SR change: No longer all or nothing

[Stalker0]

The problem with SR is that
1) Its all or nothing: When you decrease a player's abilities- they have to get creative, its makes things more interesting. When you take away their abilities- that gets boring for players. High SR can do that to wizards.

2) Its more than just stoping a spell. It uses up a spell as well. With DR- you can take out a fighter's attack and his action, but that's all. SR not only takes out that, but also one of the wizards finite spell resources. While at high levels wizards have loads of spells, the high ones (the ones that matter at those levels) are only a portion.

So to fix this here's a variant that treats SR more like DR.

SR comes with two numbers x/y. X is the decrease in caster level (for the purposes of spell effects- not range) and spell dc, y is the caster check need to overcome SR. If the caster level is ever brought to 0, the spell fails.

So an example, a creature with SR 5/20

A 10th level caster casts fireball. He rolls a d20 + 10 and fails. His fireball still works, but now it only does 5d6 points of damage and has a -4 to the reflex DC. Harsh, but far better than a wasted fireball.

A 15th level caster casts fireball. His check has a very high chance of success, but lets say he also fails. The fireball does its full 10d6 (15-5 is 10, which is still 10d6) but the reflex save is still at a -4. So while the fireball might do full damage even with the SR, it will be much easier to make the same for half (or nothing with evasion).

The other advantage to this system is its customability. You can have many different types of SR now:

1) 1/40 - Very unlikely the caster can make this check, but only a small decrease in the effectiveness of the spell. Basically this creature reduces slightly any SR applied magic that you throw at it.

2) 5/21 - Moderate SR. A decent chance for a 10th level caster to beat, with a decent penalty should he fail.

3) 20/21 - Current SR. A 50/50 for a 10th level caster, and the spell will fail if the SR check fails.

4) 20/41 - virtual magic immunity. Unlikely any SR applicable spell will penetrate.

5) 20/10 - Weak magic user magic immunity. Against weak casters, the creature is practically immune to its magic, but easily penetrated by high level casters.

So it makes SR far less boring, much more versatile, and more of a hinderance to wizards instead of a roadblock- which was the reason they changed the DR system in 3.5 in the first place.
What do you all think?

 

[MadScientist]

Seems pretty good, but it occurs to me that spells w/o a save that do not scale with caster level would be completely unaffected. Admittedly I'm not sure how many, if any, spells have those two characteristics.

I do like the idea of spells being diminished as opposed to an all or nothing mechanic and your system seems to do that in a reasonably simple way.

 

[seasong]

I'm not sure recalculating caster level with each new monster will be very fun... and a lot of the "in between" stuff isn't so useful (SR 1/xx, for example, is almost meaningless in most cases).

How about a flattened range? Maybe SR 21/31, with a "half effect" if you beat the 21, and "full effect" if you beat the 31 (you effectively lose the spell if you miss both).

 

[Glen]

How about a SR that reduces the level the spell.

simular to DR but subtracts the level of SR from the caster level to determin the effect of the spell. Maybe make it so they are not affected by spells at all if they make over 2x the normal spell resestant role = to 1/2 their SR.

 

[Ondo]

You should consider changing the way armor's Arcane Spell Failure chance works as well, since it's a similar all or nothing situation (albeit one only encountered voluntarily). Possibly simply decreasing the caster level by the armor check penalty, or maybe double or triple that.

 

[gamecat]

I like this system... We're running a one-shot this weekend so I guess it's gonna be tried out...

 

[Blacksad]

for all or nothing spell, perhaps you should also provide a DC reduction. Otherwise it's quite intelligent

 

[noretoc]

Just a little confused on the -4 to save. Is this standard for all resisted spells, or does it come from the level loss. if so how?

 

[DreamChaser]

I just thought of something for the current SR rules. One that keeps it as is (no retrofitting) but gets rid of the current zero-sum set-up.

Move-equivalent Action:
Spell Refocus: if you cast a spell that fails to penetrate the spell resistance of a target, rather than ending the casting of the spell, you may refocus your efforts as a MEA. Refocusing grants you a +4 to your caster level check to overcome SR--which is made during the refocus. If the check fails again, you may refocus again as your next MEA or Standard action. Each refocus past the first grants a cumulative bonus one less thant the last (+3 on the second, +2 on the third, +1 on the forth and last, for a total of +10). You cannot refocus a spell more than 4 times and you are considered to be casting during each of your actions, for purposes of AoO and concentration checks.

DC