D&D 3E/3.5 Spells On Demand v1.1 (At-will spells in 3.5 Edition)

[CleverNickName]

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Download the latest version (V1.1, April 3 2008) here (738K pdf). If you have trouble, try right-clicking and selecting "Save As..."

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I am trying to make spellcasters in 3.5E a little more "Potteresque," which is to say, more like the wizards in the Harry Potter universe. You know: nobody spends any time memorizing spells or meditating; they either know a spell or they don't. Nobody counts the number of spells that they have cast each day either; they just toss them off whenever they need to. And only the very powerful or very experienced can do magic without a wand.

The 4E forum has been a great source of inspiration in this project; the ideas of power sources and making spells into at-will abilities came right from The D&D Experience. But the thing is, I probably won't be converting to 4E. The option is there, and I might change my mind after reading the 4E books, but for the time being let us just assume I am not, and that I want to houserule 3.5E instead.

In a nutshell: once a spellcaster learns a spell, it can be cast an unlimited number of times per day.

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EDIT: 03/15/08

I have finished typing up my first draft of these rules, and have even had a chance to playtest them in a couple of gaming sessions. I post them here for anyone's critique.

The balance doesn't seem too terrible, at least in our playtest. Our playtesting group consists of four iconic character builds (a human cleric, a dwarf fighter, a halfling rogue, and an elf wizard) all at 7th level. Even with their unlimited spells, the cleric and the wizard seem to be functioning on par with the fighter and the rogue in combat...everyone is having fun, dishing out damage and knocking down the bad guys.

The cleric said that she feels crippled a little too much by the rules system...particularly the restriciton I placed on (Healing) subtype spells. However, she admits that it has more to do with her comfort zone than game mechanics. She would like to be able to fully restore everyone in the party after every battle (wouldn't we all?) but she understands why that can't happen.

I imagine that this rules system will start to fall apart at high level, and will be downright unworkable at Epic level. I will continue to test it and revise it in my free time...feedback is always appreciated.

 

[eschwenke]

Personally, if I wanted to make a potteresque spellcasting system, I'd first fix the skill system so that it wasn't ridiculously broken and then make it skill-based with metamagic adding to a spell's DC and bad effects occuring for missing the DC by a certain amount.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I'm not really familiar with the Harry Potter style of magic. Is there ever any limiting factor on spellcasting, like say possible backlash, circumstances required, spirits/other forces angry at overuse/abuse of their gifts(?), physical and/or mental fatigue or worse being inevitable. . . or anything else?

I've used 'unlimited' magic systems in 3e before, only they weren't. For example, one used a skill roll for casting spells, and the level of failure would determine what went wrong, including nothing at all, fatigue, the spell backfiring, etc. Success meant the spell worked as written. The more times spells (of any kind) were cast, the higher the skill check DC for casting any further spells that day. These rules were essentially from Legends of Sorcery, by RPGObjects.

There's also the recharge magic option from Unearthed Arcana, also the SRD (see link.)

Without knowing more about Potteresque magic, I won't try offering up further ideas or advice.


edit --- Hah! I posted this without seeing the post above, due to being delayed. Weird, eh.

 

[Li Shenron]

Cannot say it's balanced, but the idea seems fine to me.

Except this:

Spellcasters gain one new spell at each level up, selected from their class list. Specialist wizards gain two spells at each level-up; one of these spells must be from his school of magic.

I'd rather find something else that would allow to remove the idea of "forbidden schools".

 

[3d6]

Have you looked at the warlock class from Complete Arcane? The warlock is an at-will spellcaster, and might provide some good reference points.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm not really familiar with the Harry Potter style of magic. Is there ever any limiting factor on spellcasting, like say possible backlash, circumstances required, spirits/other forces angry at overuse/abuse of their gifts(?), physical and/or mental fatigue or worse being inevitable. . . or anything else?

Not really, no. In the Potter books, the difficult thing about magic is learning it. But once they have learned a spell, the characters can typically cast them all day long on an as-needed basis...even the most powerful ones.

Personally, if I wanted to make a potteresque spellcasting system, I'd first fix the skill system so that it wasn't ridiculously broken and then make it skill-based with metamagic adding to a spell's DC and bad effects occuring for missing the DC by a certain amount.

I've used 'unlimited' magic systems in 3e before, only they weren't. For example, one used a skill roll for casting spells, and the level of failure would determine what went wrong, including nothing at all, fatigue, the spell backfiring, etc. Success meant the spell worked as written. The more times spells (of any kind) were cast, the higher the skill check DC for casting any further spells that day. These rules were essentially from Legends of Sorcery, by RPGObjects.

Hmm...an interesting concept. Requiring Spellcraft checks to be able to cast a spell is definitely in line with "spells are difficult to learn," and it would be an effective balance-check for very powerful spells at low levels, too. Thanks for the tip...I'll have to check them out.

There's also the recharge magic option from Unearthed Arcana, also the SRD (see link.)

Yes, I saw this system and it has its advantages...but I think it would be a bit too complicated. Eventually, the players would have to consult a table every time they wanted to cast a spell to find its recharge time, and then we would have to keep even closer track of in-game time...it would work, and it is balanced, but I don't think it is what we are looking for.

Thanks for the tips, though. You have given me food for thought...

 

[CleverNickName]

Cannot say it's balanced, but the idea seems fine to me.

Except this:

I'd rather find something else that would allow to remove the idea of "forbidden schools".

Interesting...please tell me more. Without the "forbidden school" idea, how would you balance the power level between a specialist wizard and a non-specialist?

In Harry Potter, there are both specialist and non-specialist wizards. The specialists are usually teachers: MacGonagall's specialty is Transmutation, Dumbledore's specialty is Abjuration, and Trelawney's is Divination, for example...in battle, it seems that they focus on these spells most often, and it is rare that they cast a spell that doesn't fit their special school. Students and wizard citizens are more balanced; they seem to know fewer spells but they know a wide variety of them.

I like this dynamic, and I would like to include it in my game. I suppose I could just give wizards two spells per level, and leave it up to the player to decide whether or not she wants to pick an Evocation spell at every level-up. Is that what you had in mind?

 

[CleverNickName]

Have you looked at the warlock class from Complete Arcane? The warlock is an at-will spellcaster, and might provide some good reference points.

Yep. Someone in my gaming group has played one, and it seemed to work out fine. What my gaming group would like is more variety...druid-like warlocks, bard-like warlocks, cleric-like warlocks...and I'm trying to figure a way to accomplish that without having to rewrite a hundred spells into invocations.

 

[GlassEye]

Interesting...please tell me more. Without the "forbidden school" idea, how would you balance the power level between a specialist wizard and a non-specialist?

In Harry Potter, there are both specialist and non-specialist wizards. The specialists are usually teachers: MacGonagall's specialty is Transmutation, Dumbledore's specialty is Abjuration, and Trelawney's is Divination, for example...in battle, it seems that they focus on these spells most often, and it is rare that they cast a spell that doesn't fit their special school. Students and wizard citizens are more balanced; they seem to know fewer spells but they know a wide variety of them.

I like this dynamic, and I would like to include it in my game. I suppose I could just give wizards two spells per level, and leave it up to the player to decide whether or not she wants to pick an Evocation spell at every level-up. Is that what you had in mind?

Well, this is just off the top of my head so I'm not certain how balanced it would be... It seems to me that the way to get a specialist to focus on casting his specialty spells instead of his non-specialty spells would be to provide a bonus to the specialty spells. Instead of extra spells dedicated to the specialty and forbidden schools for specialists give them the same number of spells as a normal wizard but allow them to cast spells from their school of specialization at caster level +1 or +2. Another balancing factor: you could require specialization to include subschools. So instead of being a specialist in Conjuration the player would also have to select a subschool such as Conjuration (Healing).

 

[milo]

There is also the option of the rexerve spell feats from the Complete Mage. Rather than make them feats that they have to pick change them into spells. Pick one every three or four levels. You still have the option of casting all day with the little spells or blasting with your big spells when you need them. I also like the recharging variant from UA.