Spellcasting Time

[I'm A Banana]

I need some help!

I'm contemplating a class that takes longer to cast a spell than normal...quite a bit, actually. Most spells that usually take one standard action will now take one standard action...plus a full-round action.

What I'd like is some opinion on how this spellcaster would still be used, if at all. I'm preserving it mainly for flavor reasons, so if it weirds stuff out too much, I can ditch it, but, in general, how important is spellcasting time to you guys out there? Would a round and a half be too long to wait between fireballs? Cure wounds spells?

Feats will exist to offset this (one to reduce it to a full round only, another to reduce it to a standard action), but this is spending precious feats...

Is it still worth it to cast spells, if they take that long to cast?

 

[Sertimon]

Feats will exist to offset this (one to reduce it to a full round only, another to reduce it to a standard action), but this is spending precious feats...

Well ... not to sound rude or anything, but what's the point of having this class feature if your can decrease the casting time to a point where they cast spells exactly like every other spellcaster (in terms of casting time)? I don't get it. If I can still play, say a wizard, I would personally choose the wizard instead, especially if I am relying on offensive magics such as fireball and lighting.

On the other hand, if the class relies more on divination or magics that can be used outside combat I would have no problem using it. I mean, I could play it just for fun or for the flavor of the class. It boils down to what this class has to offer that the other do not.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The main motive for it is a flavor consideration on spellcasting -- they're basically spontaneous casters, but can know a nice collection of spells, so they need this 'extra full round' to rapidly prepare a spell before casting it. They basically know 1 spell/level, and are limited to casting per day one of their highest level spells, plus a handfull of lower level spells.

The class has different focuses....

One of the focuses is healing. The class gains lots of curative/restorative/defensive spells, the ability to roll dice for minor healing 1/day/level, protective ward (as the protection domain), the ability to use the Heal skill to give temporary hit points or revive a dying character to 1 hp (full-round actions), and a few bonus feats.

One of the focueses is destruction. The class gains lots of elemental/death/destruction spells, the ability to cast spells twice in the time it takes to have one, the ability to increase their spellcasting statistic (and thus DC's) for a time, and a few bonus feats.

One of the focuses is time/space. The class gains temporal spells, travel spells, and curses. They gain divination powers, and 'floating' +x bonuses and rerolls, and a few bonus feats.

You get the idea...and it does sound like that extra round may be too long to wait for most of the magic here (which should definately be at least alongside the wizard or cleric in terms of battle readiness...) Perhaps I'll give them a bonus for casting it slower, though....lowering the spell a level or two?

 

[ciaran00]

If you may recall, the Sha'ir-- the genie wizard-- from 2nd edition Al'Qadim carried a small Gen that would fetch him spells. For normal wizard spells, the Gen would take like 4-6 rounds to get back to him or something like that which made the class totally unplayable. Waiting for more than a round for something someone else can do within a round sucks, because no other class offset seems to help... because you can get killed for waiting around.

If the guy has no combat skills, he's going to get cut down period. That's how I as a DM would exploit it.

EDIT: Judging from your last post, you ARE somewhat trying to remake the Sha'ir. Think of another penalty than extended casting time: you are going to have a difficult time replacing this penalty with a benefit that directly counteracts it somehow..... just my two cents.

ciaran

 

[Beholder Bob]

Speed kills

I am working on something similar – for flavor I would like spells to take longer then a few seconds to whip off, but I can not afford to cripple the class, or none would play it. My decision was to go for spell failure – casting a spell always requires a skill roll. Failure results in the loss on the spell. Taking extra time greatly increases the chance of success – so a caster can still ‘whip off’ a spell, but not w/out risk. Some casters will instead opt for a better chance, spending more time.

Now, in exchange for this penalty (spell failure) – I needed something to offset it. On an extremely good roll to cast a spell, the caster retains some spell power, but 1 level lower (a good roll while casting a 4th level spell allows an additional casting of a 3rd level spell that day), using the mechanics for a pearl of power for that additional casting. If you took extra time to cast the spell, any retained spell power is reduced in level (otherwise casters who take their time would take forever to run out of spells). Also, a caster can add meta-magic on the fly – but with a far more serious chance of failure, and the inability to take 10. Failure not only costs the spell in question, but inflicts damage on the caster.