Wik
First Post
Ah, Vancian magic. Funny story:
me and my best friend at the time were huge D&D dorks, but we started getting annoyed with 2e, and started playing other games: Shadowrun, mostly, as well as the d6 star wars system. Both of which employ alternative magic systems that we loved.
When Skills & Powers came out, and Spells & Magic a few months later, we bought the books and got right to "fixing" D&D. I wound up running a solo adventure for two players, both of whom were playing casters - I forget the classes, now. The campaign was set in a water-world like chain of tropical islands, thanks to World Builder's Guidebook I'd been using (BTW, still my favourite product ever), so both PCs chose to be aquatic elves or something similar. We were using the channeling alternate spell point rules, from S&M.
Now, the PCs wound up following a goblin ship, and when they surfaced, they peppered the goblins with spells. They didn't kill them all when they started to run out of spell points, so they dropped down into the water, and followed the ship from a distance until they regained their spell points (and fatigue, from channeling). Then, they did it again. And again. And Again. Each time they had to sleep, they held onto the keel of the ship, and napped away. And then they'd surface again, blow up a few gobbos and maybe even an ogre, and then rest till they had more spells.
By the end of this, I was convinced that maybe, Vancian casting would've been better, because those PCs weren't really being creative with their memorized spells... they were just casting one or two highest-level spells, and then resting for a few hours to get their spell points back, so they could do it again!
Since then, I've never had a problem with Vancian magic.
me and my best friend at the time were huge D&D dorks, but we started getting annoyed with 2e, and started playing other games: Shadowrun, mostly, as well as the d6 star wars system. Both of which employ alternative magic systems that we loved.
When Skills & Powers came out, and Spells & Magic a few months later, we bought the books and got right to "fixing" D&D. I wound up running a solo adventure for two players, both of whom were playing casters - I forget the classes, now. The campaign was set in a water-world like chain of tropical islands, thanks to World Builder's Guidebook I'd been using (BTW, still my favourite product ever), so both PCs chose to be aquatic elves or something similar. We were using the channeling alternate spell point rules, from S&M.
Now, the PCs wound up following a goblin ship, and when they surfaced, they peppered the goblins with spells. They didn't kill them all when they started to run out of spell points, so they dropped down into the water, and followed the ship from a distance until they regained their spell points (and fatigue, from channeling). Then, they did it again. And again. And Again. Each time they had to sleep, they held onto the keel of the ship, and napped away. And then they'd surface again, blow up a few gobbos and maybe even an ogre, and then rest till they had more spells.
By the end of this, I was convinced that maybe, Vancian casting would've been better, because those PCs weren't really being creative with their memorized spells... they were just casting one or two highest-level spells, and then resting for a few hours to get their spell points back, so they could do it again!
Since then, I've never had a problem with Vancian magic.
