The Technicals

[Henry]

You would not BELIEVE how many people never read the forumulas behind most all of the class progressions. Even designer Andy Collins said at first he didn't realize that the saving throw progressions were formulaic, back when he was putting together the "middle" save progression.

I still get frequently requests to know "what bonus does this attribute give" or "what's the Attack bonus of a 5th level rogue?" Two weekends ago, I reminded someone that the Attribute bonus was "subtract ten, divide by two", and two of the players looked at me like "oh, cool!" - it is either never highlighted in the book, or it's just too unnoticeable. People don't belive me when I tell them I can calculate most of the D&D progressions on the fly, but it's really simple. THe only one I never saw a formula for was spell progressions for spellcasters. Anyone know if there is one?

 

[Gez]

The only one I never saw a formula for was spell progressions for spellcasters. Anyone know if there is one?

What do you mean by that? Number of spell known? Number of spell slots? Relative power of spell levels?

As far as I know, the number of spell known and the number of spell slots are a bit formulaic. Take the druid's spell slots, for example:
For each spell level, the progression of slots is one 1, two 2s, three 3s, four 4s, then it stayed blocked at 5.
Meaning that when they get access to a spell level, they have one spell slot. The next two class levels, they get two spell slots of that spell level. The next three, they get three. The next four, they get four. And so on.
For wizards, it's the same thing, except their limit is 4, not 5. For clerics, it's the same, except they get one bonus spell slot for their domain spells.
For sorcerers, there's a different formula: one 3, one 4, one 5, then 6 all the way.

Then the pretty pattern is roughed up at the edges, in order to allow sorcerers to cast 1st-level spells at level 1, and to let all classes get their maximum number of 8th- and 9th-level spells once they're level 20.

Patterns could be extrapolated for the spell known of bards and sorcerers.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

THe only one I never saw a formula for was spell progressions for spellcasters. Anyone know if there is one?

Is that base spell progression, or bonus spells by level progression?

I'm pretty sure I've got the equations for both.

 

[Scribble]

Was that what you were looking for?

Exactly Pinotage. Things like that.

Henry, thats what interested me about this topic and made me post the thread in the first place.