Humanophile said:
I do think that the game should offer a little more room for style, but that'd be served by little blurbs to the effect of "feel free to alter the spell descriptions and minor effects, so long as things like range, duration, and damage are never increased by said modifiers
I did a system like this for 'creating' spells
So it went
level - Range - Duration (per) - Area - Power (per)
0 - Personal - Round - 1 target - 0
1 - Touch - Concentration - 5X5 - d2/1lb/+1
2 - 5 feet - Minute - 5x10 - d4/5lb/+2
3 - 25' - Hour - 10X10 - d6/50/+3
4 - 100' - Day - 20x20 - d8/100/+5
5 - 500' - Month - 40X40 - d10/500/+10
6 - 1000' - Year - 100x100 - 50/1000lb
7 - Nation - Century - 1000x1000 - 100/ton
8 - Global - Millenia - Global - 1000/
9 - Unlimited - Permanent - Unlimited - Death/unlimitd
Area = Dimensions of area affected by spell
Power (per level)= Damage/Object weight/modifier affected by spell
Choose school, Add up total levels, find average and describe as you like based on school)
eg Evocation
Range 4 (100 - 500ft)
Duration 0 (Round)
Area 4 (20x20)
Power 3 (d6)
Total 11
Average 3 (3.6 rounded)
So a Level 3 Evocation doing d6 damage per level, instantaneous, 20x20 area and range 400ft.
Description
1. a burst of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level (Fireball)
2. Great hailstones pound down, dealing 1d6 points of damage to creatures in their path (modified Icestorm)
3. A bolt of lightning flashes down in a vertical stroke at the target dealing 1d6 points of damage (Modified Call Lightning)
Invisibility (level 2 illusion)
Range 1 Touch
Duration 2 minute
Area 0 1 target
Power 4 100lbs
Total 7
Average 1 (1.75) *slightly less than official
Mechanics work thus
Casting requires a Spellcraft check DC = 15+spell levelx5
* Wizards use DC 10+spell levelx5
so the above evocation at Level 3 would be DC 15+(3x5) = 30 (25Wiz)
a level 9 spell would be DC 60(10+(9x5)) practically impossible except for modifiers
Modifiers
+ 1 for each additional round used to cast spell (so using 10 rounds (minute)) would earn a -10 modifier
Each participant (in a ritual) gives +1 bonus to the Spell check
Blood Sacrifice HP of Sacrifice can be used as a mod so a dog would give a + 6 to Spellcraft (6hp)