Spells using a Point Pool?

[Wolfspider]

Hehe, you guys suck at Sense Motive. Everyone's just lying for the fun of it, aren't they? Like that guy from Hungary was lying? Well, turns out most people don't lie unless they have a reason. Sorry to rain on the spectics' parade.

Yeah, people were really quick to jump on it as a lie. Interesting. Anyway, right now we have too little information to judge. But still...interesting.

What's more likely is that the facts have gotten garbled as they filtered through the poster, just as they did with that whole "+3 at ability 10" fiasco. We don't know if it's spell points or spell pool. I'm sure that whatever it is, it'll be better than the old stuff.

A spell point system doesn't seem so outlandish to me. After all, they did experiment with one in Unearthed Arcana, and wasn't that one of the books that introduced early 4e concepts?

 

[Jhaelen]

Just talked to a guy at a local bookstore.[snip]

Ah, that guy! I know him. He was just BSing you, don't worry

 

[WayneLigon]

I don't know how such a thing works, but I'm pretty sure that if you are a playtester and you play one session then quit, any comments you make are tossed in the trash since there's no way you could have done more than touched on the very basics of the system. So, if he's telling the complete truth, I would think he totally wasted the golden opportunity to tell WoTC what they felt was wrong and why.

 

[glass]

I'd love spell points, as psionics... But I'm sure magic won't work like that.
Anyway, any thing is better than this horrid Vancian spell preparation system.

You can take away my Vancian magic when you pull it from my cold dead hand!

Seriously, though, they said Vancian magic would be reduced but not gone completely in 4e. That said, there is nothing inherently more Vancian as opposed to points (see 2e Skills & Powers, for example).


glass.

 

[Doug McCrae]

From the playtest reports we know that wizards have at will and per day resources. Per encounter would make sense, based on ToB, not sure if this has been confirmed in a playtest report or not. We also know wizard abilities will be 'siloed', so a wizard won't be giving up fireball if he uses phantom steed, for example.

That all seems completely at odds with a spell point system. Ofc the OP said 'spell pool' not spell points. But we don't really know what that means.

#3 makes perfect sense.

My opinion, for what it's worth (ie absolutely nothing) is that the bookstore guy was on the level.

Now, why aren't leaked documents online yet? C'mon you pirates!

 

[WayneLigon]

That all seems completely at odds with a spell point system. Ofc the OP said 'spell pool' not spell points. But we don't really know what that means.

If I had to guess, I'd say they would have the same spell pool ability that a 'Guild Wizard' had in Tome and Blood; a similar idea appears in Complete Arcane. You don't learn spells from books, you just draw them from the pool of spells your order knows or something like that?

 

[Cadfan]

1) I don't consider "guy from store" credible. I've been told some awful whoppers by "guy from store." "Guy from store" is a jerk.

2) I'd be really shocked if the game used spell points. Spell points suck. About the only thing they have going for them is that they're not vancian magic, but they still manage to rope in a lot of the flaws of vancian magic. Sorry psionics, the only reason you weren't terrible is because regular magic was so bad.

3) The guy said "spell pool." If this means something like "you have 4 spells in your per encounter spell pool and may cast 2 of them per encounter," that makes sense to me.

 

[Wepwawet]

(...) Sorry psionics, the only reason you weren't terrible is because regular magic was so bad.

Hahaha! That's a good point!
Indeed, with Arcana Unearthed's spell points variant rules, psionicists get seriously underpowered.

3) The guy said "spell pool." If this means something like "you have 4 spells in your per encounter spell pool and may cast 2 of them per encounter," that makes sense to me.

This reminds me of a core psionic class from Complete Psionic, but I don't remember the name. This class has access to all the powers he can learn (unlike regular psionics, who know just a few) but can only manifest a set number of powers per day.
Could the new wizard work similarly? Like, he learns whatever spells he can, he's able to cast any of them, but limited to this spell pool. This pool is basically the number of spells (of each level or group) he can cast per day or per encounter.

 

[KingCrab]

Well, turns out most people don't lie unless they have a reason.

and that reason is usually entertainment value.

 

[Bacris]

This reminds me of a core psionic class from Complete Psionic, but I don't remember the name. This class has access to all the powers he can learn (unlike regular psionics, who know just a few) but can only manifest a set number of powers per day.

The Erudite.