spell points

[iceman10058]

im planning on running a game with the spell point system but im not sure how many points classes like duskblade or beguiler would get. any ideas? or should i try to base it off xph and complete psionics

[eggynack]

By my recollection, it actually is a lot like psionics. Each spell/day is worth 1 point for a first level spell, 3 points for a second level spell, 5 for a third, and so on. That applies to bonus points as well. I think that math holds up if you check it.

[iceman10058]

im talking about how many they would get per level, but yes the cost for spells is the same as the cost for powers of the same level

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Give them as many as they would need to cast all of their spells/day of a given level. If they would gain two 1st and one 2nd level spell slots on gaining a level, they get +5 spell points (1+1+3) for that level.

[eggynack]

im talking about how many they would get per level, but yes the cost for spells is the same as the cost for powers of the same level
Yeah, I mean that's the amount they get per level. A 3rd level wizard gets 7 points, and lets say they have an int mod of 20, for 5 extra points, and a total of 12. Wizards get 2 first level spells/day, plus 2 from intelligence, for a total of 4, which translates to 4 points. They also get 2 second level spells altogether, which translates to 6 points, for a total of 10. I think they also get half a point for each cantrip, which adds up to 12, which equals out. You can likely apply that formula to any level of spells, and it'll work out. You can use that to derive beguiler spells/day.

[iceman10058]

hey i never thought about doing it like that, thanks for the help.

[Pluto!]

Blasters get screwed with this system, and it makes Arcane Strike awkward to implement. I'd be tempted to be overgenerous to the Duskblade.

[Ramza00]

It is quite obvious to me that beguiler should be the same spell point progression as sorcerer since their spells per day is practically identical.

Duskblade is harder.

Most of the duskblade spells are direct damage spells. Thus they should get the at least the full amount for with the spell point variant you must spend the spell points to boost the caster level higher than the minimum. Here is how many spell points a duskblade would get if he gets 1 spell point for a level 1 spell, 3 for a level 2 spell, 5 for a level 3, 7 for a level 4, and 9 for a level 5.

2
3
4
5
11
15
21
25
35
44
54
62
77
89
106
119
137
156
179
200

Personally I think this scale is baloney for a duskblade though. If a wizard casts polar ray (an 8th level spell for a wizard) under spell points he must spend 15 pp but the caster level is 15 and thus 15d6 damage, a duskblade by contrast cast the same spell as a 5th level spell and thus he only gets 9 spell points for those spell levels and the spell only does 9d6 damage since the spell has a caster level of 9.

If we give the duskblade a number of spell points equal to when he gets the spell at each class level level (duskblade gets level 2 spells at class level 5, level 3 spells at class level 9, level 4 spells at class level 13, level 5 spells at class level 17). This would be the scale of spell points for a duskblade.

2
3
4
5
15
21
31
37
55
70
88
102
129
151
182
205
239
274
317
356

This is much more balanced for a duskblade but it still have some problems, the scale is very uneven, sometimes a duskblade gets a lot of spell points per level, sometimes he gets very little and there is no pattern. For example at level 4 the duskblade gets only 5 spell points at this level thus he can sink all his spells into a single level 1 spell and only do 5d6 damage. At level 5 the spell points for a duskblade jump by 10 for a total of 15.

Personally I would just give the duskblade the psion / wilder power point progression

2
6
11
17
25
35
46
58
72
88
106
126
147
170
195
221
250
280
311
343

It is a lot more even, a duskblade has a very limited spell list that is almost all direct damage and thus needs more spell points and augments to succeed.