've seen it ruled that the monetary component of a spell (such as a 5k gp diamond or 25gp silver dust) can be replaced with xp on a 5 to 1 ratio (so it would be 1000 xp or 5 xp in the above examples). The reverse is also true: a spell that has a 100 xp cost could instead have a 500 gp material component used instead.
What else . . . .
Sorcerers get a feat every five levels - as with wizards, but unlike wizards, they are limited to heritage feats and meta-magic feats (not item creation feats).
I've seen various ways of altering familiars so that they are more like animal companions or other forms of enhancement, thus increasing their survivability a bit, but this tends to differ a bit each time I see it - each DM having his own style, and often altering that style from campaign to campaign as they seek to better balance their setup for this.
Most DMs adjust spell levels as they see fit for their settings. Some spells are raised a level or two, others (rarely) are lowered a level or two. Sometimes a spell is removed altogether. Sometimes the removal is permanent - no one can learn it. Sometimes it is not - the spell can either be researched or found, but it cannot be taken for free when a level is gained. Spells of the teleport, raise dead, scrying, true seeing, and so forth, along with many of the buffing spells, tend to often be raised a level or two or removed.
Sometimes the cost of creating permanent magic items (weapons, armor, wondrous items, and rings, usually) is increased - even doubled, or the level required for the feat is raised a few levels.
A less common houserule is to rule that magic is slightly chancy. Each time a spell is cast or a magic item is used a roll is made. If it rolls low (a 1 on d20, or perhaps a 1 on d10) then something odd happens - it fails, it has an opposite effect, it affects the caster or some random nearby target or area, a similar effect / spell (of equivalent level and same school of magic) occurs instead, a random metamagic or antimetamagic feat (or equivalent) is applied, something akin to psionic affects occur (such as a glow, sound, echoplasm, etc briefly reveals the casting of the spell), etc. This can be alleviated by taking one full round per each (or two) spell level(s) to cast the spell. This adds a bit of drama to casting, as rarely does combat allow for prolonged casting, and buffing is harder to prepare if it takes over long. They can take the chance - but it may have an unanticipated and even unwanted effect.
Lastly, some DMs will rearrange which spells are in which schools or may completely remake the schools. (For example, consider the Colors of Magic series, which removed the traditional 8 schools in favor of about a dozen color based schools.) Something as minor as this - by itself - can have a notable impact on the game.
Does any of this help?
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Check out TFT, a different feel from D&D. Basically casting a spell uses up a "hit point" so as you cast spells you get weaker.
In D&D you might require some skill check (I don't know the 3e skills/feats so may be using the wrong term) failure means the sepll works but lose 1 HP per level of spell. Make the chance of failure fairly high, say 20% unless you specialize in magic/a special feat, then it may be 10%. That should alter how magic is viewed and used.
In D&D you might require some skill check (I don't know the 3e skills/feats so may be using the wrong term) failure means the sepll works but lose 1 HP per level of spell. Make the chance of failure fairly high, say 20% unless you specialize in magic/a special feat, then it may be 10%. That should alter how magic is viewed and used.
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