Spells as Psychic Powers

[CleverNickName]

I don't know if this has been discussed already in this forum or not, but I thought I'd ask. If it already has, please point me in the right direction...

I like the way that the psychic powers are handled in the 3.5 Psionic Handbook...especially the power point system. I like it so much in fact, that I want to make all spellcasters in my game handle magic in the same manner. I could just rule that all casters must be psions, but that's too heavy-handed for what I want to do. I don't want psionics. I want a cleric who casts cleric spells, using a point system instead of a "spells per day" table.

I was wondering if someone had already done this in their campaign, and if they could give me some direction.

From what I can tell, the "Power Level" of a particular spell is fairly close to its "Spell Level," so it shouldn't be too terribly difficult to convert that part. But when it comes to determining the power point cost of, say, flame strike, I have no idea what I am doing. Are standard point costs good enough (1 point for 1st level powers, 3 points for 2nd level powers, etc.) or do they need tweaking?

 

[SteelDraco]

What makes the power point system distinct and useful is the augmentation mechanic. That's where all the effort would be if you were to convert 3.5 magic to a power-point based system. Generally, you'd end up with fewer spells, with the ability to customize them based on how you spread the augmentation points around. Most spells have a power equivalent, either in the XPH or Complete Psion, but there would still be some conversion to do. You'd also need to add some new powers or mechanics to cover what psionics is bad at - healing and condition removal, mostly, but there are some other things I'd fiddle with.

 

[CleverNickName]

What makes the power point system distinct and useful is the augmentation mechanic. That's where all the effort would be if you were to convert 3.5 magic to a power-point based system. Generally, you'd end up with fewer spells, with the ability to customize them based on how you spread the augmentation points around. Most spells have a power equivalent, either in the XPH or Complete Psion, but there would still be some conversion to do. You'd also need to add some new powers or mechanics to cover what psionics is bad at - healing and condition removal, mostly, but there are some other things I'd fiddle with.

So you're saying that instead of a whole family of cure wounds spells, I would have only one 1st level spell called cure wounds, which could be augmented by spending more power points? If so, I'm totally on board with that.

But I don't want a complete conversion of spells into psi powers, though. I still want to keep the rules in place for arcane spell failure, spell components and foci, casting time, metamagic feats, and so forth. I want clerics to get domain spells. I want wizards to get school specialization. I want bards to have to sing in order to cast. In short, I just want to get rid of the Spells Per Day tables, and use a cheap (yet balanced) point system for spells. The psionics system seems fairly balanced, so I thought it was a good place to start.

You have given me food for thought, about augmenting spells, though...and not just the obvious ones.

Like a cure lesser condition spell that (at its lowest level) will remove stuff like fatigue and sinus congestion. The caster could then augment it to treat blindness or deafness, or augment it further to treat poison and disease, and continue to augment it to remove curses, break enchantments, and raise the dead...

I like this. A lot.

 

[SteelDraco]

So you're saying that instead of a whole family of cure wounds spells, I would have only one 1st level spell called cure wounds, which could be augmented by spending more power points? If so, I'm totally on board with that.

Yeah, that's the way I'd do it. I'm actually using a very similar system for a game I'm running, so I've put a bit of thought into it. Spellcasters in that game are all different, though, so I haven't written up classes for all the different styles, which seems to be something you'd need to do.

But I don't want a complete conversion of spells into psi powers, though. I still want to keep the rules in place for arcane spell failure, spell components and foci, casting time, metamagic feats, and so forth. I want clerics to get domain spells. I want wizards to get school specialization. I want bards to have to sing in order to cast. In short, I just want to get rid of the Spells Per Day tables, and use a cheap (yet balanced) point system for spells. The psionics system seems fairly balanced, so I thought it was a good place to start.

Ahhh, gotcha. So you don't intend to rip the guts out of the spell system, just rewrite the spells and switch out the spells-per-day table. That shouldn't be too hard - I did something similar with the Artificer class recently to create a Psionic Artificer. Quite a few of the spells were easy conversions, and once you get a handle on how you want the augmentation mechanics to work, it's pretty simple.

You'll have to figure out some kind of difference between the sorcerer and the the wizard, if you want both to continue existing. As it stands, the difference between them is mostly just the spells-per-day and spells-known charts, so if you switch those out for the psion stuff, they're going to end up too much the same. Check out the Erudite on the WoTC boards for a take on a more wizard-y psion, though I'm not sure I'd bother to keep them distinct.

Linky : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060406b&page=1

You have given me food for thought, about augmenting spells, though...and not just the obvious ones.

Like a cure lesser condition spell that (at its lowest level) will remove stuff like fatigue and sinus congestion. The caster could then augment it to treat blindness or deafness, or augment it further to treat poison and disease, and continue to augment it to remove curses, break enchantments, and raise the dead...

I like this. A lot.

Yup, that's a good way to do it. 'course, there's a point at which one power is doing too much, and it becomes a no-brainer choice for everybody to take. I'm always leery of something like that. For example, if I was going to write up a power like that, I'd seperate it out so that there are three or four powers, with not much in the way of overlap between them. Look for chains of spells - Lesser, Regular, Greater. Those can almost always be merged into one spell, and IMO should be. Revifify, Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection could all merge into the same spell, but I personally wouldn't have that be the same power as what I'd use to get rid of someone being dazed for a round.