Which resource and power systems did you use often?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In this thread I talked about the difference "resource management" systems 3E had, and made the blunder to count only those in the core system. (Which are basically two.)
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/249357-preview-sorcerer-5.html

But there were, in the lifetime of 3.0 and 3.5, a few more. But since I blissfully ignored/forgot them, I wonder how "present" these systems are or were in other peoples games.

I am only listing the 3E WotC ones. Arcana Evolved would add a variant to Vancian Spellcasting, Iron Heroes would create something entirely new and so on. Though if you introduced house ruled variants in your 3E game, there is a place for that in the poll.

Which systems did you use? Preferably, do not count mere test runs - which ones where regularly seen in play once they were released and you got your fingers on them?

For the discussion - what were your experiences? What did you like, what did you hate?

Poll might take a moment...

 

[Tuft]

Homebrew:

My DM cooked up a spell recharge system that worked very well; it made you able to continue past the 15 min workday, and limited the spellcaster "explosiveness".

Basically, if you had cast a level X spell, you had to roll 10+X on a d20 at the end of your turn before level X spells became available again. This penalizes high level spells over low level spells intentionally. After your first seventh level spell, you needed to be very lucky to get off a second in the same fight.

For example: If you cast lightning bolt at level 3, you need to roll a 13 on your recharge roll for any other level 3 to become available. Makes it hard to open up a fight with "fireball-lightning bolt-lightning bolt"...

Sorcerers had +4 on their roll, and their ability modifier was on "spells known" instead of "spells per day".

Spell with long duration could only be recast once the duration had run out. I.e., to buff five people with Bear's Endurance you needed to have it memorized in five spell slots - if you were a sorc, you had to learn it five times over!

Ran through the first half of the Savage Tide AP using this, an add-on level 1-13 detective campaign set in Sasserine from the above AP using adapted Eberron adventures, and have just resumed Savage Tide.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I only voted for those things that have been used at all. Most of those haven't seen much play. I missed Shadow Magic, which was used briefly. Most D&D magic has left me pretty disappointed, later in my gaming life as I am. There's a whole lot missing, IME.

'House rules' actually covers the majority, after a certain time. None of the published stuff (from WotC) ended up really doing the trick. Even most 3rd party material has ended up being tinkered with.

I guess that's what happens you rewrite 3e in a fundamental kinda way, then try tacking on subsystems that expect the core to be the same, or uh, still there in some cases.

 

[diaglo]

as a player i created my own magic system for my character. you can read about his spellbook in the story hour in my sig. the first pc (Bartol) not the second one (Fiddle)

 

[Arivendel]

I have made quite a few incarnum based characters, i like the idea even if the system wasnt fully fleshed.

I have also made a few characters using Shadow Magic, but I have to admit the one system i never let go is the Warlocks (and by extension the Dragon Fire Adept), it just seems i cant stop playing Warlock/Hellfire Warlock(getting an incarnum feat to make sure i negate the side effect)/ Blood Magus.

In fact thats one of the reasons a DM i know doesnt want to play Gestalt anymore

 

[Runestar]

For tome of battle, I particularly liked the recharge system (or rather, the fact that there was a provision for you to regain expended powers, however inefficient it may be). This way, in a battle, I can opt to spend precious time to regain the use of an expended maneuver that proves to be very effective, or continue fighting with possibly sub-optimal maneuvers. Not to mention that adaptive style allowed me to ready a custom array of maneuvers tailor-fit to a particular encounter (very neat when you have many more maneuvers than slots readied). But I can't ready the same maneuver more than once, so combat is rarely repetitive.

The encounter-based nature of maneuvers was nice, but because I found that my warblade was slightly out-damaged by a well-built fighter, I tend to view them as more or less being analogous to full-attacking.

ToB mechanics permeates quite a lot of my games. Just about every monster can be expected to have access to at least a maneuver or 2 via martial study/stance or lvs in martial adept.

It is true that vancian casting had the potential of going nova and making a joke out of your DM's best efforts at crafting a challenging encounter, but because my party never really knows when they will next get to rest, we find our casters having a tendency to want to conserve their spells for rainy days that may or may not ever come. It helped that our DM has shown his willingness to push our party onwards even after the casters have expended most/all their spells.

Never really liked sorcs (though I profess to having a soft spot for spontaneous casting). Then came complete mage with that darnable focused specialist variant and specialist mage prc, which blurred the lines between vancian and spontaneous casting (because wizards had access to fewer schools, but more slots). I cannot picture myself playing anything except a focused conjurer with abrupt jaunt and tossing sculpted glitterdusts now.

Warlock was a disaster. At-will abilities are great in theory, but I find them too weak in combat past lv7 (when enemy hp starts scaling way faster than +1d6 every other lv). And eventually, even the hardiest of fighters have to rest because the party is out of curative magic. I have never tried the warlock in a party with an infinite source of healing though (binder binding beur, or ghaele PC past ECL8), so maybe the warlock could be an asset in a party with effectively unlimited resources.

I have heard a lot of nice things about incarnum, but have not actually tried one yet (this is not reflected in the poll above). Maybe one day, I might actually get around to rolling up a totemist....

 

[Arivendel]

Actually the Warlock gets really sweet at higher levels because of Vitriolic Blast, as the party raises DM's are more likely to start sending stuff with SR and Vitriolic Blast bypasses it making it a great way to deal with those pesky Drow from 250 ft away, and in high level games who doesnt enjoy Blasts that deal negative levels?

 

[Wombat]

Arcana Unearthed/Evolved provided one of the better D&D magic systems for me -- scalable spells, ability to move spells up and down in power, the ability to turn higher spell slots into lower ones, etc.

I like the concept of spell points, but I didn't like the UA version of it. Then again, there was little in UA that I liked that I hadn't found somewhere else earlier, and usually better.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

You forgot the UA Recharge Magic variant.

 

[Voadam]

I've done vancian but don't really care for it.

Spontaneous divine casting variant from UA I adopted early on and love it. It changes the world and plot dynamics when casters don't have daily opportunities to access any spell on their list. It also speeds up play by taking out the daily prep choices.

Similarly, I really like the recharge magic variant from UA, tweaked to make it run a little smoother. It allows use of high powered magic in every fight but limits novaing by only allowing 1 spell to be cast per spell level for most fights.

I've done 3.5 psionics but I'm not really a fan of spell points. I love the soulknife and psionic focus mechanics though.

Warlocks/dragonfire adepts are great, always usable magics are very much my preferred play style even if I know they are weaker.

Truenaming requires lots of houseruling to make palatable mechanics, though I love the flavor and therefore use that.

Mechanically I'd prefer Binder pact magic to have limited aspects with more powers instead of the full list with sub par powers.