A random idea about spells came into my head today.

[ngilop]

So I was thinking. " why do you have to roll to succeed on an attack, but the other guys has to roll to see if it fails for spells" WOOW unintentional rhyme!

SO pondering on that a bit i thought.. why not make it a bit more difficult to cast spells?

So i was thinking of when casting a spell make the cast pass a modified spellcraft check (just ranks) with maybe like a DC of 12 + spell level for most spells

Have of course soem spells be much easier , like cure X wounds and magic missle maybe a DC 7+ spell level and some spells be a bit harder like DC 17+ spell level for such spells as Gate, polymorph and others

Of course when the spell 'fizzles' the caster does not lose the spell, that would be too punishing

Just wondering if this is a good idea or not in theory. I want the ability to bend the laws of the universe to your whim to be a bit ,pre difficult that lok at how i can rule everything in 3 seconds.

[NeoSeraphi]

So I was thinking. " why do you have to roll to succeed on an attack, but the other guys has to roll to see if it fails for spells" WOOW unintentional rhyme!

SO pondering on that a bit i thought.. why not make it a bit more difficult to cast spells?

So i was thinking of when casting a spell make the cast pass a modified spellcraft check (just ranks) with maybe like a DC of 12 + spell level for most spells

Have of course soem spells be much easier , like cure X wounds and magic missle maybe a DC 7+ spell level and some spells be a bit harder like DC 17+ spell level for such spells as Gate, polymorph and others

Of course when the spell 'fizzles' the caster does not lose the spell, that would be too punishing

Just wondering if this is a good idea or not in theory. I want the ability to bend the laws of the universe to your whim to be a bit ,pre difficult that lok at how i can rule everything in 3 seconds.

Skill taxes for classes are generally not a good thing. Casters aren't known for having a ton of skill points either.

[SowZ]

So I was thinking. " why do you have to roll to succeed on an attack, but the other guys has to roll to see if it fails for spells" WOOW unintentional rhyme!

SO pondering on that a bit i thought.. why not make it a bit more difficult to cast spells?

So i was thinking of when casting a spell make the cast pass a modified spellcraft check (just ranks) with maybe like a DC of 12 + spell level for most spells

Have of course soem spells be much easier , like cure X wounds and magic missle maybe a DC 7+ spell level and some spells be a bit harder like DC 17+ spell level for such spells as Gate, polymorph and others

Of course when the spell 'fizzles' the caster does not lose the spell, that would be too punishing

Just wondering if this is a good idea or not in theory. I want the ability to bend the laws of the universe to your whim to be a bit ,pre difficult that lok at how i can rule everything in 3 seconds.

What you could do is how 4e did it, where Saves aren't rolled to resist spells but you have a flat Save. The caster rolled against the save like AC. In 3.5 D&D, that would translate by, say, adding +12 to all saves to make them flat numbers. Then the caster has to roll a d20+Spell Level+Modifier and exceed or beat the Save just like AC.

[Jormengand]

So I was thinking. " why do you have to roll to succeed on an attack, but the other guys has to roll to see if it fails for spells" WOOW unintentional rhyme!

SO pondering on that a bit i thought.. why not make it a bit more difficult to cast spells?

So i was thinking of when casting a spell make the cast pass a modified spellcraft check (just ranks) with maybe like a DC of 12 + spell level for most spells

Have of course soem spells be much easier , like cure X wounds and magic missle maybe a DC 7+ spell level and some spells be a bit harder like DC 17+ spell level for such spells as Gate, polymorph and others

Of course when the spell 'fizzles' the caster does not lose the spell, that would be too punishing

Just wondering if this is a good idea or not in theory. I want the ability to bend the laws of the universe to your whim to be a bit ,pre difficult that lok at how i can rule everything in 3 seconds.

That seems very much like a truenamer, and would have similar consequences - hard for newer players to get their heads around, but anyone who knows how to optimise completely ignores it.

[ngilop]

@ neo YAAY great to see you back :) and requireing a skill tax, not so much I think most casters end up taking at least a few ranks in spell craft to begin with and with unlimited potential I do not think that requiring a caster to have to roll is that bad of a think considering that for example the fighter needs to roll to do his 1 trick every time he wants to use it ( that 1 trick of course being roll an d20 to attack or use some kind of combat maneuver like trip etc etc)


@sowz thats not really what i am looking for I want magic to be this ... force that is a bit harder to control and get an outcome from than swinging a sword not so much to bef up spell saves, which as far as I know are easier to beef up than spell DCs ( i could be wrong) Again I do not want to punish a spell caster, so if one fails a spellcraft check, or maybe I should turn it into a caster level check and then of course change up the DCs that way there is no 'skill tax'??? so they don't lose their spell its just the leylines, planetary/star alignments are not just right at that moment

@Jormengand that is kind of my point. I want there to be a 'slight' chance that the spell just 'fizzles' not something that the caster has to worry about all the time, but there is the chance the spell might just misfire. Again I do not want to outright Punish players who want to be caster but I want them to understand that magic is a mysterious force that is not fully under one's control. You can look at numerous works of fiction to find examples of what I am trying to get across

it be awesome if there was a RPG out there already that did this very thing.

[Vadskye]

There have been several attempts to create this on these boards. I would not call any overly successful, except approaches which replace "saving throws" with "defenses" in the style of AC and change spell DCs into attacks. After you do that, all you have to do is change every spell so it requires an attack. Simple.