D&D (2024) Spell slot level for Find Familiar and Find Steed for rituals, Wild Companion and Faithful Steed

[Henadic Theologian]

A simple option for Find Steed would be to kick it out of spellcasting, make it a Channel Divinity usage and give it the same progression as the druid's Animal of the Land / Sea / Sky, with the caveat that it can't be smaller than medium.

You just tie the stat to character level.

 

[MarkB]

You just tie the stat to character level.

Which is not a feature of spells, other than cantrips.

 

[The Old Crow]

Which is not a feature of spells, other than cantrips.

This is why classes that aren't full casters shouldn't have class defining features that are spells. Making a feature into a spell just means that the feature comes later and weaker.

They could have a feature that modifies their spellcasting, though, so that the features could be as good as--or better yet better than-- what a full caster could do.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Which is not a feature of spells, other than cantrips.

To have it in.just these two spells does nothing to break the game at all.

 

[MarkB]

To have it in.just these two spells does nothing to break the game at all.

But the whole reason for making that change is that you want these to function more like class features than spells. So why not just bite the bullet and treat them as such?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

But the whole reason for making that change is that you want these to function more like class features than spells. So why not just bite the bullet and treat them as such?

They are attached to character not class so they aren't more like class features as no class feature goes off total character level rather than specific level in a class either.

 

[lkj]

I'm thinking for wild companion and for faithful steed, the intention is that you spend a spell slot. The advantages of the abilities are that they let you cast these spells as an action and not expend material components. So you can do it quick. This resolves the question of what level the spell is cast at. Except for the case where in faithful steed it explicitly states you can do it once without a spell slot. In which case I just assume it would be at the minimum.

I haven't looked into the ritual thing.

AD

 

[MarkB]

They are attached to character not class so they aren't more like class features as no class feature goes off total character level rather than specific level in a class either.

Only in your version, and it's not a choice I'd make. Scaling them to class level seems a lot more balanced.

 

[The Old Crow]

I really wish WotC would create some in-house experimental non-caster classes just for comparison purposes, a shapeshifter and a beastmaster (not the ranger subclass, but a class of its own). The shapeshifter would gain all the shifting benefits twice as early as a full caster would, and the beastmaster would get summons at a similar pace. Upper levels (past 11th and up) could be filled with bonuses to their shtick that fullcasters would never be able to achieve. I doubt these would be balanced, but it might demonstrate the problem of handing out half power features.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Only in your version, and it's not a choice I'd make. Scaling them to class level seems a lot more balanced.

For a regular spell your right, but these spells work differently, there is nothing broken in the math by using class levels, the familiar has a whooping 20hp max, not going to break anything.