D&D (2024) What do you think of the new rules for preparing spells?

[Reynard]

Honestly, Spell Points would save on a lot of headaches, and I've even played in D&D games where we successfully used Spell Points... but Vancian/pseudo-Vancian feels like one of those big sacred cows that they can't seem to sacrifice without much gnashing of the teeth, but for what it's worth, I'd be for it!

Spell points double down on the biggest caster problem: going nova and forcing a 5 minute work day. At least with slots the caster may have burnt their most powerful spells in the first room of the dungeon but they won't have completely drained themselves.

 

[Horwath]

Spell points double down on the biggest caster problem: going nova and forcing a 5 minute work day. At least with slots the caster may have burnt their most powerful spells in the first room of the dungeon but they won't have completely drained themselves.

that could be a problem, but it is already limited to only one spell per long rest from levels 6-9. You can also house rule that before than you can only cast 3 spells of your highest level for spell levels 1-5.

 

[Horwath]

Gotcha - so it's like a slightly more flexible version of 3e and earlier spell prep. Thanks!

more or less exactly like 3.5e sorcerer/bard.

 

[Nikosandros]

Gotcha - so it's like a slightly more flexible version of 3e and earlier spell prep. Thanks!

The playtest rules also retain from 5e the possibility of upcasting spells using higher level slots.

 

[Reynard]

that could be a problem, but it is already limited to only one spell per long rest from levels 6-9. You can also house rule that before than you can only cast 3 spells of your highest level for spell levels 1-5.

I'm not sure I understand your reply. What I was saying was that spell points can be nova dumped in a way slots cannot. If you put rules in limiting how spell points can be spent, you've just created slots with extra steps.

 

[Horwath]

I'm not sure I understand your reply. What I was saying was that spell points can be nova dumped in a way slots cannot. If you put rules in limiting how spell points can be spent, you've just created slots with extra steps.

yes and no.

I agree that on 10th level, 9 5th level spells per day could be a problem, but I would not say that 32 1st level spells per day would be a problem.

that is why limit to highest levels spells is needed.

 

[Baumi]

I like the new Version, it's very straight forward and should be much easier to explain players who are not used to playing casters.

Also you can now change cantrips too, which is a big plus in my book

 

[Horwath]

I like the new Version, it's very straight forward and should be much easier to explain players who are not used to playing casters.

Also you can now change cantrips too, which is a big plus in my book

I don't know how it is easier to prepare 4 1st level spells, 3 2nd level spells, 3 3rd level spells, 3 4th level spells and 2 5th level spells vs. 15 spells from 1st to 5th level?

also, what is wrong with cantrips?

 

[TheHand]

Spell points double down on the biggest caster problem: going nova and forcing a 5 minute work day. At least with slots the caster may have burnt their most powerful spells in the first room of the dungeon but they won't have completely drained themselves.

In the game I played in that used spell points, I think we were an outlier in that the mages were very miserly with their Spell Points (probably due to the DM only letting long rests happen in safe-havens). In a more normal game, you would need some serious tweaking of the numbers before I would be happy with the system; the DMG variant as it exists now definitely favors the scenario you describe.

Long ago I once envisioned a system where your lowest level spells gave you spell points, so you would have to 'build-up' your pool to get to the high level ones, but it was too much of a mess to really make work.

 

[Yaarel]

I'm not sure I understand your reply. What I was saying was that spell points can be nova dumped in a way slots cannot. If you put rules in limiting how spell points can be spent, you've just created slots with extra steps.

To avoid an overwhelming nova, the solution is a lesser amount of spell points but refreshing per Short Rest.

That is one of the reasons why the caster level+1 spell points per Short Rest, works so well.