MAD for the Casters [House]

[Lord Iames Osari]

One of the problems with casters vs. melee types, as I see it, is that melee types generally need multiple abilities to be decent. Paladins and monks get the worst of this, with rangers and rogues following. Fighters, and barbarians are least affected by MAD, but still, the idea of extending some MAD to the casters does not strike me as a bad idea. So, here are my thoughts.

For all spellcasters, Cha will be used to determine the save DC of spells.
Druids, Clerics and Wizards will continue to use Wis and Int to determine bonus spells per day, respectively.
Bards and Sorcerers will receive bonus spells known based on Int and continue to use Cha to determine bonus spells per day.

What does everybody think?

[Golthur]

I'm all for it. I do something similar to this in my skill-based magic system.

Basically Cha determines the save DCs and overall "potency" of your magic (which mirrors what you've got here), Wis determines the amount of mana you have and how quickly it regenerates, and Int determines your skill points (important in a skill-based setup) and the number of your known spell formulas that you can keep "remembered" (and thus, available to cast at any time).

MAD for casters is an easy way of toning back their power to acceptable limits.

[magic8BALL]

I had one a while ago, so somthing like a wis/sor/clr/psion cross hybrid beastie class thing of doom to replace all magics ever ... but one of my players revealed he bought the magic of incarnum the night i wanted to reveal this, so it never got off the ground. (I still have problems with that book...)

INT: how many bonus spells you have at 1st.
WIS: bonus spells per day you can cast
CHA: spell save DC

You have a spell book you prepare spells from.
- to scribe a spell in your spell book, you needed an INT score of at least 8+spell level.
- to pepare spells from your spell book, you needed a WIS score of at least 8+spell level.
- to cast spells you needed a CHA score of at least 8+spell level.

You needed three scores of 17 to cast 9th level spells. Thats MAD, yes?

[Lord Iames Osari]

Yes... I'm not sure I like the idea of letting people with 10s in all 3 mental scores have access to 2nd level spells (assuming proper training).

[magic8BALL]

yeah... good call... an average person could get up to 3rd level spells (3 10's, 3 11's, all 11's in mental stats).

[Yakk]

Needing a stat to cast a spell is unnessicary, IMHO.

First, split spells known and spells/day into two numbers. Give wiz/dru/cle the spells known of a sorcerer 1 level higher.

Now:
resists/per day/known
Cleric: wis/cha/int
Druid: cha/wis/int
Wizard: int/wis/int
Sorcerer: cha/cha/int

Not perfect MAD, but worse than the SRD.

[magic8BALL]

Well yakk, your humble opinion seems to mean a barbarian with charisma as a dump stat can cast as well as a sorcerer with max Cha this, and item of Cha that... assuming he multiclasses, of cause... I'm forced to disagree with that.

Also, the ol' divine casters seem to be more MAD than the arcanists... but the divine boys create CoDzilla as its known, so that might help take em down a peg or two. Keep it as !0+spell level for spells known/spells cast, and DC 10 +spell level +stat.

The cleric needs a 15 in each stat before he turns godlike, and the druid needs as much as he can get to go ape as it were...

Sor needs CHA in int, so the reckless caster is still there.

I'd change wizards to int/cha/int, becouse wizards seem forcefull to me, and i like the idea of an 'absent minded wizard'... someone who can alter the existance of the multivese in under six seconds, but only if he can find his glasses...