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TheThan
2010-04-22, 01:14 PM
A buddy of mine has been working on some house rules for spell casters. He’s asked my opinion on the subject and has presented me with his rules. so I thought I’d turn to the play ground here and see what others think.
I'm not so sure if this is a buff or not to casters or not. so I'm looking for possible ways to break the rules and ruin it. Not that my friends actively do that, but its nice to iron out any problems before we get to using them.


So here they are:




D&D House Rules


Alternative Caster Rules

Energy Based Magic
Spell casters don’t have a hard limit on spells per day. Instead, it takes time to gather the magical energies required to cast a spell of a particular level, so characters must wait a number of rounds, minutes, or hours before casting such a spell again.
At its heart, the energy based magic variant is simple. All spells cost a specified amount of energy and has a specific recharge period before it can be used again. In combat energy regeneration and recharge occurs more quickly. This is to offset the repeated nearly perpetual use of spells outside of combat.
The energy for each casting class could be thought of being distinct and from the same origin as their casting ability. Druids gain energy from nature, clerics from their deity, wizards from the ethereal plans, sorcerers from an innate inner power, etc.

Energy and Regeneration
Casters have a pool of energy with a maximum value equal to the sum of all of their spell slots levels. If a character is multi classed each class has it's own energy pool.
The energy required to cast a spell is equal the spells spell slot. If a meta magic feat is used on a spell the spell costs 1 additional energy. In addition if the spell requires the use of a higher level spell slot the spells base cost should be considered that of the higher level spell.
Casters regenerate energy on a regular cycle. In combat the cycle is every turn. Out of combat the cycle is every 15 minutes. Fur multi-classed characters, their cycle is equal to the number caster classes the character has, times the standard cycle. Each classes cycle is offset by one unit. For example, if a character multi-classed druid and cleric, during combat, the cleric energy pool would gain 1 energy round one. The druid energy pool would gain 1 energy round two. Round three the cleric energy pool would gain 1 energy and so on.
While sleeping energy regenerates much more rapidly. A full 8 hours of sleep will completely refill all of the casters energy pools.
Recharging doesn’t require any actions and doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. As long as a spell caster is conscious or sleeping, he naturally recharges his energy over time.

Spell Recharge Time
Spell slots are never expended; they just become temporarily unavailable. If a meta magic feat is used in conjunction with the spell that requires the use of a spell slot higher than the spells normal spell slot. The higher spell slot is used for determining the spells recharge time.
In combat, after a spell slot has been expended it can not be used for a number of rounds equal to its spell slot level. Out of combat a spell slot can not be used for a number of hours equal to its spell slot.

Classic Spontaneous Casters
All spell casters effectively become spontaneous casters like sorcerers, choosing a spell each round from a list. For sorcerers and bards, the list is fixed (just as it is for sorcerers and bards who aren’t using the variant), but other spell casters set their available menu of spells when they prepare spells for the day. Because sorcerers and bards don’t have the flexibility of choosing a new menu of spells each day, their energy regeneration is faster. Bards regenerate 1.1 energy per cycle. Sorcerers regenerate 1.5 per cycle. Other naturally spontaneous caster should have the DM adjust their regeneration rates as the DM sees fit.

Inherent Spell Casting Abilities
Some classes, such as the cleric and the druid, have a limited spontaneous spell casting ability (such as either cure wounds or inflict wounds for a cleric, or summon nature’s ally for a druid). Such a character receives these spells as innate extra spells. These extra spells do not provide an extra spell slot nor do they require a spell slot and should be treated as a spell like ability instead of a spell. When these abilities are to be used in lue of a spell, treat the spell as being cast and require its energy cost to be paid and act as though it was on recharge for its normal recharge duration.

Cantrips
Cantrips and other spell slot 0 spells count as having a spell slot of 1 for all calculations for recharge time and energy cost. Thus a cantrip would cost 1 energy and can only be cast once per round in combat or once per round out of combat.

Exhaustion
Casters enter a heightened state of being during battle. This is caused by the release of adrenaline in to the blood stream. The effect is that they regenerate energy much more quickly and can cast spells more often. There is however a down side to this state. It physically drains the caster. After 2 hours of a prolonged heightened state, casters become exhausted. While exhausted casters gain half as much energy per round and spells take twice as long to recharge. After four hours of being in a heightened state the caster collapses and falls in to a temporary deep coma lasting 4d6 hours.

Daily Spell List
This variant spontaneous casting system is designed for spell casters who normally prepare their spells in advance (including clerics, druids, paladins, rangers, and wizards). A spell caster using this variant prepares the same number spells per spell level as normal. However, instead of preparing the exact combination of spells that (s)he can cast that day (such as two magic missile spells and one mage armor spell for a 2nd-level wizard with Int. 14), the spell caster prepares a list of spells for each spell level from which (s)he can spontaneously cast as (s)he chooses.
For example, a 2nd-level wizard with Int. 14 would prepare four different 0-level spells and three different 1st-level spells. In effect, the character’s list of prepared spells is treated like a sorcerer’s list of spells known.
Unlike what a sorcerer can do, a spell caster using this system can’t cast a lower-level spell in place of a higher-level spell. Clerics and druids retain their normal spontaneous casting options (cure or inflict spells for clerics, summon nature’s ally spells for druids). Such spells are always available for spontaneous casting (as if the character prepared it “for free”). It does not consume a spell slot.
Bards and sorcerers obviously can’t use this system, since they already have their own spontaneous casting method. For bards, that’s not a big deal—their spell casting powers are only a portion of their class features, so no real change is merited. The versatility gained by the wizard definitely infringes on the sorcerer’s power level. To compensate sorcerers gain additional energy regeneration. In effect this means wizards will have greater burst potential while sorcerers will have more lasting ability.

Caphi
2010-04-22, 01:15 PM
Have you seen the recharge casting mechanic from the Unearthed Arcana? This sounds like trying to reinvent it.

TheThan
2010-04-22, 01:18 PM
Have you seen the recharge casting mechanic from the Unearthed Arcana? This sounds like trying to reinvent it.


Yeah, he used Unearthed arcana as source material.

Milskidasith
2010-04-22, 01:19 PM
So it makes spellcasters more powerful, and puts all metamagic at a cost of one?

EDIT: I misread; it now makes metamagic cost slightly more for no real reason.

Also, sorc's are still screwed; faster energy regeneration is hardly useful when you barely ever run out of spells anyway.

EDIT: I'd suggest if you want sorcs to be more powerful, have them recharge spell slots faster, rather than energy. Also, I'd suggest a full round action to get, say, two rounds of spells recharged (along with the normal one) so if you sit still and do nothing at all (no swift, immediate, or frees, either, if necessary) you can charge up and fire your high level spells faster.

jiriku
2010-04-22, 02:20 PM
The wording on this is much more complicated than it needs to be. Also, it is riddled with grammatical errors and copy/paste style errors where introductory paragraphs make assertions about the rules that aren't backed up by the succeeding text. Your buddy should really devote some effort to cleaning this up.

So if I understand:

Spellcasters have a mana pool from which they deduct points, limiting the total volume of spells they can cast.
Individual prepared spells take time to recharge, discouraging casters from spamming their best spell repeatedly until they run out of mana.
Mana regenerates one point per 15 minutes out of combat, or one point per 6 seconds in combat.
Expended spells recharge after 1 round per spell level, with a few exceptions.
Prepared casters now cast spontaneously from their daily list of prepared spells. Spontaneous casters now feel like idiots for choosing their class.
Protracted combat tires casters more quickly than it does other people.
Cantrips are cast as if they were 1st-level spells.


Have I got all that right? Ok, assuming I do, YES, this is broken and abusable. You could drive a MACK truck through these loopholes, or if you're less clever, you could try to play a sorcerer and spend the whole game wishing you were a wizard.

My feedback would be:

Spells aren't costed properly -- high level spells are too cheap. The generally accepted spell point cost for a spell point system in UA is cost=(spell level*2)-1.
This utterly hoses casters like assassins and sorcerers with small spells known lists. Sorcerers are particularly badly off. You should dramatically reduce the recharge times for casters who cast spontaneously from a limited spells known list. I'd suggest that for a spell of level x, recharge time should be at most (#spells known at level x)+x/3-1, rounded down.
Regeneration rates shouldn't be faster in combat. I can burn 90% of my energy pool, teleport into a tribe of low-level goblins, jack around with them for five minutes until my energy is topped off, and then teleport out. And I can do that over and over again all day long. The world is full of goblins.
Recharge times are both too long and too short. Wall of stone once every 5 rounds? Sure, I'll have that castle built for you in no time. Rary's mnemonic enhancer all day long, once every four rounds? Heck yeah! On the other hand, a recharge time dramatically reduces the utility of immediate-action defenses like wings of cover, ruin delver's fortune, or swift etherealness. Some of the issue with repeatability would solve if the mana regeneration mechanic wasn't so open to abuse.
Be aware that this constitutes a MAJOR power increase for the classes that are already the strongest classes in the game, while giving nothing to non-casters. It will encourage a power imbalance in the party unless everyone is playing a caster.
The exhaustion limit is meaningless. Combats rarely last two minutes, let alone two hours. Furthermore, the idea that spellcasters are more vulnerable to being tired after combat is silly, especially since the effect triggers even if the caster doesn't cast any spells during combat. It would be smarter to follow the UA suggestion and have fatigue and exhaustion trigger when mana falls below 50% or 25% of maximum.
Cantrips should be easier to cast than 1st-level spells. I'd suggest you either give them zero cost or have them refresh instantly when used.

TheThan
2010-04-23, 01:05 PM
Thanks for the input. Honestly a lot of what you have said I already feared. But my dnd fu is a little out of practice as I’ve been taking a hiatus from it. Also my buddy really isn’t as well versed as I am (and I’m hardly the most well knowledgeable player out there). So I may have to take matters into my own hands and work on balancing this out.

Devils_Blind
2010-04-23, 02:04 PM
It looks to me like he's trying to reinvent psionics.