BASHMAN
Basic Action Games
Note-- this will only work with spellcasters (Later I may try to come up w/ such abilities for other classes, but not today). This was written with Castles & Crusades in mind, but will work with any 3.x OGL system, including D&D:
Normal Casting in C&C is Spells / Day with a number of slots based on spell level. In order to make people able to "go longer" adventuring, I am proposing the following options (so if a campaign used these rules, the wizards could still use all their daily slots as per normal if they wanted).
/Encounter
You can spend 2 Daily slots of a spell level to turn it into one /Encounter slot. Your highest spell level cannot be made into /Encounter spells. A /Encounter spell cannot have a duration measured beyond "minutes". So Sleep can never be a /Encounter spell, nor could permanence, etc. Furthermore, the duration is changed from "x minutes" to "this encounter"-- so if you cast "Enhance Attribute: STR" and you are 10th level, it won't last 10 minutes if you use it as an /Encoutner spell-- it will only last for the encounter in which you cast it (this is a possible reason to keep some spells as "daily") Furthermore, your effect of the spell is as if you were Half your current level. So if a 10th level wizard were to have Fireball / Encounter, it would only do 5d6 damage. This is another reason to keep some spells as daily instead of /encounter.
/At-Will
You can spend 4 Daily slots of a spell level to turn them into one /At-Will Slot. At Will spells cannot be from your top 3 spell levels, nor can they be in the top half of your spell levels. At-Will spells cannot have a duration beyond "rounds". In addition, spells that heal damage cannot be used "at-will" (but can be per/encounter). Finally, At-Will spells have an effect as if the caster were 1/3 his actual level (round down). So a 10th level wizard with Magic Missile "At Will" would only be able to cast 2 missiles (he is effectively 3rd level). If he had it as a daily it would be 5 missiles-- so you can see there is still reason to pick some spells as "daily" or "encounter" rather than "at will". One more note-- if you have say, "Summon Monster 1" at will-- you can only have 1 in effect at a time before casting another one!
So for example: A 5th level wizard w/ 18 Intelligence: His daily allotment would be:
0th x5; 1st x5, 2nd x3, 3rd x2.
Instead he chooses the following:
3rd: Fireball 2/day
2nd: Acid Arrow/Encounter, Mirror Image/Day
1st: Magic Missile/Encounter, Charm/Day, Shocking Grasp/Encounter
0th: Mage Hand/Will, Mending/Day
This wizard is sacrificing variability & potence for reliability.
A 10th level wizard w/ 18 Int would normally prep:
0th: x6, 1st: x6, 2nd: x5, 3rd: x4, 4th: x4, and 5th: x2
Instead he does the following:
5th: Telekinesis/day, Cone of Cold/day
4th: Wall of Fire/Encounter, Polymorph/day, Fabricate/day
3rd: Fireball/Encounter (5d6), Tiny Hut/day, Water Breathing/day
2nd: Acid Arrow/Will, Mirror Image/day
1st: Magic Missile/Will, Sleep 2/day
0th: Mend/day, Endure Elements/day, Message/encounter, Mage-hand/encounter
One last note regarding healing spells: If you have a healing spell set as /encounter, you can cast only ONE of them between encounters on all allies. So, if you have Cure Light/encounter, and Cure Moderate/Encounter, and Cure Serious/Day, you could cast Cure Mod on all party members between encounters-- but not the Cure Mod & Cure Light. If one wanted to give the OPTION of allowing healing spells to be used "at will" I would say that they CANNOT be cast outside combat at all (A 6th level cleric casting "Cure Light" 1/round in combat is not game breaking. Using it to heal everyone to full health between fights is).
Normal Casting in C&C is Spells / Day with a number of slots based on spell level. In order to make people able to "go longer" adventuring, I am proposing the following options (so if a campaign used these rules, the wizards could still use all their daily slots as per normal if they wanted).
/Encounter
You can spend 2 Daily slots of a spell level to turn it into one /Encounter slot. Your highest spell level cannot be made into /Encounter spells. A /Encounter spell cannot have a duration measured beyond "minutes". So Sleep can never be a /Encounter spell, nor could permanence, etc. Furthermore, the duration is changed from "x minutes" to "this encounter"-- so if you cast "Enhance Attribute: STR" and you are 10th level, it won't last 10 minutes if you use it as an /Encoutner spell-- it will only last for the encounter in which you cast it (this is a possible reason to keep some spells as "daily") Furthermore, your effect of the spell is as if you were Half your current level. So if a 10th level wizard were to have Fireball / Encounter, it would only do 5d6 damage. This is another reason to keep some spells as daily instead of /encounter.
/At-Will
You can spend 4 Daily slots of a spell level to turn them into one /At-Will Slot. At Will spells cannot be from your top 3 spell levels, nor can they be in the top half of your spell levels. At-Will spells cannot have a duration beyond "rounds". In addition, spells that heal damage cannot be used "at-will" (but can be per/encounter). Finally, At-Will spells have an effect as if the caster were 1/3 his actual level (round down). So a 10th level wizard with Magic Missile "At Will" would only be able to cast 2 missiles (he is effectively 3rd level). If he had it as a daily it would be 5 missiles-- so you can see there is still reason to pick some spells as "daily" or "encounter" rather than "at will". One more note-- if you have say, "Summon Monster 1" at will-- you can only have 1 in effect at a time before casting another one!
So for example: A 5th level wizard w/ 18 Intelligence: His daily allotment would be:
0th x5; 1st x5, 2nd x3, 3rd x2.
Instead he chooses the following:
3rd: Fireball 2/day
2nd: Acid Arrow/Encounter, Mirror Image/Day
1st: Magic Missile/Encounter, Charm/Day, Shocking Grasp/Encounter
0th: Mage Hand/Will, Mending/Day
This wizard is sacrificing variability & potence for reliability.
A 10th level wizard w/ 18 Int would normally prep:
0th: x6, 1st: x6, 2nd: x5, 3rd: x4, 4th: x4, and 5th: x2
Instead he does the following:
5th: Telekinesis/day, Cone of Cold/day
4th: Wall of Fire/Encounter, Polymorph/day, Fabricate/day
3rd: Fireball/Encounter (5d6), Tiny Hut/day, Water Breathing/day
2nd: Acid Arrow/Will, Mirror Image/day
1st: Magic Missile/Will, Sleep 2/day
0th: Mend/day, Endure Elements/day, Message/encounter, Mage-hand/encounter
One last note regarding healing spells: If you have a healing spell set as /encounter, you can cast only ONE of them between encounters on all allies. So, if you have Cure Light/encounter, and Cure Moderate/Encounter, and Cure Serious/Day, you could cast Cure Mod on all party members between encounters-- but not the Cure Mod & Cure Light. If one wanted to give the OPTION of allowing healing spells to be used "at will" I would say that they CANNOT be cast outside combat at all (A 6th level cleric casting "Cure Light" 1/round in combat is not game breaking. Using it to heal everyone to full health between fights is).
