Melamoto
2010-02-12, 04:03 PM
Inspired by Final Fantasy, most notably X, and titled "Mage System" because it changes the classes, not the magic.
So, while playing some Final Fantasy, I was thinking about how it used magic. Some of the characters who used magic could not really be described as casters at all; they were simply martial characters who knew the spells. I thought about this, and how it would translate to D&D. I thought about simply considering that all the characters with magic had taken a multiclass to wizard or sorcerer, but that made no sense; they were just using abilities granted to them by their martial class. They could advance magic and melee at the same time. So I thought about what this would like in D&D. And so I came up with this idea.
Basically, every character has a BAB, HD Type, Good and Bad saves, etc. And so, I figured that this could also apply to caster levels. Caster levels would progress at different rates depending on class, in the same way as BAB. Classes like Wizard would have +1 per level, while classes like Fighter would have +0.5 per level. Some classes, such as Bard and Paladin, would gain +0.75 per level. Prestige classes would simply give a value per level.
Now, this system has some disadvantages, and there are some parts that I haven't figured out yet. These are:
Lost level PrCs
There is no way I can see to handle PrCs that are only supposed to lose a level or 2 of casting without sending them straight to the extremes (0.75 or 1), or by going into icky fractions (+0.85 casting per level? No).
Spell Lists
How do you select spells? I don't know. A few ideas came upon me while thinking about this. One was to give everyone access to a basic list and let them use feats to gain access to different ones. Another was to give them access to a list with basic spells, and then pick a new path of spells at levels 5, 11, and 17. Since this was inspired by Final Fantasy, I imagined these being things like "White Magic" (Defensive), "Black Magic" (Offensive), etc. Maybe Blue Magic could find a way in there too. I love Blue Magic.
Ability Scores
This is a problem in 2 ways. The first of these is the massive penalties to fighters who didn't spec for high mental stats, and in fact the inability to cast spells at all. This can be mostly solved by removing the stat requirement to cast spells, but it leaves the uncomfortable feeling that a fighter with an 18 casting stat will have no advantage over a similar fighter with a 6 casting stat, apart from +6 on DCs (When the fighters will likely be using buffs).
The other problem is what exactly is the casting stat? It would make sense to make it int, but all of the other mental stats have an equal claim. It could start as int, and be changeable with feats, but it feels cheap to make someone pay a feat for choosing a different character concept. It could be chosen on character creation, but being made to choose such a vital detail and be unable to change it without retraining also seems a bit annoying. My current personal favourite is that it is just the highest of your mental stats.
Meanwhile, the advantages of this are:
Melee gets a nice thing
This doesn't really make sense on the one hand, in that it's just giving melee the tools of the overpowered classes. On the other hand, it's giving melee the tools of the overpowered classes. And they can specialize in different areas from the other casters, so they can just be buffing up with things like Divine Power.
Better Balance
Many of the common problems associated with casters vs. non-casters are removed. No more grease-stopped barbarians, just cast fly before you rage. Forcecage? Dispel. Or Dimension Door. Wizards will undoubtedly remain the most powerful class by far due to their access to 9th level magic, but everyone else has at least 5th.
More versatile parties
For a long time, it has been necessary to include a caster of some kind into the group. Well, now that person is anyone. And since casters can usually take over any role, so can anyone. You could now, at higher levels, get away with a party of 5 fighters and not suffer too greatly. You have Knock, Invisibility, Silence, Fly, and all sorts of neat spells to bypass challenges.
The Monk
You can give it +0.75 casting and call it a day.
What do you all think of this? Would it be worth putting together, or does it simply have too many problems? How would you handle things?
So, while playing some Final Fantasy, I was thinking about how it used magic. Some of the characters who used magic could not really be described as casters at all; they were simply martial characters who knew the spells. I thought about this, and how it would translate to D&D. I thought about simply considering that all the characters with magic had taken a multiclass to wizard or sorcerer, but that made no sense; they were just using abilities granted to them by their martial class. They could advance magic and melee at the same time. So I thought about what this would like in D&D. And so I came up with this idea.
Basically, every character has a BAB, HD Type, Good and Bad saves, etc. And so, I figured that this could also apply to caster levels. Caster levels would progress at different rates depending on class, in the same way as BAB. Classes like Wizard would have +1 per level, while classes like Fighter would have +0.5 per level. Some classes, such as Bard and Paladin, would gain +0.75 per level. Prestige classes would simply give a value per level.
Now, this system has some disadvantages, and there are some parts that I haven't figured out yet. These are:
Lost level PrCs
There is no way I can see to handle PrCs that are only supposed to lose a level or 2 of casting without sending them straight to the extremes (0.75 or 1), or by going into icky fractions (+0.85 casting per level? No).
Spell Lists
How do you select spells? I don't know. A few ideas came upon me while thinking about this. One was to give everyone access to a basic list and let them use feats to gain access to different ones. Another was to give them access to a list with basic spells, and then pick a new path of spells at levels 5, 11, and 17. Since this was inspired by Final Fantasy, I imagined these being things like "White Magic" (Defensive), "Black Magic" (Offensive), etc. Maybe Blue Magic could find a way in there too. I love Blue Magic.
Ability Scores
This is a problem in 2 ways. The first of these is the massive penalties to fighters who didn't spec for high mental stats, and in fact the inability to cast spells at all. This can be mostly solved by removing the stat requirement to cast spells, but it leaves the uncomfortable feeling that a fighter with an 18 casting stat will have no advantage over a similar fighter with a 6 casting stat, apart from +6 on DCs (When the fighters will likely be using buffs).
The other problem is what exactly is the casting stat? It would make sense to make it int, but all of the other mental stats have an equal claim. It could start as int, and be changeable with feats, but it feels cheap to make someone pay a feat for choosing a different character concept. It could be chosen on character creation, but being made to choose such a vital detail and be unable to change it without retraining also seems a bit annoying. My current personal favourite is that it is just the highest of your mental stats.
Meanwhile, the advantages of this are:
Melee gets a nice thing
This doesn't really make sense on the one hand, in that it's just giving melee the tools of the overpowered classes. On the other hand, it's giving melee the tools of the overpowered classes. And they can specialize in different areas from the other casters, so they can just be buffing up with things like Divine Power.
Better Balance
Many of the common problems associated with casters vs. non-casters are removed. No more grease-stopped barbarians, just cast fly before you rage. Forcecage? Dispel. Or Dimension Door. Wizards will undoubtedly remain the most powerful class by far due to their access to 9th level magic, but everyone else has at least 5th.
More versatile parties
For a long time, it has been necessary to include a caster of some kind into the group. Well, now that person is anyone. And since casters can usually take over any role, so can anyone. You could now, at higher levels, get away with a party of 5 fighters and not suffer too greatly. You have Knock, Invisibility, Silence, Fly, and all sorts of neat spells to bypass challenges.
The Monk
You can give it +0.75 casting and call it a day.
What do you all think of this? Would it be worth putting together, or does it simply have too many problems? How would you handle things?