Quellian-dyrae
2010-01-22, 02:42 PM
So there seems to be a tendency in D&D (3.5, anyway) that greater reliability comes at the expense of greater power, which causes several of the balance issues. I was wondering if a system pitting reliability against versatility, rather than against power, would bring things more into balance.
I'm presenting five different spellcasting options below. My question is, how do they balance against each other? For this purpose, please make the following assumptions:
1. Explicitly cheesy options are disallowed (the at-will guy, for example, can't chain time stops as long as he wants).
2. Spells with expensive material components, focuses, or XP costs still require them.
3. All else is equal (as if there were five functionally identical classes, the sole difference being these spellcasting styles).
4. The characters are able to cast spells up to a spell level appropriate to their level, as per wizards (so 3rd level spells at 5th level, 8th and 15th, etc).
The casting styles are:
1. A character able to cast ANY spell of any spell level it can cast, chosen upon casting the spell, but only one spell per spell level per day.
2. A character able to cast any spell of any spell level it can cast, with multiple spells of each spell level per day (generally 1-2 of its best, scaling to 4-6 of its weakest), but choosing its spells at the start of the day and only able to cast each spell once a day (in other words, basically a standard prepared caster).
3. A character able to cast multiple spells of each spell level per day, but unable to change its spells once chosen (or only able to do so very rarely). In other words, basically a spontaneous caster, but without all the extra restrictions like slower spell level progression, and with spells known and spells/day equal to a prepared caster's spells/day.
4. A character able to cast from a very small list of spells (maybe 1-3 per SL), unable to change its spells once chosen (or only able to do so very rarely), but able to cast one spell per spell level per encounter.
5. A character able to cast only a single spell per spell level, unable to change them once chosen (or only able to do so very rarely), but able to cast them at will.
I'm presenting five different spellcasting options below. My question is, how do they balance against each other? For this purpose, please make the following assumptions:
1. Explicitly cheesy options are disallowed (the at-will guy, for example, can't chain time stops as long as he wants).
2. Spells with expensive material components, focuses, or XP costs still require them.
3. All else is equal (as if there were five functionally identical classes, the sole difference being these spellcasting styles).
4. The characters are able to cast spells up to a spell level appropriate to their level, as per wizards (so 3rd level spells at 5th level, 8th and 15th, etc).
The casting styles are:
1. A character able to cast ANY spell of any spell level it can cast, chosen upon casting the spell, but only one spell per spell level per day.
2. A character able to cast any spell of any spell level it can cast, with multiple spells of each spell level per day (generally 1-2 of its best, scaling to 4-6 of its weakest), but choosing its spells at the start of the day and only able to cast each spell once a day (in other words, basically a standard prepared caster).
3. A character able to cast multiple spells of each spell level per day, but unable to change its spells once chosen (or only able to do so very rarely). In other words, basically a spontaneous caster, but without all the extra restrictions like slower spell level progression, and with spells known and spells/day equal to a prepared caster's spells/day.
4. A character able to cast from a very small list of spells (maybe 1-3 per SL), unable to change its spells once chosen (or only able to do so very rarely), but able to cast one spell per spell level per encounter.
5. A character able to cast only a single spell per spell level, unable to change them once chosen (or only able to do so very rarely), but able to cast them at will.