Just a thought about a possible spellcaster nerf.

[hushblade]

How effective would it be making all casters be a bit more MAD, giving them a split casting stat? Their primary stat for DC and a secondary mental stat for bonus spells and maximum spell level cast.(maybe mix and match those three factors between two stats in a better way? that one felt best in my opinion)

Wizards could have a secondary in Wisdom, Clerics and Druids in Charisma, sorcerers in Intelligence.

Just throwing the thought out there and seeing what bounces back.

[Wookie-ranger]

Its an interesting idea. it might work in a straight build.
The first problem i see is that it would make multi-classing more viable. (as well as gestalt)

[hushblade]

I don't think it makes multiclassing any easier, each class needs two casting stats, if we stick with the triangle if Int -> Wis. Wis->Cha, Cha->Int, It would actually require 3 mental stats for a solid multiclass(which actually seems like an unfair penalization now that I think of it)
But if you don't use that triangle, and you get two classes that synergize, you're equally MAD as you were before the implementation.

[erikun]

Requiring a character to have 19 in another stat for their highest-level spells isn't too limiting, except perhaps is lower-powered games where Wizards aren't already dominating play with repeated Wishes. I mean, that's a single +6 item and 13 in the stat; not exactly difficult to accomplish.

[Namfuak]

One other thing I like about this idea is that it would probably cause secondary abilities that rely on non-spellcasting ability scores (wild empathy, Turn undead, etc) to get more use. I think that it would also make the magic system more internally consistent if both sorcerers and wizards used intelligence for spells per day/max level and charisma for saves, and both druids and clerics used wisdom for spells per day/max level and charisma for saves.

[2xMachina]

Basically, Archivist and Favored Soul mechanic?

[daemonaetea]

I had a similar idea a few months back. The reaction seemed to be that it would simply encourage players to choose spells that don't need a save, rather than encouraging them to keep several stats up.

The thread, containing my proposed changes and the fluff behind them, as well as the reactions, can be found here:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228691