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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 4131293" data-attributes="member: 50987">Playtesting Report - March 27th 2008New vesion of the "Spells on Demand" document is in the works; look for it sometime next week.-----So one of my playtesters had an interesting idea: why not test this new magic system right alongside the standard D20 one, in the same party?So we did.  We kept the iconic halfling rogue, elf wizard, and elf wizard, but we replaced the human cleric with a human druid...and this druid used the D20 system for spellcasting, not these "at-will" rules.  All four characters were bumped up to 12th level, and ran though an obstacle course of EL 7, 13, 9, and 11 encounters (in that order.)  The playtesters did not know how many encounters there would be, or how difficult they would be either, to discourage "spell hoarding."There were no obvious power gaps between the two different flavors of spellcasters, not even during the later encounters.  The druid ran out of good spells midway through the third encounter, but her wildshape ability and mediocre combat skill kept her active and helpful in combat.  The at-will wizard always used the same spells in every battle, but he is no longer breaking the game: the changes I made to the metamagic feats, the magic missile spell, and Divination magic in general, have really impacted the wizard's play.  Now, instead of just casting true strike on the fighter and rogue all day, or tossing maximized, empowered magic missiles every time something moves, the wizard has to make decisions like everyone else.  That, and a botched maximized fireball taught him some healthy respect for the force of magic.The druid might have been a poor choice for playtesting, especially compared to a wizard...she had many more combat options at her fingertips than ol' Merlin did.  Outside of combat, the druid's healing spells were what really made her shine...where the at-will cleric could only cast cure serious wounds once per character, the D20 druid was able to drop three of them onto the fighter, one right after the other, and bring him to full health.The restricted magic catalog is starting to show, however.  At higher levels, the at-will casters don't enjoy the vast selection of spells that their D20 counterparts do.  The temptation is to flood their spellbooks with combat spells and buffs, at the cost of utilitarian spells like water breathing...you hardly ever need water breathing, but man...when you need it, you REALLY need it.  I don't know if this is a problem with the system, or a problem with the player's character design.  I mean, is it fair for a ranger to complain about lackluster ranged attacks, when he chose to focus on two-weapon fighting?The easiest solution would be for the players to plan ahead, and start stocking up on potions, scrolls, and wands.  If you are heading out to sea, maybe it would be wise to invest in a few potions of water breathing, for example.  This is the obvious solution if these magic items are always available for sale in every major town...but what if the party is 500 miles from the nearest town?  What if this particular part of the country (or this particular game setting) doesn't have magic items for sale?So I am working on a way to allow "emergency" spells.  It should be difficult, but it should at least be possible, IMO.  I've got a couple of ways to handle it...one is probably too easy, and the other is probably too difficult.[SBLOCK=Maybe Too Easy?]Casting an "unknown" spell is possible, but at a -10 penalty to the caster level check.  The caster must meet all requirements for learning the spell (the spellcaster must be of the appropriate level, must have a high-enough ability score, the spell must be on the spellcaster's class list of spells, etc.)  Casting a spell in this manner requires a full-round action, and cannot be done defensively.[/SBLOCK]  [SBLOCK=Maybe Too Difficult?]Casting an "unknown" spell is possible, but requires a Spellcraft check (DC = 20 + caster level required).  The caster must meet all requirements for learning the spell (the spellcaster must be of the appropriate level, must have a high-enough ability score, the spell must be on the spellcaster's class list of spells, etc.)  This check requires at least one hour of preparation and study.If the Spellcraft check succeeds, the character can temporarily swap out one of her "known" spells of equal or greater spell level for the new spell.  The new spell remains available for casting at will for the next 24 hours.  Only one such check may be attempted in the same 24-hour period.[/SBLOCK]What do you guys think?</blockquote>

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