Golden-Esque
2009-10-18, 06:13 PM
It's rather difficult to take five paces on any serious discussion board about Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition without hearing about how ridiculous Wizards, Druids, and Clerics get as they level when compared to a Warrior or a Rogue.
Naturally, this brings us to the crossroads of "What to Do For Balance?" Some people are perfectly content with smashing apart Wizards of the Coast's spellcasting system, removing classic spells because they are (let's face it) over powered. Others just point to the Tome of Battle as a catch-all bible of awesome. Still others come up with complicating solutions to try and balance these classes against martial classes.
As much as I love the Tome of Battle folks, it's going to take more then flashy sword tricks to balance the casters and manifesters from the martial adepts. Because, believe it or not, unlike most spells Martial Maneuvers can fail. You roll bad on a check or attack roll and the maneuver does nothing. So, what if spells had something like this?
This is an expansion of the Spell Fail Chance already presented in the Player's Handbook. Expect instead of only applying when some mages or priests wear armor, all spellcasters have a chance to screw up their spellcasting or manifesting. After all, nobody's perfect :).
Miscasting
Neither spellcasting nor manifesting is a perfect science; people who make use of such powers (referred to as users) have to fear the chance that their powers will fail them. Every apprentice cleric or novice sorcerer has had spells fail on them from time to time, but those are the ones whose mistakes have not addled them beyond recognition. Arcane arts and psionic manifestations are more likely then divine power to suffer from miscasting, but users of magic of all kinds have much to worry about when it comes to utilizing power that was not ment for them.
Failure Chance
All users, regardless of their power, have a failure chance when utilizing their spells. They may speak the incorrect innovacation, mis-preform somatic comoponents, focus slightly too hard, or any other wide variety of mishaps. A character has a chance to fail with a spell or power equal to 10% x the Spell's (or Power) Level. This failure chance is reduced by 2% per caster or manifester level. Therefore, a 5th level wizard casting a 2nd level spell has a 10% failure chance ( {10% x 2} - {2% x 5} ).
Failure Chance Due to Armor
Wearing armor negatively impacts a caster or manifester's ability to perform their spells. The armor's bulk might put strain on the user's body, or make it more difficult to perform components of the spell, such as somatic or verbal components. Unless a character's spellcasting or manifesting class says otherwise, a character takes an additional failure chance equal to their armor's total armor check penalty x 5%.
Using the example above, if the 5th level wizard casting a 2nd level spell was wearing full-plate heavy armor (-6 armor check penalty), he or she would have a total failure chance of 45% ( {10% x 2} + {5% x 6} - {2% x 5} ).
Miscasting
When a user fails to correctly manifest a power or cast a spell, he or she suffers one of a variety of effects.
Table: Miscast Chart
{table=head] d% Roll Result | Effect
01 | Zone of Abbadon
02-20 | Backlash Allies
21 - 70 | Backlash Self
71 - 95 | Energy Backlash
96 - 99 | Fatigued
100 | Supreme Inspiration[/table]
Miscasting Effects
Zone of Abbadon:
You muddled your powers so badly that you tore a minor rift in reality. Though the rift heals nearly instantly, the backlash from the rift's opening blasts all those around you in a blaze of power. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, all creatures within 10 feet per spell/power level (including yourself) take 2d6 points of damage per spell level.
Backlash Allies:
The energies you foolishly gathered and squandered lash out from your hands, striking nearby allies. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, all allies within 10 feet per spell/power level immediately have the spell the user failed to cast cast upon them. They are allowed saving throws, but they are treated as being flat-footed against your miscast spell.
If the spell would have been beneficial (such as granting bonuses to attack rolls, AC, etc), then those bonuses become penalties instead (this includes bonuses from transfiguring a creature, as the ally instead becomes a grotesque mockery of itself). If the spell would have healed the creature of damage, it deals an appropriate amount of damage instead.
Backlash Self:
The energies you foolishly gathered and squandered lash out from your hands, striking you. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, whatever spell you miscast is cast upon you instead. You are not allowed saving throws and any attack rolls automatically succeed against you, unless you have the Combat Casting (if the ability was a spell) or Combat Manifesting (if the ability was a power) feat.
If the spell would have been beneficial (such as granting bonuses to attack rolls, AC, etc), then those bonuses become penalties instead (this includes bonuses from transfigurating a creature, as the ally instead becomes a grotesque mockery of itself). If the spell would have healed the creature of damage, it deals an appropriate amount of damage instead.
Energy Backlash:
The energies you foolishly gathered and squandered lash out from your hands, striking random creatures around you. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, you make a touch attack against all creatures within 10 feet per spell or power level of you. A creature who is hit by this backlash suffers 1d4 points of damage per spell or power level. If the miscast ability was a spell, a struck creature must make a Fortitude Save (DC 10 + spell level) or take 1 point of Constitution damage and become dazed for 1 round. If the miscast ability was a power, a struck creature must make a Will Save (DC 10 + power level) or take 1 point of Wisdom damage and become dazed for 1 round.
Fatigued:
By the luck of the gods, although you miscast your ability, you were able to successfully fix the problem before it went out of hand. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level.In addition, you become fatigued until the end of the turn, and you cannot cast any spells or manifest any powers during the following turn.
Supreme Inspiration:
Luck is on your side today. Although you muddled your spell, the effects benefited you surprisingly well. You cast your spell or manifest your power normally (manifesters cannot make a Concentration check to conceal their manifesting if this result is rolled). In addition, your spell either has its powers maximized (as the Maximize Spell or Maximize Power feats) or has its duration extended {as the Extend Spell or Extend Power feats). If the spell you cast allows a saving throw, the target automatically fails it. If the spell you cast requires an attack roll to succeed, you automatically critically hit (you must confirm the critical hit as normal).
A Look at the Game
Now that the rules are up, I'm going to go over briefly how I think this will affect each of the spellcasting and manifesting classes.
Naturally, this will have the biggest implications on the Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Psion, and Wilder, as those classes get the highest-leveled spells and powers.
This has a moderate effect on the Psychic Warrior and Bard at lower levels, but since both classes gain new power and spell levels more slowly then the Main casters, and both of them have a smaller maximum spell level, it ends up affecting them less and less at higher levels.
This has less of an impact on Paladins and Rangers, since they are already at 4th level when they receive 1st level spells (meaning a 2% failure chance). This is intended; after all, since when were we complaining about the spellcasting abilities of the Paladin and Ranger 0_0?
Since many (not all) prestige classes work by advancing a base class's spellcasting, this has little effect on them. Those that do have their own spellcasting will treat their ECL as their caster level when determining Spell Failure chance (20th Level Blackguards with a 30% SFC on their Blackguard Spells is poor design).
Comments of all kinds are loved,
Questions will be answered,
Critiques, while heart-breaking, will be heard.
Naturally, this brings us to the crossroads of "What to Do For Balance?" Some people are perfectly content with smashing apart Wizards of the Coast's spellcasting system, removing classic spells because they are (let's face it) over powered. Others just point to the Tome of Battle as a catch-all bible of awesome. Still others come up with complicating solutions to try and balance these classes against martial classes.
As much as I love the Tome of Battle folks, it's going to take more then flashy sword tricks to balance the casters and manifesters from the martial adepts. Because, believe it or not, unlike most spells Martial Maneuvers can fail. You roll bad on a check or attack roll and the maneuver does nothing. So, what if spells had something like this?
This is an expansion of the Spell Fail Chance already presented in the Player's Handbook. Expect instead of only applying when some mages or priests wear armor, all spellcasters have a chance to screw up their spellcasting or manifesting. After all, nobody's perfect :).
Miscasting
Neither spellcasting nor manifesting is a perfect science; people who make use of such powers (referred to as users) have to fear the chance that their powers will fail them. Every apprentice cleric or novice sorcerer has had spells fail on them from time to time, but those are the ones whose mistakes have not addled them beyond recognition. Arcane arts and psionic manifestations are more likely then divine power to suffer from miscasting, but users of magic of all kinds have much to worry about when it comes to utilizing power that was not ment for them.
Failure Chance
All users, regardless of their power, have a failure chance when utilizing their spells. They may speak the incorrect innovacation, mis-preform somatic comoponents, focus slightly too hard, or any other wide variety of mishaps. A character has a chance to fail with a spell or power equal to 10% x the Spell's (or Power) Level. This failure chance is reduced by 2% per caster or manifester level. Therefore, a 5th level wizard casting a 2nd level spell has a 10% failure chance ( {10% x 2} - {2% x 5} ).
Failure Chance Due to Armor
Wearing armor negatively impacts a caster or manifester's ability to perform their spells. The armor's bulk might put strain on the user's body, or make it more difficult to perform components of the spell, such as somatic or verbal components. Unless a character's spellcasting or manifesting class says otherwise, a character takes an additional failure chance equal to their armor's total armor check penalty x 5%.
Using the example above, if the 5th level wizard casting a 2nd level spell was wearing full-plate heavy armor (-6 armor check penalty), he or she would have a total failure chance of 45% ( {10% x 2} + {5% x 6} - {2% x 5} ).
Miscasting
When a user fails to correctly manifest a power or cast a spell, he or she suffers one of a variety of effects.
Table: Miscast Chart
{table=head] d% Roll Result | Effect
01 | Zone of Abbadon
02-20 | Backlash Allies
21 - 70 | Backlash Self
71 - 95 | Energy Backlash
96 - 99 | Fatigued
100 | Supreme Inspiration[/table]
Miscasting Effects
Zone of Abbadon:
You muddled your powers so badly that you tore a minor rift in reality. Though the rift heals nearly instantly, the backlash from the rift's opening blasts all those around you in a blaze of power. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, all creatures within 10 feet per spell/power level (including yourself) take 2d6 points of damage per spell level.
Backlash Allies:
The energies you foolishly gathered and squandered lash out from your hands, striking nearby allies. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, all allies within 10 feet per spell/power level immediately have the spell the user failed to cast cast upon them. They are allowed saving throws, but they are treated as being flat-footed against your miscast spell.
If the spell would have been beneficial (such as granting bonuses to attack rolls, AC, etc), then those bonuses become penalties instead (this includes bonuses from transfiguring a creature, as the ally instead becomes a grotesque mockery of itself). If the spell would have healed the creature of damage, it deals an appropriate amount of damage instead.
Backlash Self:
The energies you foolishly gathered and squandered lash out from your hands, striking you. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, whatever spell you miscast is cast upon you instead. You are not allowed saving throws and any attack rolls automatically succeed against you, unless you have the Combat Casting (if the ability was a spell) or Combat Manifesting (if the ability was a power) feat.
If the spell would have been beneficial (such as granting bonuses to attack rolls, AC, etc), then those bonuses become penalties instead (this includes bonuses from transfigurating a creature, as the ally instead becomes a grotesque mockery of itself). If the spell would have healed the creature of damage, it deals an appropriate amount of damage instead.
Energy Backlash:
The energies you foolishly gathered and squandered lash out from your hands, striking random creatures around you. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level. In addition, you make a touch attack against all creatures within 10 feet per spell or power level of you. A creature who is hit by this backlash suffers 1d4 points of damage per spell or power level. If the miscast ability was a spell, a struck creature must make a Fortitude Save (DC 10 + spell level) or take 1 point of Constitution damage and become dazed for 1 round. If the miscast ability was a power, a struck creature must make a Will Save (DC 10 + power level) or take 1 point of Wisdom damage and become dazed for 1 round.
Fatigued:
By the luck of the gods, although you miscast your ability, you were able to successfully fix the problem before it went out of hand. Your ability fails, causing you to loose the power points spent, spell slot used, prepared spell, or exhausting the appropriate spell level.In addition, you become fatigued until the end of the turn, and you cannot cast any spells or manifest any powers during the following turn.
Supreme Inspiration:
Luck is on your side today. Although you muddled your spell, the effects benefited you surprisingly well. You cast your spell or manifest your power normally (manifesters cannot make a Concentration check to conceal their manifesting if this result is rolled). In addition, your spell either has its powers maximized (as the Maximize Spell or Maximize Power feats) or has its duration extended {as the Extend Spell or Extend Power feats). If the spell you cast allows a saving throw, the target automatically fails it. If the spell you cast requires an attack roll to succeed, you automatically critically hit (you must confirm the critical hit as normal).
A Look at the Game
Now that the rules are up, I'm going to go over briefly how I think this will affect each of the spellcasting and manifesting classes.
Naturally, this will have the biggest implications on the Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Psion, and Wilder, as those classes get the highest-leveled spells and powers.
This has a moderate effect on the Psychic Warrior and Bard at lower levels, but since both classes gain new power and spell levels more slowly then the Main casters, and both of them have a smaller maximum spell level, it ends up affecting them less and less at higher levels.
This has less of an impact on Paladins and Rangers, since they are already at 4th level when they receive 1st level spells (meaning a 2% failure chance). This is intended; after all, since when were we complaining about the spellcasting abilities of the Paladin and Ranger 0_0?
Since many (not all) prestige classes work by advancing a base class's spellcasting, this has little effect on them. Those that do have their own spellcasting will treat their ECL as their caster level when determining Spell Failure chance (20th Level Blackguards with a 30% SFC on their Blackguard Spells is poor design).
Comments of all kinds are loved,
Questions will be answered,
Critiques, while heart-breaking, will be heard.