Spell Resistance and Casting Tiem

[Samloyal23]

Okay, to encourage my Iron Dwarves to pursue the arts of the Alchemist and Artificer I added this to their racial description:

Spell Resistance 10 + 1/2 level. Iron dwarves must overcome their own spell resistance to cast spells within the normal casting time. To avoid this, they must take extra time to cast the spell. Thus spells that take less than a full round become a full round action to cast and other spells take double their normal casting time.

The idea is simply to make it easier for them to create magic items but harder for them to cast spells on the fly. Does this look reasonable? Have you ever tried tweaking casting times in your own campaign?

 

[Dandu]

I'm not sure how this would help. Could you explain in greater detail?

 

[Sekhmet]

I'm not sure how this would help. Could you explain in greater detail?

In order to make it less attractive to cast spells in combat, he made all spells have a Round cast time (rather than standard action) if you are an Iron Dwarf (as a racial "bonus"). He believes that makes it more attractive for this race to be an artificer type character.

 

[Dandu]

Ah, I see.

I personally think you're better off rewarding people for making an Iron Dwarf artificer, because one could easily go for a purely martial build with an Iron Dwarf due to the magic problem.

 

[PureGoldx58]

Rewards not restrictions. Self-imposed restrictions are typically the only ones that end up being more fun in the end. If you reward someone for something rather than penalize you will see people focus on it more even if it is a +1 to something arbitrary. If you want to penalize, I suggest something that evens out, SR of that level isn't that great and does not equal losing move actions.

 

[Ashtagon]

If you don't want something in your game, it is usually better to just outright ban it for players (and tell them if you are reserving it for NPC use or not). Don't punish them for a choice you don't want.

 

[Samloyal23]

Part of the reason my Iron Dwarves developed the technology and magic that they have is as compensation for a disability. They can try to override their spell resistance to cast a spell in the normal amount of time, or they can slow down to work around the resistance. Is the SR I gave them enough compensation for not being able to easily cast spells in combat?

 

[Samloyal23]

Oh, also considering ways to make them better at creating magic items to balance everything out...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I think what you are doing is an unorthodox attempt to address your problem.

I think it works for NPCs. This is the mechanical balance that justifies what I've seen you trying to do with these Dwarves in previous threads.

If I was considering making a PC of this race, I simply would not pick a spellcaster. I'd know that I could be a spellcaster that was really slow at casting spells, but could still make magic items. I'd see that option and say, "um... No. I'll be something else".

And so instead, I'd be a non-caster Dwarf with Spell Resistance. And that would be awesome.

Artificers can make magic items without being spellcasters. They do not need this mechanic you've created to be Artificers, but I think the mechanic you created would explain why spellcasters would be discuraged.

 

[Dandu]

Part of the reason my Iron Dwarves developed the technology and magic that they have is as compensation for a disability. They can try to override their spell resistance to cast a spell in the normal amount of time, or they can slow down to work around the resistance. Is the SR I gave them enough compensation for not being able to easily cast spells in combat?

"Boran, I've been hit and me aorta's been severed! Can you friggin' patch me up afore I die, you great clot?"