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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 501693" data-attributes="member: 2013">The problem is that in my experience there's not a good way to scale things.Let us take the easiest example... a 0-level spell costs 1 mana point.  A 1st-level spell costs 3.  A 2nd-level spell costs 7... 3rd level costs 15, 4th-level costs 31, etc. (IOW, a spell of level N+1 costs 2L+1 spell points, where L is the amount of spell points for level N spells).This means a caster who is the equivalent of a first level wizard gets 6 spell points.  Not bad - instead of 3/1 (3 cantrips, 1 1st level spell)  he could go 6/0 or 0/2.  Hardly unbalancing, right?  At second level he has 10 spell points, allowing 10/0, 7/1, 4/2, or 1/3.  Still not too bad.  At third level it's still holding together at17 spell points.  That's 2 2nd level spells plus 3 spell points or as many as 5 first level spells.  Not too bad.  4th level - 27 spell points - do we really want a 4th-level character ripping off nine burning hands spells at 4d4 each?5th level - 42 spell points - Now the character can fire off - let's see - a mere 14 burning hands spells at 5d4 each.  That's... let's see... an average of 175 points of damage.  The "traditional" wizard can throw 3 burning hands spells, 2 silent burning hands spells, and 1 fireball.  80 points of damage on average.  Already, the wizard has seen his damage-dealing capacity double.Essentially, the "spell-slot" system IS a spell point system - with some spell points "more equal than others".  The problem is that there is no way to balance spell points - either spell points are linear with spell level - in which case you have the problem of trading in a few low-level spells for a high-level whallop - or spell points are geometrical with spell level - in which case you have trading in of a single high level spell for bucketloads of low-level spells, which winds up being even worse.  How many "magic missiles" is a "meteor swarm" worth?  How about "how many fireballs is a meteor swarm worth" and "how many magic missiles is a fireball worth?"  You have to work really hard to make this come out right so that your formula to triple the spell level from 1 to 3 works out the same as tripling from 3 to 9.  Alternatively, you have to find a formula that scales 1 to 3 (+2 levels) and also works for 3 to 5.  And 2 to 4.  And 4 to 6.  And so on.So long as you use spell slots, spells only need to be balanced "within the same level."  It's all but impossible to balance spells across multiple levels, at least if (as D&D does) you keep caster level as the thing that scales damage.The only system that I have seen that really satisfies me in this regard is GURPS - where you (basically) wind up paying mana points for damage.  That's about the only way I can see such a system working, and the paperwork rapidly becomes icky.If you can show me a system that doesn't run into these troubles, though, I am very anxious to see it - and maybe even adopt it! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />--The Sigil</blockquote>

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