What would you do with a caster with Recharge Magic in play? [3.5]

[aleucard]

Recharge Magic be here. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargeMagic.htm#generalRechargeSpells) I'm interested in what exactly you all would do if this particular variant was on the field. Obviously, there's the issue of the recharge mechanics making the use of spells that you're supposed to be casting repeatedly not nearly as viable (except at high levels, and even then that's for the lowest-level spells in your arsenal), and spells not listed are going to need to have recharge times assigned, but this is an interesting enough mechanic that seeing what you all would do with it should be an amusing thought exercise.

[Irk]

They say it is a high-powered variant, but I don't really think that's the case. You kinda HAVE to cast a different spell each round, which can be irritating when you just want build your character around a several key combos. It makes it even worse for casters like Duskblades who get fewer spells known and rely on re-casting spells like Shocking Grasp every round at lower levels. I can't say I'm the biggest fan.

However, the example wizard's name is Boredflak, so there's that, at least.

[aleucard]

From what I can see, the best use would be casting spells that you only really have reason to cast once/encounter, taking advantage of the more interesting spells with separate cooldown timers if the only spells of interest are of equal level. What this particular variant's crying out for is a way to recharge faster, or put certain spells on a separate timer. It could probably be done with homebrew with minimal scarring, but, well, that's homebrew. I would be very surprised if there is a single feat that works with this mechanic, save maybe for metabreath and friends if you want to be a bargain bin dragon or something.

[Irk]

See I think that's the problem: not enough support. Also, it might be better if it had some sort of other recovery mechanic, but then that's just ToB.

There could be some solitary feat SOMEWHERE, but it'd be nightmarish to track down, and it's still not enough to really make it worth it. I wonder how this balances out tiers, though.

[Vaz]

Play a Psion instead.

[Slipperychicken]

Played as intended, I think it would trade spellcasters' nova-potential for all-day endurance.
It makes out-of-combat healing a lot easier: Just make the Cleric spam CLW on people until they're healed.
I think it would combine nicely with long duration/Persistent/Extended spells, keeping an arbitrary number of buffs up all day. Once you make the duration last longer than the specific recharge time, you can keep it up indefinitely.


So I think that it would place a much greater emphasis on trying to keep buffs and utility spells up all day (any with specific recharge time and a duration longer than the recharge time), and also strongly encourages spellcasters to find in-combat spells with specific duration (the idea being to cast one or more spells of the highest level each round if possible). It limits the number of spells you can cast in a given combat, although many spellcasters were only using 1-3 of their highest level spells per combat anyway.

[bekeleven]

Buffs are amazing. Longstrider, GMW, the other GMW, basically any not-short buff will be active for all party members all day. No need for the standard rods of chain and/or extend.

[Silva Stormrage]

Ya buffing or summoning would be really good. Druids with Ashbound + Extend could keep up 2-3 summons at once at will. With appropriate buffs walking around.

Now an archivist with haste + SNA's… oh this would be quite devastating.

[VoxRationis]

Aside from buffs and the like, it encourages mages of a more offensive mindset to go for one-two or one-two-three combos rather than simple, direct, repeatable spells. Expect spell selection to be very important, with specific sets and attack routines intended to synergize with one another.

[aleucard]

Aside from buffs and the like, it encourages mages of a more offensive mindset to go for one-two or one-two-three combos rather than simple, direct, repeatable spells. Expect spell selection to be very important, with specific sets and attack routines intended to synergize with one another.

..... That may actually be a good thing. Forcing people to think more complex than *Cast [insert favorite 1-Hit-Win spell here], repeat until victory* would be a VERY nice thing. This removes the possibility of a 15-Minute Workday strategy too, which is notorious for breaking suspension for a lot of people when it's employed (assuming that Magic Items recharge every 24 hours exactly, not just on rest). Anyone want to try a campaign with this in play?

[VoxRationis]

It would mandate a fair degree of optimization, which could throw off your non-casters potentially, since you can't have the mage just chucking magic missiles for a few rounds. But the use of highly specific routines would be interesting fodder for mage duels in which one tries to counterspell one of the critical spells in the routine.

[Psyren]

I would find a way to automate the cooldown tracking.

Also, lasting spells (10 min. or more) would go up in value since you can spam them as needed outside of combat and nearly always have them up when a fight does start for tempo advantage.

[Tvtyrant]

Versatile spellcaster would have to be banned or the Sorcerer is now a god.

[aleucard]

Versatile spellcaster would have to be banned or the Sorcerer is now a god.

Since there effectively is only 1 spell slot of each level for all Vancian casters, this feat would not be possible unless if one of the alternate-cooldown spells were used. Even then, this is obviously the sort of thing that would not work with this variant; it makes about as much sense as using Wildshape-augmenting feats with the (I think) Worghest's infinite-Wildshape ability, when it's painfully obvious that those feats were balanced on a finite number of shifts.