[3.X] Thaumatourgía(Changes to Magic System) Including Generica Arcana [WIP, EACH]

[Latronis]

Specifics in spoiler but the unspoilered should be enough for atleast the class in the 2nd post.

Step 1: All spellcasting becomes Dual Attribute Dependant (DAD).

1a) To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the caster's primary spellcasting stat must be equal to at least 10 + the spell level. Primary spellcasting stat is either Intelligence or Charisma.

1b) The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a caster's spell is 10 + the spell level + the caster's charisma modifier.

1c) The caster receives bonus spells per day for a high Intelligence score.

1d) Some rare feats\class abilities may otherwise adjust which stat is used for which (and potentially non-mental stats) but no combination should allow minimum level, spell power and bonus spells be based off any one stat.

1e) Manifesting classes follow the same rules, with a primary manifesting stat for minimum powers level, intelligence for bonus power points and charisma for DC's

Step 2: Reorganize spell schools.

Every school should now be a consideration, each having something you'd want.
2a) Abjuration is the odd school out it's dependant on results rather than effect like the other schools(mostly). So it's out.

2ai) When determining what school spells should now belong too look at the effect rather than the result. Just because it deals cold damage doesn't mean it used elemental energy to get that result.

2b) Spells that deceive or alter perception are 'Mysticism' (working name rather than final name) Be it mind-effecting or deceiving physical senses.

2bi) Illusion and Enchantment have too much mechanical overlap, for the most part they are merged into one school. This prevents making on or the other an obvious school to give up for specialization.

2c) If it deals with energy(manipulation of, creation of etc) it's evocation.

2ci) This means much of abjuration(such as dispel) is moved into evocation. This makes evocation a more powerful school, and no longer the optimizer's banned school of choice.

2cii) Positive and Negative energy are exceptions, i look at them more like the primal essence of life\growth\'more' and death\entropy\'less'

2d) Necromancy deals with souls, life and death (and undeath). Healing, restoration, killing outright, communicating with spirits, stealing health, resisting death, animating dead, avoiding death, locking away souls. The primal forces of life and death(positive and negative 'energy')

2e) Divination spells are about learning and discovery.

2ei) Not much change, the divination school cannot be a banned school for specialists.

2f) If it involves the relocation of matter, it falls under conjuration.

2fi) Creation, Summoning, Calling, Teleportation all conjuration providing it's matter not energy being manipulated.

2fii) No healing under any circumstances.

2g) The manipulation of matter, objects, living things, states etc is Transmutation.

Step 3: Reduce the abundance and general appeal of PrC's.

3a) They should be prestigious!

3b) I'll work towards reducing those available and using them as a means for enabling less suitable combinations given the existing multiclassing rules, and for specific training, usually within specific organisations.

3c) Base classes will be more desirable to take all the way through. Usually by insuring there are no dead levels and making sure they viably cover a broader range of archetypes without falling into the fighter trap of being too generic, or the monk trap of being 20 levels of counter-productive suck.

3ci) Spellcasting always prevents dead levels.

3cii) PrC's shouldn't grant full spellcasting along with powerful abilities unless there is some drawback to the spellcasting (ala archmage's high arcana spell slot sacrifice) 7\10 is a good baseline for spellcasting PrCs with powerful class abilities as that under, normal circumstances, prevents 9th level spellcasting pre-epic (see class below)

Step 4: Some individual spells just need a beating but that can come later

Ok on to more fun stuff, like classes!

[Latronis]

Without too much ado i present the Generica Arcana.. The Mage!

A more generic arcane spellcasting with several paths to present options for arcane spellcastign archetypes, primarily to bring into line arcane spellcasters so they are much closer in power with each other (don't worry about CoDzilla or noncasters they shall be dealt with in other ways)

Mage Spells Prepared
{table=head]Level|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|3|1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|3|2|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|4|2|1|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|4|3|2|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|4|3|2|1|-|-|-|-|-

9th|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-|-

10th|5|4|3|2|1|-|-|-|-

11th|5|4|3|3|2|-|-|-|-

12th|5|4|4|3|2|1|-|-|-

13th|5|4|4|3|3|2|-|-|-

14th|5|5|4|4|3|2|1|-|-

15th|6|5|4|4|3|3|2|-|-

16th|6|5|5|4|4|3|2|1|-

17th|6|5|5|4|4|3|3|2|-

18th|6|5|5|5|4|3|3|2|1

19th|6|6|5|5|4|4|3|3|2

20th|6|6|5|5|5|4|4|3|3[/table]

MAGE
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Cantrips, Path|1+1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|-|2+1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|-|3+1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|-|4+1|1+1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|Bonus Feat|4+1|2+1|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|-|4+1|3+1|1+1|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|-|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+6|-|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1|-|-|-|-|-

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-|-|-|-

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7| Bonus Feat|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1|-|-|-|-

11th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-|-|-

12th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1|-|-|-

13th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-|-

14th|
+7/+2|
+4|
+4|
+9|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1|-|-

15th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+9| Bonus Feat|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-|-

16th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1|-

17th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1|-

18th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1|1+1

19th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11|-|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|2+1

20th|
+10/+5|
+6|
+6|
+12| Bonus Feat, Grandmaster|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|4+1|3+1[/table]

Hit Die
d4.

Class Skills
Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge(Arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Device (Cha).

In addition you receive aditional class skills based on your chosen path. (See Below)

Skill Points at 1st Level
(4 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
4 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Arcane Caster.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Mage are proficient with only Basic Weapons (club, dagger, light crossbow, and quarterstaff) but not with any type of armor or shield. Though some paths may grant additional proficiencies(see below) Armor of any type interferes with a mage’s movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.

Spells
A mage casts arcane spells which are drawn from the Mage (sorcerer/wizard in Phb) spell list.

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the mage's primary spellcasting stat must be equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The primary spellcasting stat is determined by your chosen path.

The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a mage's spell is 10 + the spell level + the caster’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a mage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Mage. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score.

A mage may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting a good night’s sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the wizard decides which spells to prepare. The number of spells you prepare of each level is given on Table: Mage spells prepared.

A mage need not prepare multiple copies of spells in any given day, he can cast any spell he has prepared at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his spells per day for that spell level.

Bonus Feats See Path
At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, a mage gains a bonus feat. The mage must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums.

Which feats the mage can choose from are determined by your chosen path.

These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels.

Spellbooks
A mage must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook, except for cantrips, which all mages can cast from memory(see cantrips).

A mage begins play with a spellbook containing three 1st-level spells of your choice. For each point of Intelligence bonus the mage has, the spellbook holds one additional 1st-level spell of your choice. At each new mage level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new mage level) for his spellbook. At any time, a mage can also add spells found in other mage’s spellbooks to his own.

School Specialization
enforced specialization, only 6 schools, all specialists give up 1 school, can't give up divination.
A school is one of six groupings of spells, each defined by a common theme. A mage must specialize in one school of magic (see below). Specialization allows a wizard to cast extra spells from his chosen school, but he then never learns to cast spells from another school.

A mage can cast one additional spell of his specialty school per spell level each day(shown on Table: The Mage by +1 under spells per day). He also gains a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks to learn the spells of his chosen school.

The mage must choose which his specialty at at 1st level. At this time, he must also give up one other school of magic, which becomes his prohibited school.

A mage can never give up divination to fulfill this requirement.

Spells of the prohibited school are not available to the mage, and he can’t even cast such spells from scrolls or fire them from wands. He may not change either his specialization or his prohibited school later.

Cantrips A mage knows a number of 0th level spells (cantrips) equal to his primary spellcasting stat modifier plus his mage level. These are useable at will. Cantrips cannot be modified by metamagic feats.

Path A mage at first level chooses his path of arcane magic, how he came into his power and what type of caster he has become. This has a number of benefits. See the individual descriptions for further details.

Path of Artifice A wand for every situation you can think of and a scroll for those you can't. You are a tinkerer of toys and magical technologist, you spend most of your time understanding how things work and how your magical skills relate to that.
1st Level benefits: Scribe Scrolls, Trapfinding as a rogue.
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Intelligence
Class Skills: Appraise (Int), Disable Device (Int), Knowledge(architecture and engineering) (Int), Open Lock (Dex), and Search (Int).
Bonus Feats: A mage on the path of artifice chooses feats as bonus feats.
[I]Grandmastery Bonus: Only spends half the normal xp cost for item creation(round up)

Path of Combat Casting You are no weak arcanist, hiding behind the fighters. Instead, you are a capable physical combatant mixing your magical prowess and fighting skill to become a true force of the battlefield.
1st Level benefits: Armored Mage(light), Combat Casting, +2hp per level, BAB as rogue. Proficient with light and medium armor, light shields, basic, simple and martial weapons.
Lose specialist mage bonus spells(but not prohibited school or spellcraft bonus to specialist school).
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Intelligence
Class Skills: Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str).
Bonus Feats: A mage on the path of combat casting chooses bonus feats from the fighter bonus feat list or may take instead Armored Mage(Medium) or Exotic Weapon proficiency.
Grandmastery Bonus:

Path of Greater Calling Despite your arcane training you are a true believer and you turn your magical talents towards your deities ends.
1st Level benefits: Choose one of your deities domains, you receive the associated domain power and may add any of the domain spells to your spellbook when you are entitled to a new spell. Learns 0th level cleric spells(Orisons) instead of Cantrips.
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Charisma
Class Skills: Heal (Wis), Knowledge(religion) (Int), Knowledge(the planes) (Int), and Perform (Oratory) (Cha).
Bonus Feats: A mage on the path of greater calling chooses [Metamagic] feats as bonus feats.
Grandmastery Bonus:

Path of Mageocracy A scholar and a gentleman, you are generally a member of court, or even nobility yourself and you know your words as often as potent weapons as your spells.
1st Level benefits:
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Charisma
Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge(Nobility and Royalty) (Int) and Sense Motive (Wis).
Bonus Feats:
Grandmastery Bonus:

Path of Sorcery The blood of powerful creatures like outsiders, elementals or dragons flows through your veins and you find you have a natural talent for spellcasting others may find envious.
1st Level benefits: Sorcerous Heritage, Spell Mastery(Charisma)
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Charisma
Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha) and Spot (Wis).
Bonus Feats: A mage on the path of sorcery chooses either Spell Mastery(charisma) or [Heritage] feats with his heritor feat as a prerequisite, or any [Reserve] feats.
Grandmastery Bonus:

Path of Trickery Not all mages are scholars and philosophers and your particular use of the art is often put to more nefarious ends.
1st Level benefits: 6 + Int for skill points each level, +1d6 Sneak Attack.
Lose specialist mage bonus spells(but not prohibited school or spellcraft bonus to specialist school).
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Intelligence
Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Knowledge(local) (Int), Move Silently (Dex) and Sleight of Hand (Dex).
Bonus Feats: Whenever a mage on the Path of Trickery would choose a bonus feat he instead increases his sneak attack damage by +1d6
Grandmastery Bonus: You may opt to cast any spells as if modified by the silent and still metamagic feats with a net adjustment of 1 level. Any other metamagic feats you may choose to apply further adjust the spell level as normal.

Path of Witchcraft Herbalist, midwife, wild recluse, you tend not to be trusted, and sometimes for good reason having learnt your art from powerful natural or extraplanar beings.
1st Level benefits: Brew Potion, Familiar.
Begins play knowing 3 + intelligence druid spells instead of mage spells.
Only learns 1 new spell each level drawn from the druid spell list instead of the mage spell list. Mage spells can be added to her grimoire like normal.
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Charisma
Class Skills: Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge(nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), and Survival (Wis).
Bonus Feats: A mage on the path of witchcraft receives [Familiar] feats as bonus feats.
Grandmastery Bonus: The mage's familiar now uses it's masters caster level instead of BAB for it's attack.

Path of Wizardry The traditional sage and loremaster, you probably spent much of youth as an apprentice to great wizard and you focus much of your attention on study and the workings of magic.
1st Level benefits: Familiar, Scribe Scrolls, Spell Focus(specialization)
Primary Spellcasting Stat: Intelligence
Class Skills: Knowledge(All, taken individually) (Int) and Search (Int).
Bonus Feats: A mage on the path of wizardry may choose any [Metamagic] or [Reserve] feats or spell mastery(intelligence) as bonus feats.
Grandmastery Bonus:

[Latronis]

Obviously a nerf to the wizard, but it does gain some benefits instead if not as much raw power. Given bonus spells are only spells per day, the wizard loses some versatility while the sorcerer gains a little overall, if not much more on any given day. Also gives the sorcerer something to look forward to besides just spells. Should also allow hybrid style characters to mesh a little better.

Any comments at all appreciated...
:smallbiggrin:

[Anonymouswizard]

:smallasleep:

[Latronis]

:smallasleep:

Are you implying my homebrewing is boring anon?@?@? :smallfrown:

[Frog Dragon]

I'm guessing he's is referring to the effect quoted in my sig.

[Latronis]

well i suppose it is a little less harsh than tl;dr.

So now it looks less like a wall o text and more of a treasure hunt for information!

[DracoDei]

When you say "no healing EVER" do you just mean for arcanists? Or can even divine casters not do that anymore in this magic system?

[DragoonWraith]

I think he meant that it's absolutely not Conjuration, but Necromancy.

Making everything dual ability dependent: good.

Rebalancing the schools: good.

Ra-ra-ra I hate PrCs: I'd never play this variant.

7/10 spellcasting is not a good baseline. I can't even begin to imagine the power of the class features in order to compensate for 3 spellcasting levels. That would be insane. Unless your system allows for some mitigation (a la Psoinics' Augmentation) of lost caster levels, that's far too many. Wizard 20, Sorcerer 20, Cleric 20 are boring - why would you encourage your players to do that? There are some PrCs that deserve to lose more spellcasting levels than they do (Rainbow Servant, Incantatrix, Shadowcraft Mage), there are a couple that lose spellcasting levels but are worth it (Malconvoker, Recaster, maybe War Weaver, the Sand Shaper for spontaneous casters), but most PrCs are not worth losing even one spellcasting level. If you feel that casters "should" lose spellcasting levels, then fix the spellcasters more than you already are. But for the most part, a few minor features over "nothing" and full spellcasting progression, at the cost of some feats, is altogether reasonable.

If prestige classes for "nothing" really bothers you, give spellcasters some features to lose, or make it possible to lose some spellcasting without the incredible penalty that is (currently) losing even one spellcasting level.

My recommendation would actually be to follow the Archmage's line of balancing; that's a pretty good method. Others might be found. Maybe do a Tome of Battle like thing, where PrCs grant a given number of spells per day, rather than just progressing existing spellcasting, so you can make PrCs that lose some spells per day but not a whole level's worth.

[Ashtagon]

Executive summary and commentary...

1) Arcane casters are now dual attribute dependent, with a slightly different focus for wizards and sorcerers. It seems that divine casters are undefined under this houserule. The change seems reasonable.

2) Arcane schools are totaly rejigged. Good idea, and something I have long been planning to do myself. I keep getting frustrated by the size of the task and by computer failures. My approach has been to abandon the schools entirely as being game-mechanic artifacts, and create slightly over a dozen colleges, each with a unique theme.

Item 3 in the OP is too vague to comment on.

The mage class:

School specialisation: Losing 1 school (out of 7 total, one of which - divination - can't be dropped) is not really a penalty. It's a rare character who woudl ever need to be able to cast from every school anyway, so dropping one school isn't a real drawbhack to a wizard's potential.

Cantrips: Surely you mean primary ability score modifier (not the basic ability score) + level? As written, he starts off knowing about 75% of all the cantrips in every splatbook already. Tbh, I'd make it 3 + level + attribute modifier.

[Latronis]

Executive summary and commentary...

1) Arcane casters are now dual attribute dependent, with a slightly different focus for wizards and sorcerers. It seems that divine casters are undefined under this houserule. The change seems reasonable.

Not completely decided on divine. ATM same rules apply, intelligence for bonus spells, charisma for save DCs. Likely default charisma for primary spellcasting, though perhaps an option to use intelligence for some where appropiate. Like the knowledge domain. TBH I don't really buy wisdom based spellcasting except for the whole wise old man priest image clerics and druids can invoke.. which isn't even accurate for many clerics and deities.


2) Arcane schools are totaly rejigged. Good idea, and something I have long been planning to do myself. I keep getting frustrated by the size of the task and by computer failures. My approach has been to abandon the schools entirely as being game-mechanic artifacts, and create slightly over a dozen colleges, each with a unique theme.

That sounds like a little too much work for me :P so i'll just reshuffle to new schools by spell effect. Mind you if you ever put it up I'll check it out ;)


School specialisation: Losing 1 school (out of 7 total, one of which - divination - can't be dropped) is not really a penalty. It's a rare character who woudl ever need to be able to cast from every school anyway, so dropping one school isn't a real drawbhack to a wizard's potential.

6 schools. Conjuration, Divination, Transmutation, Evocation, Necromancer and Illusion\Enchantment combined. Having them all give up 2 schools is a little rough given it's close to a 3rd of the spells(depending on chosen schools) More a how I think it should be thing rather than a balancing factor. People don't learn everything, they inherently specialize anyway. With the reshuffled schools it should be more carefully considered then spec. currently. (no just giving up evocation and\or either enchantment or illusion to use the 'standard' wizOp example) With the DAD, slower progression and bonus spells only applying to spells per day the wizard is still taking a hit, giving up 2 seems a little too much.


Cantrips: Surely you mean primary ability score modifier (not the basic ability score) + level? As written, he starts off knowing about 75% of all the cantrips in every splatbook already. Tbh, I'd make it 3 + level + attribute modifier.

Yes the modifier, fixed now. A lv1 mage (wizard) with 17 intelligence should start with 4 cantrips. Learning more as intelligence modifier and level increases. More options at the beginning and not enough difference at higher levels. I'll spend some time thinking about the 3+level+mod, but it seems like it might be a little too much at the very start. You can easily expect at least 4 @ 1st for any given primary caster.


When you say "no healing EVER" do you just mean for arcanists? Or can even divine casters not do that anymore in this magic system?

I think he meant that it's absolutely not Conjuration, but Necromancy.

Yeah everyone, no healing as conjuration at all. Necromancy mostly, possibly transmutation for druid like casters. Note that witchcraft and greater calling allow the possibility of cure spells as arcane.


Making everything dual ability dependent: good.

That's one oft overlooked problem with spellcasting.. all 3 stat dependant functions of spellcasting being based on one stat makes it too easy. This way you can choose which is more important to you.


Ra-ra-ra I hate PrCs: I'd never play this variant. *snip*

I don't hate PrCs. I hate the overabundance of PrCs and the fact that the game has gotten to the stage where Prestige classing is an optimization necessity. Minor features in exchange for bonus feats is fair. Giving powerful abilities for nothing is not, and that is not unusual to find in PrCs.

The trouble is there are many PrC's that give powerful benefits above and beyond what you can accomplish in the base class alone, making playing the best wizard you can done by having less wizard levels than anything else. If you wanted to be a stereotypical wizard than wiz20 should be competitively viable with wiz5\15 levels in 6 different prcs (slight exaggeration) at the moment that isn't the case, PrC'ing out of wizard is strictly superior to staying wizard. I don't want to overly encourage sticking to a single base class, but those that do shouldn't feel pressured to prestige class to stay competitive.

If the PrC is no longer solely about spellcasting than you should give up a significant spellcasting progression. If it is, than it shouldn't make base20 a strictly inferior option. Such as the aforementioned Archmage, it offers powerful benefits, but it *pays* for the power beyond the base class.

[Latronis]

Before I go for the night, I'd just like to this to get some opinions on the spellcasting.

Specifically.. Instead of preparing your spells for the day, or having a spells known list choosing a spell list for the day and casting from those chosen spontaneously.

Thoughts?

[Ashtagon]

6 schools. Conjuration, Divination, Transmutation, Evocation, Necromancer and Illusion\Enchantment combined. Having them all give up 2 schools is a little rough given it's close to a 3rd of the spells(depending on chosen schools) More a how I think it should be thing rather than a balancing factor. People don't learn everything, they inherently specialize anyway. With the reshuffled schools it should be more carefully considered then spec. currently. (no just giving up evocation and\or either enchantment or illusion to use the 'standard' wizOp example) With the DAD, slower progression and bonus spells only applying to spells per day the wizard is still taking a hit, giving up 2 seems a little too much.

ok, 6 schools (my miscount). My basic point (which you in fact repeated) still stands. Since even a RAW non-specialist wizard will, in rpactice, not cover all the schools, the only drawback of specialising (lose a school or two) is in effect no penalty at all, because he wasn't going to use that feature anyway. It's almost like offering a fighter TWF as a bonus feat in exchange for losing the tower shield preficiency feat - he wasn't going to use it anyway.

Personally, I feel any restriction on spell choice that allows for more than half the total menu isn't really all that restrictive.

My system currently has 16 colleges defined. Most spells are in a single college, with a few being in two, and a very rare few in three colleges. Wizards start off with mastery in one college, but can spend feats to gain additional colleges, although such additional college spells aren't cast so efficiently. I also make all my wizards spontaneous casters (although they can revise what spells are memorised when they have a spellbook and plenty of time handy). I haven't yet finalised how severe the penalty is for casting from colleges learned at later levels though.