D&D 5E (2014) Too Much Spellcasting in Your D&D? Just Add a Little Lankhmar!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is a major debuff to a lich.

Liches become undead who wanted immortality so they could finally clear out their Netflix and Steam backlogs.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

For someone who claims to dislike elves, this certainly makes them a better option than many races.
Spellcasters able to fight decently without casting spells will be the best choice: Bladesingers, Valor Bards, Swords Bards and Moon Druids.
You'll be up to your pointy ears in trilling fops, and furries.

Any other casters will have to make sure they get a decent ranged and/or Finesse weapon from their race in order to have an effective action during combat. The sort of race commonly found frolicking through the woods singing roundelays.

Also Paladins. They can burn their spell slots just fine, and laying on hands isn't a spell, so they're good there as well. These rules aren't going to limit your average elven paladin when they can just smite away with both rapiers just as soon as they mince up to their opponent.

 

[GM Lent]

One easy way to have lower magic game is to ban full casters. That' still a lot of classes banned, but also leaves a decent selection to choose from and allows having some magic. And you can still have the caster archetypes, your 'wizard' just is an artificer, your 'cleric' is a paladin and your 'druid' is a ranger.

I regularly ban full casters (sometimes ALL casters) except the Warlock and it works great.

In addition I generally give warlocks the Ritual Caster feat, and it solves SO many spellcaster issues. With the right pact/patron, Warlocks are excellent stand-ins for other casters if the goal is reducing spellcaster overload.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In addition I generally give warlocks the Ritual Caster feat, and it solves SO many spellcaster issues. With the right pact/patron, Warlocks are excellent stand-ins for other casters if the goal is reducing spellcaster overload.

It doesn't exactly cut down on the pew pew, though, unless you ban Eldritch Blast, too.

 

[Eubani]

A simple way to reduce the number of spells flying around but not harshly punish would be to have spell casters need to make concentration checks if they take damage between the end of their previous turn and the beginning of their current one. What this means that martial characters can lockdown an enemy caster and allied martial characters can work in concert to increase the viability of their teams magical assets.

 

[GM Lent]

It doesn't exactly cut down on the pew pew, though, unless you ban Eldritch Blast, too.

That's true; damage dealing cantrips are a real problem. Eldritch blast in particular.

Oddly enough, we've found that reskinning the spell makes it WAY less irritating. For example, one of my players had a warlock devoted to Shub-Niggurath (so GOO, with minor changes per the Primeval Thule Player's Companion).

We reskinnined EB so that instead of being a laser beam, branches and vines burst from the victim's body then retracted, all in a split second. All mechanical spell effects remained. It worked like, well, magic.

 

[Dausuul]

It doesn't exactly cut down on the pew pew, though, unless you ban Eldritch Blast, too.

You could just give all warlocks the Hex Warrior ability and access to Thirsting Blade to make up for it.

 

[NotAYakk]

As noted, Power Word spells where still fast in the old game. So how about we mess with that, instead of 4 rounds.

So
(a) Start with gritty rests. It takes a week of vacation to get the benefits of a long rest. During this week you can engage in downtime activities, and you gain the benefits of a short rest each night. If you do anything as intense as fighting, each time you take damage, and for each non non-cantrip spell on a day, that day does not count, and you lose 1 additional day towards your long rest (capping out at 7 days).

For slow spells that take more than 1 action? 10x casting time.

For spells that are 1 bonus action or action, start with the number of actions (0 for bonus action spells), then add 1 action for every component (VSM) the spell requires.

That is how long the spell takes to cast. You can only spend 1 action per round on casting a spell (no action surge speedup).

Removing components with metamagic does not speed the spell up, but quicken spell removes 1 action.

Each turn prior to the one where you cast the spell, you make a spellcasting attribute check (you have proficiency) or against a DC of 10+twice spell slot level.

Fail by 5 or more, or natural 1: Spell fizzles and fails.
Fail by less than 5: You don't progress on the spell; the spell requires another action.
Succeed by less than 5: You continue.
Succeed by 5 or more, or natural 20: When the spell is cast, it has +1 to hit, +1 DC and is cast as if it was using a slot 1 level higher. If it is a cantrip, it is cast as if you where 1 tier higher in level (progress beyond T4 is usually obvious).

While casting a spell, if you take damage you have to make a concentration saving throw; on failure, you the spell is lost as well as any effects you are concentrating on.

If the spell is lost due to stopping casting, concentration check failure, or failing a spellcasting check by 5 or more, you lose any slots and material components for the spell.

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So magic missile has 2 components, so it takes 3 actions (and hence 3 rounds) to cast. If cast using a 1st level slot, the DC is 12. A level 1 wizard with 13 int has a +5 bonus. Each round they roll 1d20+5.

So at +5 bonus against DC 12 we get:
On a 1, the spell fizzles.
On a 2-6, they fail, and the spell requires another round.
On a 7-11, they succeed.
On a 12+, they succeed, and get a bonus.

After 2 rounds...

6.25% 0 progress has been made; delayed 2 rounds.
9.75% spell has failed.
6.25% spell casts normally next round.
22.5% spell casts with a +1 bump next round.
20.25% spell casts with a +2 bump next round.
12.5% spell is delayed 1 round
22.5% spell is delayed 1 round, but also has a +1 bump

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This makes combat magic less practical, but it at least makes up for a it a bit. It also provides a minigame (roll to see if you boost your spell, or it fizzles, each round), so the spellcaster isn't doing nothing at all on their turn.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Also Paladins. They can burn their spell slots just fine, and laying on hands isn't a spell, so they're good there as well. These rules aren't going to limit your average elven paladin when they can just smite away with both rapiers just as soon as they mince up to their opponent.

Or rune knights, and a fair few other classes that have "magic" without actually having spells, or can burn slots to fuel other abilities - quite common now.

 

[dave2008]

I like the general idea, but I think a easier approach is to simply double the casting time. I would also prefer not giving up bonus and reaction spells, but maybe limit them in some other way. Not sure what that answer is though.