Realms of Chaos
2013-04-14, 12:39 PM
Hey Guys!
I have been working on a personal project for the boards for well over a year and I'm only about half-way so far. Even so, I just realized that one of my basest assumptions regarding the balance of my creation might be wrong. To test this assumption, I've decided to make some homebrew along a similar line and see what people think.
Blood Magic, An Alternate Rule for High-Magic Games:
At 1st level, each player may select one, two, or three spells that they have running through their blood. (DM's discretion). When using this alternate rule, a DM selects whether they want minor, moderate, or major blood magic.
Minor: All spells must be 0 or 1st-level spells and are cast at CL 1.
Moderate: Spells up to 2nd levels may be chosen and all spells are cast at CL 3.
Major: Spells up to 3rd level may be chosen and all spells are cast at CL 5.
Each selected spell selected as blood magic can effectively be evoked at will as a spell-like ability, except that all components must still be provided. Save DCs equal 10 + (Spell level x 1.5, rounded down). Furthermore, each spell selected as blood magic takes precisely a full hour of continuous work to evoke. Blood magic spells may not be improved or altered with feats and do not counts as prerequisites towards any feat or prestige class.
Banned Spells (So Far):
Heroism
What I'm doing here:
Yes, I'm suggesting that we give multiple 3rd level spells at CL 5 to 1st level characters, at will, for free. What I've noticed and am ready to argue, however, is that this change, which by all rights should destroy the game, actually does little apart from making players a bit more versatile.
Think about it. Let's say a player randomly chooses shatter, locate object, and augury. The player now has more tricks than they possessed before but almost nothing has been done to change the actual balance of the game. They still have the same difficulty against the same enemies and nothing has really changed other than letting them participate in new encounters (which I would count as a good thing).
Let's say that the players aren't kidding around and they go for bigger spells, though. What if they shoot for flying, haste, and fireball? Still balanced. Fireball is instantaneous and haste has a famously short duration. Using them to any degree of effectiveness would require ideal timing and preparation with that 1-hour casting time, which in my mind justifies the aide that they would lend in combat. Even for flying, one hour of work for a measly 5 minutes of aerodynamics might help for maneuverability or getting down dungeon corridors safely but that's about it.
Well, lets say that the party decides to go the other way around and shoot for weaker but longer-lasting effects. Let's say alarm, mount, and charm person. In these cases, it's very well possible for the player to have multiple copies of the same spell effect active at once. To this, I once again have to question the power. Having lots of alarms isn't a bump to power and neither is quick travel in most circumstances. Having many friends might but, once again, you'd need to keep the target around for a full hour.
No, I'd say that very few spells other than long-lasting numerical buffs (like the currently banned heroism) would actually be of any real consequence as far as real power. I'm sure that you guys may have more examples or counterexamples. Feel free to provide them so I can expand the banned list.
Versatility as Power:
This is an argument that I've seen a lot and that I'd expect to see here. Some would say that versatility equals high power much as versatility equals high tier. To this, I would have to disagree for the most part. Dungeons and Dragons as it currently is, for better or worse, is a game largely about combat encounters and when I'm talking about power, I am mainly talking about power in the battlefield. I can't think of any NPC or monster that relies on certain party members to not be able to do certain tasks outside of combat to pose a proper challenge. This alternate rule might help players get around some less quantifiable challenges like locked doors or mysteries earlier than normal but, once again, those challenges are almost impossible to quantify in difficulty.
I have been working on a personal project for the boards for well over a year and I'm only about half-way so far. Even so, I just realized that one of my basest assumptions regarding the balance of my creation might be wrong. To test this assumption, I've decided to make some homebrew along a similar line and see what people think.
Blood Magic, An Alternate Rule for High-Magic Games:
At 1st level, each player may select one, two, or three spells that they have running through their blood. (DM's discretion). When using this alternate rule, a DM selects whether they want minor, moderate, or major blood magic.
Minor: All spells must be 0 or 1st-level spells and are cast at CL 1.
Moderate: Spells up to 2nd levels may be chosen and all spells are cast at CL 3.
Major: Spells up to 3rd level may be chosen and all spells are cast at CL 5.
Each selected spell selected as blood magic can effectively be evoked at will as a spell-like ability, except that all components must still be provided. Save DCs equal 10 + (Spell level x 1.5, rounded down). Furthermore, each spell selected as blood magic takes precisely a full hour of continuous work to evoke. Blood magic spells may not be improved or altered with feats and do not counts as prerequisites towards any feat or prestige class.
Banned Spells (So Far):
Heroism
What I'm doing here:
Yes, I'm suggesting that we give multiple 3rd level spells at CL 5 to 1st level characters, at will, for free. What I've noticed and am ready to argue, however, is that this change, which by all rights should destroy the game, actually does little apart from making players a bit more versatile.
Think about it. Let's say a player randomly chooses shatter, locate object, and augury. The player now has more tricks than they possessed before but almost nothing has been done to change the actual balance of the game. They still have the same difficulty against the same enemies and nothing has really changed other than letting them participate in new encounters (which I would count as a good thing).
Let's say that the players aren't kidding around and they go for bigger spells, though. What if they shoot for flying, haste, and fireball? Still balanced. Fireball is instantaneous and haste has a famously short duration. Using them to any degree of effectiveness would require ideal timing and preparation with that 1-hour casting time, which in my mind justifies the aide that they would lend in combat. Even for flying, one hour of work for a measly 5 minutes of aerodynamics might help for maneuverability or getting down dungeon corridors safely but that's about it.
Well, lets say that the party decides to go the other way around and shoot for weaker but longer-lasting effects. Let's say alarm, mount, and charm person. In these cases, it's very well possible for the player to have multiple copies of the same spell effect active at once. To this, I once again have to question the power. Having lots of alarms isn't a bump to power and neither is quick travel in most circumstances. Having many friends might but, once again, you'd need to keep the target around for a full hour.
No, I'd say that very few spells other than long-lasting numerical buffs (like the currently banned heroism) would actually be of any real consequence as far as real power. I'm sure that you guys may have more examples or counterexamples. Feel free to provide them so I can expand the banned list.
Versatility as Power:
This is an argument that I've seen a lot and that I'd expect to see here. Some would say that versatility equals high power much as versatility equals high tier. To this, I would have to disagree for the most part. Dungeons and Dragons as it currently is, for better or worse, is a game largely about combat encounters and when I'm talking about power, I am mainly talking about power in the battlefield. I can't think of any NPC or monster that relies on certain party members to not be able to do certain tasks outside of combat to pose a proper challenge. This alternate rule might help players get around some less quantifiable challenges like locked doors or mysteries earlier than normal but, once again, those challenges are almost impossible to quantify in difficulty.