Unearthed Arcana Spell Points (high levels)

[Kaodi]

Low Levels

I can see your argument for high levels, but people talk about how too many wizards and sorcerers use magic missile now exclusively, and scaling on low level spells exacerbates the problem. If you have a 3rd level caster with magic missile and burning hands, it takes him 3 pts to get the maximum use out of his spell, while only taking 2 to get maximum use out of magic missile. That, and he has to get in close, make sure not to hit allies, his enemies get reflex saves for half and may even have fire resistance. And before you point out that burning hands does potentially more damage than magic missile, consider as I said before, I have never heard of anyone complaining about a wizard or sorcerer using burning hands exclusively.

 

[Koewn]

If you have a 3rd level caster with magic missile and burning hands, it takes him 3 pts to get the maximum use out of his spell, while only taking 2 to get maximum use out of magic missile.

It's 3 points for MagMiss as well. 1 point for 1st level, another for second level, then the third point for 3rd level where you get a second missile. It's a funny spell in the point system. You pay a lot for the 'automatic' damage; which would make people who don't like MM happy

At 3rd level I'd completely give up on 1st level attack spells and concentrate on Scorching Ray (4d6 ranged touch attack) or Acid Arrow (2d4 acid ranged touch attack).

Interesting thing about Acid Arrow is that it gets more damage die by *duration*, which is not covered under the 'extra point for damage dice' rule. At least that's my interpretation.

There's a real resource management issue with the spell point system, above and beyond what slots can do - you're stuck all day with your slots, but your points! Man. I could see having all sorts of 'battle plans' set up for certain types/numbers of creatures, with point costs attached. The same part of my soul that leaps for joy when it comes time to do taxes is positively whirly-gig for this.

But I'm nutty.

Koewn

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

How well does it work for high-level save-or-die spells?

 

[Koewn]

Save or Die

How well does it work for high-level save-or-die spells?

Just fine. It's literally only the 'damage die per level' that's affected. Power Word Kill is good, Weird, Phantasmal Killer, Wail of The Banshee. All good. I may have missed some. I'm not super-familiar with upper-level spells - I'd assume any that are 'HD killed per level' are not affected by this rule, if there are such spells. I'd have to read the spell.

Disintegrate is 2d6 per caster level, so it starts at 11 points for 22d6 (11th level caster, 6th level spell). One point for every 2d6 after that up to your caster level. The max 40d6 at 20th costs you 11 points more. It's not really save or die, but it kinda is sometimes

Koewn

 

[TwoSix]

I'm using the spell point system combined with the spell recharge system for my upcoming Warcraft campaign. I decided that the one point per extra dice gimped the lower-level spells a bit too much, but I didn't want to make the higher level spells unimportant. So I decided that all spells will act at their minimum caster level, and that the caster can spend an extra point to add two levels of effective caster level to the spell. So a normal magic missile spell will create one magic missile, spending two points to have two missiles, up to 5 points for 5 missiles. Of course, you also can't cast a spell at a higher effective caster level than your actual caster level, so you can't spend 5 points on magic missile until caster level 9. A level 5 caster can spend 5 points to cast a 5d6 fireball, or 3 points to cast a 3d4+3 magic missile. I combined this with the recharge system, meaning you can't cast spells of the same level over and over again. This makes the lower level slots very useful (for the downtime waiting for your high slots to recharge), and they are reasonably powerful, but your high level slots will still have priority. I'm still trying to break this idea, so if anyone has an idea of spells that this system would be bad for, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Scion]

Killing the damage dealing spells and making the save or dies so much more important is just plain bad, imo of course Most of the time I get rid of them in my games anyway. The hp mechanic is in place for a reason.

Anyway though, as for the scaling of the spells, how about something like the following:

Pay the point cost for the spell, get it cast at min caster level for effects.
Pay double the point cost for the spell, get it cast at your own caster level for effects. (Max of +5 perhaps? unsure)
Plus a few more abilities here and there to power up spells in interesting ways.

Would that help? I dont have the book so cant check how it already works, but it sounds like there needs to be something to help it out. The above might work for some of the lower level powers, but probably wouldnt help out properly at high levels.. very unfortunate ;/ must be a way to make it work in a useful way. It isnt like damage dealing spells are overpowered in most cases, usually it is the other spells (which are not effected in this system) which break it.