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Book Wyrm
2009-11-11, 12:06 AM
So as an ongoing side project I have been homebrewing my own version of DnD that mixes concepts and ideas of 3.5 and 4e in an attempt to create a more balanced and fun system. I've decided on 5 main magic/caster classes: Arcanist, Psion, Druid, Cleric, and Warlock. I've already decided that the each caster class will have its own unique spell list and that I'll probably have to rewrite and make up a lot of spells.

The part that I really can't decide on is what sort of casting system to give them. I really dislike the "Vancian" spells per day system in 3.5, and don't really like 4e's at wills, encounters, and dailys (too metagame for my taste) but do like the idea of rituals. So I have been thinking about splitting the difference. Take most of 3.5's powerful non-damaging spells and effects and recreate them as "rituals", and most of the direct damage spells and combat effects as "spells." Then limit the number of rituals they can cast per day and use a ToB known/prepared system to allow them a number of spells per encounter with no recovery mechanic. Maybe allow 0-level spells to be cast infinitely (obviously getting rid of cure minor wounds, create water, etc).

Spells like Gate, Wish, Time Stop, Resurrection, Cure Spells, Teleportation Spells, most Divination Spells, and probably Summon Monster spells would all become "rituals" that would be limited to the number of times per day they can be cast. Spells that just do damage like Fireball, Magic Missile, and Disintegrate become "spells'' that can be cast only once per encounter, but otherwise all day. If they truly run out of Rituals and Spells during an encounter they can always fall back on 0-level spells like Acid Splash. Between encounters, casters would need to take a short break to refresh their spells only. They could only reset their rituals and which spells they prepared by resting for 8 hours and spending 1 hour to prepare. I'm thinking that whether or not a caster needs to prepare rituals ahead of time would be a class dependent feature.

I think limiting the sum number of rituals and spells a caster knows to something lower than the current 3.5 per day limit and making the number of rituals much lower than the number of spells known would keep the power level down. Also, making more of the rituals material component reliant (like resurrection) and increasing the casting time would reduce the feasibility for brokenness.

If this kind of system is combined with melee classes on par with ToB classes would this be more balanced? Comments, questions, concerns?

Nero24200
2009-11-11, 06:44 AM
Hm...personally, if I was going down this road I might make effects like Fireball and Magic Missile either based off of a maneuver system (though that's not my personal favourite choice, since then magic would be too close to martial maneuvers) or make them all-day-long effects like the warlock's eldritch blast. Or, alternatively, you could make your classes only have certain all-day powers and access to rituals, something like -

Druid - Can shapeshift (ala PHB2 Varient) and learns a ritual every X levels.
Cleric - Throw on an Aura of Healing/Harming/Something specific for the cleric and learns a ritual every X levels.

And so on, and so forth.

Truthfully, I've pondered about a similer conceapt as well, though with a few differences. Rather than granting spells like fireball, just give the casting classes certain innate features - for instance, the wizard had the ability to teleport short 5ft distances at-will as a standard action, with the range slowly increasing with levels, the telepath (psion sub-class) could read surface thoughts at will, the druid couldn't be attacked by animals or magical beasts unless they were under compulsion spells etc.

Dante & Vergil
2009-11-14, 05:16 AM
Looks like a good idea. What did you have in mind with this?

Anonymouswizard
2009-11-14, 05:52 AM
This sounds good. Although I don't have ToB I will be following this to see where it goes.

If this works (or if it doesn't) I might start my own project where casters have unlimited magic, know only a few spells, and casting spells tires the caster. It makes the 8 minute working day used more, except that magical and physical fatigue are tracked seperately.

Glimbur
2009-11-14, 01:27 PM
Consider looting recharge magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargemagic.htm) for ideas.

Dante & Vergil
2009-11-14, 03:41 PM
Consider looting recharge magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargemagic.htm) for ideas.

If you do consider Recharge Magic, this (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndLive/) place is good for that, as they attached the mechanic to, what I think, every spell. It's also very good for searching for anything else.