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View Full Version : Is the Recharge Magic variant overpowered? (3.5.)



Tempest Fennac
2009-08-09, 04:15 AM
Compared with normal spellcasting, is this variant rule, http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargeMagic.htm , overpowered? I thought it looked interresting but it seems more powerful then normal casting overall due to granting more spell uses. On the other hand, it would solve 1 flavour problem which a lot of people I know have with Vancian casting while making things easier for other classes to a degree.

Wings of Peace
2009-08-09, 05:21 AM
I do not completely understand the explanation of the rules yet but it seems underpowered in my opinion. Having to wait a few rounds even just to cast the same spell again can be a big hindrance in combat depending on your play style.

Kyrthain
2009-08-09, 06:42 AM
Somewhere in the explanation of recharge magic it says that it does, overall, make casters (and their allies) more powerful, because they don't need to hold back.

"As a rule of thumb, a group of four PCs that includes two recharge variant spellcasters can handle encounters of an Encounter Level equal to the characters’ average level +2. The fights will be exciting ones; every room in the dungeon becomes as perilous as a typical adventure’s climax. But the PCs face each one with full resources, so the denizens of the dungeon can’t defeat them through depletion and attrition. If your group likes knock-down, drag-out, set-piece battles, the recharge magic variant lets you fight more of them".

Shpadoinkle
2009-08-09, 06:44 AM
Well... kind of. I don't think I'd ever make that system the default one in the games I run, but I guess I might allow it with some modifications if a player wanted to try it.

I think I'd restrict characters to two spells available to cast for any given spell level, except the highest spell level available to them, which would only have one. Changing what spells the character has available to cast would take 15 minutes.

That might be kind of a harsh restriction, but I'm leery of anything that makes the strongest classes in the game even stronger. If that turned out to be too resictive or too weak, I'd be willing to re-tweak it.

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-08-09, 07:13 AM
Haven't played it but seems both over and under powered, or rather just different, as the SRD itself suggests.

As a party, the party is stronger because you can assume the party will be close to full healing while the casters will be at "full" strength before each encounter...at least this is the intention.

However, because of the recharge times, even for general spells, there will come a time when the caster will have no effective spell to cast in combat if the combat lasts more than a few rounds.

So although the party can handle more higher CR encounters per day in general, some encounters might actually become more dangerous for the party.

It seems an interesting variant. Try it, see if you like it.

Indon
2009-08-09, 07:51 AM
If buffing spells have non-general recharge times (Glancing through the list, I noted Polymorph is now in hours), then it encourages blastier casting styles.

Generally, blasting is pretty well-balanced. Just keep an eye out for spells both considered extremely powerful, and with General recharge times.

Keshay
2009-08-09, 08:20 AM
However, because of the recharge times, even for general spells, there will come a time when the caster will have no effective spell to cast in combat if the combat lasts more than a few rounds.

My D&D group had only used the rechage magic variant for the past 4-5 years and I can say with absolute certainty that if the situation you describe above ever arises, its due to a complete and utter failure on the part of the person playing the caster, and not the rule system.

At low levels, choosing spells that will be frequently useful is easy; besides, even if there are 1-2 rounds where no spell is up, firing your crossbow for 1d6 is a pretty good option at lvl 1. At later levels, a caster will always have a useful spell ready (unless they are the type who memorized a boatload of 'Utility" spells all the time, in which case I'd like to introduce them to the Scribe Scroll feat.)

Balance-wise, the variant rule is not so bad. With a Healing Divine caster in the group, I think all the encounters were at +2-3CR from expected and never had problems. In another campaign, we had only one competent Arcane caster and only healing wands/potions and the +2-3CR encounter adjustment. Lots of close calls, a couple instances where we were all captured, but fun fights all around.

Edit: Nevermind, apparently we were using a variant of the variant where the rechage times were on a per-spell basis, but you still could cast only a certain number of spells per day. As written, the spell rechagre system seems overly restictive and not terribly useful.