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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
Spells On Demand v1.1 (At-will spells in 3.5 Edition)
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<blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 4161754" data-attributes="member: 50987"><p><strong>On Epic Spells and Psionics</strong></p><p></p><p>Last night's playtest went great; we decided we would run some epic-level characters under it and see how the system holds up. And we all decided to test our tolerance for red wine, but perhaps that should go in another thread. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>EPIC SPELLS ON DEMAND</p><p></p><p>I had assumed that epic-level spells would totally break my system and cause untold grief...but I was pleasantly surprised. Assuming that the standard d20 System rules for epic spellcasting are held as-written in the Epic Level Handbook (all epic spells are considered 10th level spells, and Spellcraft checks are still required to learn and cast them), the system works reasonably well.</p><p></p><p>First of all, under the d20 System rules:</p><p></p><p>1. Characters do not gain new spells per day after 20th level.</p><p>2. Caster level continues to increase.</p><p>3. A character must take the Epic Spellcasting feat to cast epic spells.</p><p>4. A character must laborously develop an epic spell before it can be used.</p><p>5. A character may only learn one epic spell per 10 ranks in a relevant Knowledge skill.</p><p>6. Spellcraft checks must be made to cast the spell successfully.</p><p></p><p></p><p>What these rules mean under the Spells on Demand system:</p><p></p><p>1. Characters do not learn any new spells past 20th level.</p><p>2. Caster level checks get easier as level increases.</p><p>3. No change.</p><p>4. No change.</p><p>5. No change.</p><p>6. The character must also have her focus readied.</p><p></p><p>So with the exception of the scaling caster level making spells easier, there really isn't much of an impact on the system at epic level. Now granted, epic spells are unbalancing even under the d20 System rules as written, so any system that allows them at all will have some issues. But for our playtesting (which featured a 30th level bard, 30th level cleric, and 30th level wizard against a great red wyrm), it seemed to play fine. Or at least as well as it did compared to standard d20.</p><p></p><p>Since there were so few balance problems with epic spells under this system, and since the majority of gamers do not even use epic rules in the first place, I did not think it was necessary to develop an entire stack of rules to govern Epic Spellcasting under this system. A paragraph or two should be sufficient, along with the occasional rewritten feat or spell description. I will try to include these in the next release.</p><p></p><p>PSIONICS ON DEMAND?</p><p></p><p>I got an e-mail from someone asking about psionics and the "On Demand" system. I know that a lot of players use psionics in their games, and I would like to create a product that appeals to the widest variety of gamers....but the trouble is, I do not use psionics...never have, in fact. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, what problems could arise, what differences would be incompatible, and so forth. If anyone out there is a fan of psionics, I would deeply appreciate some help with development and playtesting.</p><p></p><p>My first thought on the matter would be to make all powers into spells, and allow psionic characters to learn spells at the same rate as a sorcerer. Psionic characters would use crystals or geodes as a focus, and would make manifestor level checks instead of caster level checks. But I get the feeling that this is over-simplifying the subject. Or is the whole idea unnecessary, given the power-point system that psionics already uses?</p><p></p><p>Right now, I am content to omit psionics from the project. If anyone would like to take the initiative to develop "Psionics on Demand" or something similar, let me know so I can include a link to it in my document.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CleverNickName, post: 4161754, member: 50987"] [b]On Epic Spells and Psionics[/b] Last night's playtest went great; we decided we would run some epic-level characters under it and see how the system holds up. And we all decided to test our tolerance for red wine, but perhaps that should go in another thread. :) EPIC SPELLS ON DEMAND I had assumed that epic-level spells would totally break my system and cause untold grief...but I was pleasantly surprised. Assuming that the standard d20 System rules for epic spellcasting are held as-written in the Epic Level Handbook (all epic spells are considered 10th level spells, and Spellcraft checks are still required to learn and cast them), the system works reasonably well. First of all, under the d20 System rules: 1. Characters do not gain new spells per day after 20th level. 2. Caster level continues to increase. 3. A character must take the Epic Spellcasting feat to cast epic spells. 4. A character must laborously develop an epic spell before it can be used. 5. A character may only learn one epic spell per 10 ranks in a relevant Knowledge skill. 6. Spellcraft checks must be made to cast the spell successfully. What these rules mean under the Spells on Demand system: 1. Characters do not learn any new spells past 20th level. 2. Caster level checks get easier as level increases. 3. No change. 4. No change. 5. No change. 6. The character must also have her focus readied. So with the exception of the scaling caster level making spells easier, there really isn't much of an impact on the system at epic level. Now granted, epic spells are unbalancing even under the d20 System rules as written, so any system that allows them at all will have some issues. But for our playtesting (which featured a 30th level bard, 30th level cleric, and 30th level wizard against a great red wyrm), it seemed to play fine. Or at least as well as it did compared to standard d20. Since there were so few balance problems with epic spells under this system, and since the majority of gamers do not even use epic rules in the first place, I did not think it was necessary to develop an entire stack of rules to govern Epic Spellcasting under this system. A paragraph or two should be sufficient, along with the occasional rewritten feat or spell description. I will try to include these in the next release. PSIONICS ON DEMAND? I got an e-mail from someone asking about psionics and the "On Demand" system. I know that a lot of players use psionics in their games, and I would like to create a product that appeals to the widest variety of gamers....but the trouble is, I do not use psionics...never have, in fact. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, what problems could arise, what differences would be incompatible, and so forth. If anyone out there is a fan of psionics, I would deeply appreciate some help with development and playtesting. My first thought on the matter would be to make all powers into spells, and allow psionic characters to learn spells at the same rate as a sorcerer. Psionic characters would use crystals or geodes as a focus, and would make manifestor level checks instead of caster level checks. But I get the feeling that this is over-simplifying the subject. Or is the whole idea unnecessary, given the power-point system that psionics already uses? Right now, I am content to omit psionics from the project. If anyone would like to take the initiative to develop "Psionics on Demand" or something similar, let me know so I can include a link to it in my document. [/QUOTE]
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