Give up Spells known for Spells per day? Help a DM build a system!

[Rossebay]

Alright, so my DM wants to limit the number of high level spells Sorcerers and Wizards are capable of learning, purely for fluff reasons, which we're all okay with.

He wants to balance this out, though. He had the idea of "give up on learning X amount of spells in order to cast an extra spell per day." Now, that works for Sorcerers, but we all know how little that'll work for Wizards.
Would this throw the game out of balance?
And how should we balance out the wizard?

P.S. His fluff reasons are that high level spells are in the hands of few power-hungry experimental spellcasters, and as such, obtaining any of those spells would prove extremely difficult. It isn't really a high magic campaign.

[sonofzeal]

If high level magics are tightly controlled, that shouldn't realistically affect Sorcerers at all. It would prevent Wizards from finding scrolls though.... :smallconfused::smallconfused:

[LibraryOgre]

I think it would be better, thematically, to limit what people can choose on level-up. Maybe switch it from "Two spells of any level you can cast" to "your level in spell levels", with an arbitrarily high Spellcraft DC required to learn the spells... you still get your total number of levels, but if you fail the DC on Meteor Swarm, you can't learn Meteor Swarm at that level for the freebies.

Set the DC at something like 20+(Spell level*2), meaning only research specialists are likely to get the highest level spells... but those spells are still doable.

[Rossebay]

If high level magics are tightly controlled, that shouldn't realistically affect Sorcerers at all. It would prevent Wizards from finding scrolls though.... :smallconfused::smallconfused:

If the sorcerer gives up spells known for more spells per day, it'd hinder him. He already only knows his limited list. He'd just be getting closer to Warlock.


And I think, under this system, Wizards gain no spells on level-up.

[Medic!]

Depending on how far the low-magic trait goes, I'd go with the above idea of not granting new spells automatically with leveling up. I'd probably change spells known to spells learnable, then force the RP side of learning the spells they want. Wizard wants to learn X spell? Legend says a mighty wizard from days of yore mastered it, the wizard since perished but his tower remains, with new residents....etc etc. On the sorcerer side my gut says finding a place of power or raw arcane energy would be a good way to unlock the eldritch energies deep in his blood (etc etc)

[Quietus]

Easy enough : No one can naturally learn spells of level 8 or 9. They still get the spell slots, for metamagic use, but in order to know any of those spells they have to spend a feat on Extra Spell (modified to allow them to learn one spell of the highest level).

Bam. "Extra" spell slots, high level spells are exceedingly rare, and it cuts the power cap off of spellcasters if that's a concern.

[Rossebay]

Depending on how far the low-magic trait goes, I'd go with the above idea of not granting new spells automatically with leveling up. I'd probably change spells known to spells learnable, then force the RP side of learning the spells they want. Wizard wants to learn X spell? Legend says a mighty wizard from days of yore mastered it, the wizard since perished but his tower remains, with new residents....etc etc. On the sorcerer side my gut says finding a place of power or raw arcane energy would be a good way to unlock the eldritch energies deep in his blood (etc etc)

That whole "place of arcane power" sounds really cool, actually.

This system would make it more interesting...


Easy enough : No one can naturally learn spells of level 8 or 9. They still get the spell slots, for metamagic use, but in order to know any of those spells they have to spend a feat on Extra Spell (modified to allow them to learn one spell of the highest level).

Bam. "Extra" spell slots, high level spells are exceedingly rare, and it cuts the power cap off of spellcasters if that's a concern.

...While this makes it simpler.