totally unlimited spellcasting!

[donm61873]

I'm working on a "non-spellslot, non-spell point" casting system for my campaign...

If' this has worked right, I've attached a word doc with my current idea.

And if you don't think that spellcasters should be able to cast like fighters swing their swords, don't post stuff like "d00d, ur idea suxx0rz"... Thanks for not trolling in my pond.


DonM.

 

[Aaron2]

I'm working on a "non-spellslot, non-spell point" casting system for my campaign...

If' this has worked right, I've attached a word doc with my current idea.

And if you don't think that spellcasters should be able to cast like fighters swing their swords, don't post stuff like "d00d, ur idea suxx0rz"... Thanks for not trolling in my pond.

I had a similar system only my DCs were higher (and I used Spellcraft instead of Concentration). Also, being fatigued or exhausted isn't really that big a deal to a wizard. What I did was have failure result in Str loss. Once you ran out of Str point you were unconscious (as normal). It was 1 point of Str per spell level for a normal failure, 1d4 points of Str per spell level for failure by more than 10 (or rolling a 1).


Aaron

 

[kreynolds]

Very interesting idea, actually. I'll have to give this a good read.

 

[RangerWickett]

Seems rather simple. I think I get how it works, but I have some suggestions:

There's no reason not to take full ranks in Concentration every level. A character would be foolish not to, because if he did, he'd be much weaker than usual. Basically all you're doing is reducing the number of skill points a spellcaster can have available.

Instead, why not just make it a caster level check + Charisma? Reduce the DC slightly to compensate for the fact that most people will be rolling d20 + level + Charisma instead of d20 + level + Charisma + 3. Maybe DC 5 + spell level x 2.

As someone else pointed out, fatiguing a wizard is no big deal, since they don't often need to use Strength or Dexterity. Rather, I'd say you should have a failure cause a -1 penalty to Cha (in addition to having the spell fail), so that it becomes progressively harder to keep casting spells. The penalty goes away with 8 hours of sleep.

In your current way, casters will just keep casting until they pass out. Even if they're nearly unconscious, most will want to keep casting. They can't do much without magic, and so it's generally better to keep casting (which will be just as easy when exhausted as when they're fresh). If you revise it this way, casters will reach a point of diminishing returns.

Also, why make spells easier to cast out of combat? This basically makes non-combat spells (like scrying and buffs) 3 levels lower.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Have you ever seen the wierd wars game? Basically it relied upon having an appropriate skill for each spellcasting class (note that this means that multiclassing wizard/cleric is not too effective - you need BOTH skills to be a competent spellcaster). The DC's were identical to yours. In addition, whether success or failure, the caster took non-lethal damage. For wizards, the damage was equal to twice the level of the spell, and for clerics (due to their higher hit dice) the damage was triple the level of the spell.

Also, I'd advise against allowing the taking of 10 out of combat. The problem is that every spellcaster will be running around almost constantly spelled up to the max - "we're opening another door? Ok, I cast the following spells ...,...,...".