Spellfire for 5e

[Falka]

I don't know if somebody tried this before, but I'm running a short adventure and I would like to give Spellfire to a PC (the adventure is an introduction to a Mystra-themed campaign).

I checked the rules for Spellfire in 3.0 (Magic of Faerun) and they seemed overwhelming. Then I checked Spellfire for AD&D and it looked a bit too broken for my taste. Also, I'm not really sure how to implement progression without turning it into a subclass or a feat (I'm thinking on taxing the ability by making it impossible for the PC to use magic items at all, treating Spellfire as a "scaling" magic item").

So, does anyone have any cool idea on how to implement this? I'll post my suggestions later. Let's brainstorm!

[calebrus]

Also, I'm not really sure how to implement progression without turning it into a subclass or a feat
<snip>
So, does anyone have any cool idea on how to implement this? I'll post my suggestions later. Let's brainstorm!

First, I would definitely make it a feat.

Second, I would restrict it to non-casters. Basically, the spellfire wouldn't let you learn to cast magic, because it would absorb any spell you tried to cast, so you'd never learn how.
Eventually, after an unspecified number of levels (after you learn control) then maybe, but definitely not in the beginning.

Third, I think the rules from AD&D2e could work just fine as a base.... if you lowered the numbers significantly. Max was Con score x10, with danger levels beginning at Con x5 and above.
I would instead make that Con score. Full stop. Anything beyond that becomes dangerous. {(Con x1)+1 to Con x2} is the first dangerous level, building to {(Con x5)+1 to Con x6} being deadly to anyone near.

Each effect absorbed stores one level, regardless of the power of the effect. Very minor effects (cantrips from low level casters, potions, etc, with DM fiat) wouldn't be strong enough to absorb at all. This would be if you wanted the ability to absorb lots and lots of effects. Or make each spell level absorbed count as that many levels, like it did originally. This would be if you wanted to force the spellfire wielder to actively use their spellfire or risk overloading.

It would require a reaction to absorb an effect once you gained control of the power. Single target spells absorbed only (at least initially, maybe later AoE at half absorption, but everyone else is still affected).
1d6 damage per level spent on damaging spellfire. Maybe 2d6 per, as I significantly lowered the reserve total, but in that case a limit on levels spent per blast would be required.
2HP healed per level spent on healing spellfire (maybe 4 per, same reasoning).
Other effects as determined by need and DM fiat.

But that would be the base guidelines that I'd use. Possibly even making it a feat chain to gain other abilities, because spellfire is pretty damned powerful.

[Callin]

For super duper simple. 1d6 magic damage scale as a cantrip and advantage on saves vs spell effects.

[hamishspence]

First, I would definitely make it a feat.

Second, I would restrict it to non-casters. Basically, the spellfire wouldn't let you learn to cast magic, because it would absorb any spell you tried to cast, so you'd never learn how.
Eventually, after an unspecified number of levels (after you learn control) then maybe, but definitely not in the beginning.

All the Chosen of Mystra had access to spellfire though, as well as "silver fire". Ability to control it despite being casters might be part of the Chosen trait.

[calebrus]

All the Chosen of Mystra had access to spellfire though, as well as "silver fire". Ability to control it despite being casters might be part of the Chosen trait.

We're not talking about the Chosen, we're talking about a PC.
I was thinking more along balancing purposes and RP fluff. The ability is powerful enough that it was its own class in 2e. Tacking it onto a single classed caster in 5e would be imbalanced. Multiclass, maybe. Non-caster, sure. Full caster, nope.

[hamishspence]

I think Shandril's mother was a mage, who'd discovered she had spellfire, and was studying to develop it further when she was murdered.

It is a bit powerful, true. Maybe something like 4E's "power swap" methods - character is trading normal class features for spellfire powers, a bit at a time?

[calebrus]

Honestly, I think the best way to do it is to build a class for it. I doubt he wants to put that much work into it, but I really think that's the way to go.

[Falka]

Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback.

It's not that I'm not willing to put a lot of effort into this, but more like, I don't want to "force" my player into picking a new class.

The PC is, to be more specific, a lvl 2 Fighter (planning to become an Eldritch Knight). She's about to head towards a fateful encounter where she will suddenly find her new powers. OOCly, the player doesn't really know what I'm up to, so I want this to be completely unexpected and regarded as a dangerous yet satisfying perk without overshadowing the rest of the PCs (I tend to give each some kind of perk so that they get their own spotlight, eventually. For instance I am roleplaying throughly the Warlock's relation with Dendar the Night Serpent, the paladin is an apprentice for an important plot NPC, etc.)

So, going back to Spellfire, I'm really sold into the AD&D version since it has "phases". I agree that the basic limit should be around CON score (or maybe just CON x2). Also, agreed on the fact that cantrips shouldn't be used to charge spell levels. And absorbing spells as a reaction. Pretty straightfoward.

The thing is, I wouldn't want to force the player into picking a Feat or a Subclass. Not that I don't mind making one, but there are lots of perks that don't demand Feats (like becoming a Lycanthrope or a Half-Dragon). I think that the fact that she won't be able to use magic items at all will be by itself quite a big con (and also matches well with the flavour of the character).

So, she shouldn't be able to use spells either? Not even the short list available to the Eldritch Knight? I suppose that during early phases, she shouldn't be able to cast magic... but maybe she could eventually overcome this and make it the only source of magic available to her. Also, do you guys think I could keep the remaining features of the Eldritch Knight intact (magic weapon thingie, etc.)

Regarding Spellfire phases, I'd pretty much respect the AD&D order, except that I would keep the accidental magic absorption as a permanent flaw, rather than one that she would be able to eventually overcome.

Thoughts?

[Callin]

If the PC wants to be an Eldritch Knight dont take that from her. Dont change a thing about it.

[calebrus]

EK?
Change some of the subclass features (like weapon bond and maybe a little more, gone for spellfire) and make it a Spellfire Knight.
Follow something similar to the original progression, like every other level a new feature comes online or something.
At level 3 (and maybe 4) there is a 50% chance that any spell he casts gets absorbed instead of casting normally. That chance drops as he begins to learn to control it until it disappears entirely.

The abilities were split into like 9 sets if I remember correctly.
Every two levels = 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19
Perfect.

[Yagyujubei]

just make it what it is, a blessing....there are plenty of blessing examples in the dmg so they're def. a thing.

its a blessing from mystra. you just get it for free.

[Laurefindel]

If you want spellfire to "use" some of the character resources without costing a feats or class features, spellfire could require attunement, leaving the PC with one less magic item "slots".

In other words you could, conceptually speaking, design the ability like a magic item like you were suggesting in your OP.

You could base the scaling on something flexible like the character's HDs, or use the 1st level, 3rd level 5th level scaling of drows, tieflings and aasimars' innate spellcasting, or scale a the same thresholds as cantrips like someone suggested above.

[xyianth]

If the PC has a plan to take EK, I wouldn't mess with EK just to add spellfire. I'll second Yagyujubei in that it should just be a blessing. However I would basically make the blessing provide spellfire as an ability and give the PC a way to use character resources to fuel spellfire. Here is my idea on basic mechanics for spellfire:

Spellfire points:

You gain a pool of spellfire points. This pool starts out empty. There is no maximum number of spellfire points, but you can only safely store a number of points equal to your constitution score.
If you ever gain more spellfire points in your spellfire pool than your constitution score, make a constitution save whose DC is the number of spellfire points in your pool. If you fail this save, half of the spellfire points in your pool explode, dealing 1d6 damage per point to you and all creatures within 20'. Any creatures other than you caught in this explosion can attempt a dexterity save (same DC as your constitution save) to take half damage.


How to gain spellfire points:

Any time you are targeted by a spell, you can spend a reaction to absorb a number of spellfire points equal to the spell's level. If you do, the spell has no other effect on you.
Any time you are caught in the effect of an area spell, you can spend a reaction to absorb a number of spellfire points equal to the spell's level. If you do, the spell has no other effect on you and all creatures other than you caught in the spell's effect have advantage on any save made against the spell.
Any time you are targeted by a cantrip, potion, or other minor magical effect, you can spend a reaction to negate it, but you gain no spellfire points.
If you have spell slots, you can convert them into spellfire points as a bonus action. You gain 1 spellfire point per slot level.
You can spend an action to drain the magic from a scroll, wand, or staff. You gain 1 spellfire point per spell level. You can only drain 1 spell or charge per action spent. Once the item has no spells/charges left, it crumbles to dust.
You can attempt to drain magical energy from a creature with spell slots. As an action, you make an opposed constitution check against the target. If you win the check, you can drain 1 slot of your choice from the target and gain spellfire points(1 point per slot level). You can only drain a slot whose level is less than or equal to the amount you won the opposed check by. If the target is willing, no check is required and the target chooses which slot you drain.

How to spend spellfire points:

As an action on your turn, you can create a ray of magical spellfire that deals damage to a single target within 120'. This ray does 1d6 damage + 1d6 damage per spellfire point spent. Make a ranged spell attack (using your spellcasting ability, or dexterity if you don't cast spells) against your target. This ability counts as a cantrip for the purposes of interacting with other class features and abilities.
As an action on your turn, you can infuse your touch with spellfire to heal a creature's wounds. This touch heals 2hp per spellfire point spent. If the creature is unwilling, make a melee spell attack (using your spellcasting ability, or dexterity if you don't cast spells) against your target. This ability counts as a cantrip for the purposes of interacting with other class features and abilities.
Feel free to add other abilities to spend spellfire points on as desired.

For balance reasons, you may (or may not) want to place limits on the number of spellfire points spent in any single action. If you do, I would limit it to half character level. This will put an upper cap on the damage that can be dealt in any single attack and draw out the time needed to heal. It would also allow you to make other effects cost fixed amounts of points as a way to limit them to certain levels. (fly could cost 3 points for example, limiting it to characters at or above level 6) If you don't set a limit, you add the possibility of spectacular spellfire attacks at early levels, which might make for more flashy combat.

I might flesh this out a bit more for my own table's ever growing list of homebrew/houserule options. Thanks for the idea!

[Yagyujubei]

If the PC has a plan to take EK, I wouldn't mess with EK just to add spellfire. I'll second Yagyujubei in that it should just be a blessing. However I would basically make the blessing provide spellfire as an ability and give the PC a way to use character resources to fuel spellfire. Here is my idea on basic mechanics for spellfire:

Spellfire points:

You gain a pool of spellfire points. This pool starts out empty. There is no maximum number of spellfire points, but you can only safely store a number of points equal to your constitution score.
If you ever gain more spellfire points in your spellfire pool than your constitution score, make a constitution save whose DC is the number of spellfire points in your pool. If you fail this save, half of the spellfire points in your pool explode, dealing 1d6 damage per point to you and all creatures within 20'. Any creatures other than you caught in this explosion can attempt a dexterity save (same DC as your constitution save) to take half damage.


How to gain spellfire points:

Any time you are targeted by a spell, you can spend a reaction to absorb a number of spellfire points equal to the spell's level. If you do, the spell has no other effect on you.
Any time you are caught in the effect of an area spell, you can spend a reaction to absorb a number of spellfire points equal to the spell's level. If you do, the spell has no other effect on you and all creatures other than you caught in the spell's effect have advantage on any save made against the spell.
Any time you are targeted by a cantrip, potion, or other minor magical effect, you can spend a reaction to negate it, but you gain no spellfire points.
If you have spell slots, you can convert them into spellfire points as a bonus action. You gain 1 spellfire point per slot level.
You can spend an action to drain the magic from a scroll, wand, or staff. You gain 1 spellfire point per spell level. You can only drain 1 spell or charge per action spent. Once the item has no spells/charges left, it crumbles to dust.
You can attempt to drain magical energy from a creature with spell slots. As an action, you make an opposed constitution check against the target. If you win the check, you can drain 1 slot of your choice from the target and gain spellfire points(1 point per slot level). You can only drain a slot whose level is less than or equal to the amount you won the opposed check by. If the target is willing, no check is required and the target chooses which slot you drain.

How to spend spellfire points:

As an action on your turn, you can create a ray of magical spellfire that deals damage to a single target within 120'. This ray does 1d6 damage + 1d6 damage per spellfire point spent. Make a ranged spell attack (using your spellcasting ability, or dexterity if you don't cast spells) against your target. This ability counts as a cantrip for the purposes of interacting with other class features and abilities.
As an action on your turn, you can infuse your touch with spellfire to heal a creature's wounds. This touch heals 2hp per spellfire point spent. If the creature is unwilling, make a melee spell attack (using your spellcasting ability, or dexterity if you don't cast spells) against your target. This ability counts as a cantrip for the purposes of interacting with other class features and abilities.
Feel free to add other abilities to spend spellfire points on as desired.

For balance reasons, you may (or may not) want to place limits on the number of spellfire points spent in any single action. If you do, I would limit it to half character level. This will put an upper cap on the damage that can be dealt in any single attack and draw out the time needed to heal. It would also allow you to make other effects cost fixed amounts of points as a way to limit them to certain levels. (fly could cost 3 points for example, limiting it to characters at or above level 6) If you don't set a limit, you add the possibility of spectacular spellfire attacks at early levels, which might make for more flashy combat.

I might flesh this out a bit more for my own table's ever growing list of homebrew/houserule options. Thanks for the idea!

I really like how you have this laid out. it fits the vague image i had in my head but was too lazy to think more about

[Baptor]

I've got my 3e workups somewhere...anyways.

If he were looking to play a spellfire wielder, I'd make a class no doubt about it. My 3e version was a kind of warlock whose blasts were spellfire.

Since this is a normal character who is going to wake up with "holy crap, spellfire!" I'd probably do one of the following:

1. Make into a feat, and if you want to expand it a feat chain with new powers as he goes. As I recall the original spellfire was either a weapon (ray attack) or a minor heal spell. As it got better a spellfire wielder could use it to make spellfire bursts, spheres and eventually do things like fly with it.

Option 1 is really balanced but the issue with it is that the player has to choose these weird feats over his ASI's.

2. Just give him the power as a special ability. For balance purposes you may want to have it consume an attunement slot, or not.

If I were doing it this way the player would get the standard blast (see Firebolt cantrip) and heal (see healing word or spare the dying). It could be improved with feats if he desired to do so.

[iTreeby]

isn't spellfire kindof like a rod of absorption in 3.5? is rod of absorption not similar in this edition?

[Basch]

Spellfire points:

You gain a pool of spellfire points. This pool starts out empty. There is no maximum number of spellfire points, but you can only safely store a number of points equal to your constitution score.
If you ever gain more spellfire points in your spellfire pool than your constitution score, make a constitution save whose DC is the number of spellfire points in your pool. If you fail this save, half of the spellfire points in your pool explode, dealing 1d6 damage per point to you and all creatures within 20'. Any creatures other than you caught in this explosion can attempt a dexterity save (same DC as your constitution save) to take half damage.


How to gain spellfire points:

Any time you are targeted by a spell, you can spend a reaction to absorb a number of spellfire points equal to the spell's level. If you do, the spell has no other effect on you.
Any time you are caught in the effect of an area spell, you can spend a reaction to absorb a number of spellfire points equal to the spell's level. If you do, the spell has no other effect on you and all creatures other than you caught in the spell's effect have advantage on any save made against the spell.
Any time you are targeted by a cantrip, potion, or other minor magical effect, you can spend a reaction to negate it, but you gain no spellfire points.
If you have spell slots, you can convert them into spellfire points as a bonus action. You gain 1 spellfire point per slot level.
You can spend an action to drain the magic from a scroll, wand, or staff. You gain 1 spellfire point per spell level. You can only drain 1 spell or charge per action spent. Once the item has no spells/charges left, it crumbles to dust.
You can attempt to drain magical energy from a creature with spell slots. As an action, you make an opposed constitution check against the target. If you win the check, you can drain 1 slot of your choice from the target and gain spellfire points(1 point per slot level). You can only drain a slot whose level is less than or equal to the amount you won the opposed check by. If the target is willing, no check is required and the target chooses which slot you drain.

How to spend spellfire points:

As an action on your turn, you can create a ray of magical spellfire that deals damage to a single target within 120'. This ray does 1d6 damage + 1d6 damage per spellfire point spent. Make a ranged spell attack (using your spellcasting ability, or dexterity if you don't cast spells) against your target. This ability counts as a cantrip for the purposes of interacting with other class features and abilities.
As an action on your turn, you can infuse your touch with spellfire to heal a creature's wounds. This touch heals 2hp per spellfire point spent. If the creature is unwilling, make a melee spell attack (using your spellcasting ability, or dexterity if you don't cast spells) against your target. This ability counts as a cantrip for the purposes of interacting with other class features and abilities.
Feel free to add other abilities to spend spellfire points on as desired.

For balance reasons, you may (or may not) want to place limits on the number of spellfire points spent in any single action. If you do, I would limit it to half character level. This will put an upper cap on the damage that can be dealt in any single attack and draw out the time needed to heal. It would also allow you to make other effects cost fixed amounts of points as a way to limit them to certain levels. (fly could cost 3 points for example, limiting it to characters at or above level 6) If you don't set a limit, you add the possibility of spectacular spellfire attacks at early levels, which might make for more flashy combat.

I could see this making a good sorcerer subclass as well.

[xyianth]

After thinking about it some more, I further expanded the concept a bit for my homebrew options. I left what I posted above as the baseline blessing for DMs to give out as a way to add spellfire to a character for story purposes. I added a feat to allow any character to gain the blessing, thereby allowing players to decide to have spellfire even if the DM doesn't need it for story purposes. (As with all things, this option is still obviously only available by DM approval) Finally, I expanded on the concept and made a new subclass option for barbarians, fighters, monks, and rogues that focused on spellfire. These subclasses provided alternative ways to interact with and fuel spellfire abilities. The reason I chose these classes is that full or even half casters already get a larger benefit from the spellfire blessing than non-casters so as a means to help balance that I expanded the capabilities of what those non-casters could do with it. I'll eventually do a full write-up of these options in the homebrew forum, but for now it is just a rough outline:

Barbarian

3: gain the blessing of spellfire. whenever you enter a rage, your spellfire pool fills to its maximum safe level (your constitution score). you can use your strength as your spellcasting ability for spellfire abilities and your spellfire abilities can be used while raging. your bonus rage damage applies to your spellfire ray ability while raging.
6: your spellfire pool fills to its maximum safe level (your constitution score) at the end of your rage as well. while raging, you can spend 1 point of spellfire to gain damage resistance to all damage for 1 round.
10: while raging, every point of spellfire you spend counts as 2 points for the purposes of determining its effects. you gain the ability to channel your spellfire through your weapon. when you hit an opponent with a weapon attack, you can spend spellfire points to add an extra 1d6 damage per point spent to the damage of the attack. activating this ability does not cost any action.
14: when making a reckless attack, you can unleash a surge of spellfire. each point of spellfire spent adds 1d6 damage to the attack. this damage than surges up to 10' to another target of your choice. that target takes 1d6 less damage than the first. the damage can continue to surge up to 10' away to a new creature a number of times equal to the number of spellfire points spent to activate this ability, or until it runs out of available targets. this ability can not damage the same creature more than once per use.


Fighter

3: gain the blessing of spellfire. you can attempt to drain magical energy from a creature that you hit with an attack as a bonus action. when spending HD during a rest, you can convert 2hp that would be healed into 1 spellfire point. You can convert as many hp as you like in this fashion as part of spending the HD.
7: you can use the spellfire ray and spellfire healing abilities as a bonus action on your turn.
10: you gain the ability to channel your spellfire through your weapon. when you hit an opponent with a weapon attack, you can spend spellfire points to add an extra 1d6 damage per point spent to the damage of the attack. activating this ability does not cost any action.
15: you can spend 2 points of spellfire to greatly enhance the speed at which you move. as a move action on your turn you can instead teleport a distance equal to your move speed.
18: you can choose to gain 1 spellfire point anytime a spell of first level or higher is cast within 60' of you. this does not alter the normal effects of the spell and the spell doesn't have to have any other effect on you.


Monk

3: gain the blessing of spellfire. you can convert ki points into spellfire points as a bonus action. (1 ki point becomes 1 spellfire point) your spellfire abilities are considered monk weapons for the purposes of interacting with your abilities.
7: you can spend 1 ki point instead of your reaction to absorb a magical effect and gain spellfire points.
11: you can convert spellfire points into ki points as a bonus action. (1 spellfire point becomes 1 ki point) you gain the ability to channel your spellfire through your attacks. when you hit an opponent with an attack, you can spend spellfire points to add an extra 1d6 damage per point spent to the damage of the attack. activating this ability does not cost any action.
17: you gain the ability to induce a magical backlash in an opponent. as an action, make an unarmed attack against your opponent. on a hit, resolve the attack's damage as normal. you also make an opposed constitution check as part of this attack if it hits. you can spend spellfire points to add a bonus to your opposed check result. each spellfire point spent adds +1 to your check result. if you win the opposed check, the target loses a number of slots of its choice such that the total spell level equals the amount you won the opposed check by. if the target has no spell slots, it instead loses an equivalent amount of HD. the target's lost energy explodes, dealing 1d6 damage per point you won the opposed check by to all creatures within 20' other than you. any creature other than the target caught in the explosion can attempt a dexterity save whose DC is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your wisdom modifier for half damage. you are immune to the damage from the explosion.


Rogue

3: gain the blessing of spellfire. your spellfire ray is considered a finesse weapon for the purposes of whether you can apply sneak attack damage to it. whenever you could make a sneak attack against a target, you can voluntarily reduce the extra damage from your sneak attack ability to instead gain spellfire points. each 1d6 you reduce allows you to gain 1 spellfire point.
9: whenever you would make a sneak attack on a target, you can spend 3 spellfire points to cause the target to be effected by a 3rd level dispel magic effect in addition to your attack's other effects. you gain the ability to channel your spellfire through your weapon. when you hit an opponent with a weapon attack, you can spend spellfire points to add an extra 1d6 damage per point spent to the damage of the attack. activating this ability does not cost any action.
13: whenever a spell or magical effect is used against a target within 30' of you, you can use your reaction to redirect the effect to yourself and negate it. you gain spellfire points as normal when doing so.
17: you gain the ability to project a ghostly double of yourself composed entirely of spellfire. you can spend any number of spellfire points as a bonus action to activate this ability. your ghostly double has a pool of spellfire points equal to the amount of spellfire points you spent to activate this ability. your ghostly double moves and acts during your turn. it can move up to your move speed and it can make 1 attack per turn. in order to make an attack, it must spend spellfire points from its spellfire pool. each point spent allows the attack to deal +1d6 damage. while active, your ghostly double counts as an ally for flanking purposes. your ghostly double is immune to all damage and effects and dissipates once its spellfire pool is empty. your ghostly double can not make sneak attacks or opportunity attacks.


One thing I should note is that my homebrew options tend to have a bit more power in them than what I would say is average for 5e RAW. This works at my table because most of the low power and trap options have been modified or rewritten so that this higher power point is the average. I try and keep the average power point around what the RAW paladin and bard have. I am fallible though, so sometimes it takes several playtests to tune it correctly. My point is, these options may not be directly applicable to someone else's campaign that has not rebalanced the average power point without some tweaks.

[Psikerlord]

I don't know if somebody tried this before, but I'm running a short adventure and I would like to give Spellfire to a PC (the adventure is an introduction to a Mystra-themed campaign).

I checked the rules for Spellfire in 3.0 (Magic of Faerun) and they seemed overwhelming. Then I checked Spellfire for AD&D and it looked a bit too broken for my taste. Also, I'm not really sure how to implement progression without turning it into a subclass or a feat (I'm thinking on taxing the ability by making it impossible for the PC to use magic items at all, treating Spellfire as a "scaling" magic item").

So, does anyone have any cool idea on how to implement this? I'll post my suggestions later. Let's brainstorm!
Spellfire was the beginning of the end of my enjoyment of the realms.

[Scots Dragon]

Spellfire was the beginning of the end of my enjoyment of the realms.

So you began to dislike the Forgotten Realms back in July 1987, a month before the release of its first campaign setting? That must have been a short setting infatuation.

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

I love spell fire, I've played 2 1/2 spell fires in my time... once it was even as a chosen (3.5).

off hand I would create a feat that worked like a rod of absorption power to absorb then add something that lets you destroy magic items to also add charges, with some basic option for how to spend charges:

attack roll dex based ranged for 1d6/charge with advantage if target is a spell caster.

self heal 1d4/charge... or maybe spend 2 charges to heal a HD without spending HD...

and detect magic at will

but have the limit of charges you can hold equal to your con score, if you have more then half your max you feel pain and have disadvantage to all rolls.

[Fwiffo86]

We're not talking about the Chosen, we're talking about a PC.
I was thinking more along balancing purposes and RP fluff. The ability is powerful enough that it was its own class in 2e. Tacking it onto a single classed caster in 5e would be imbalanced. Multiclass, maybe. Non-caster, sure. Full caster, nope.

I agree with this. Far too powerful for an add on to a caster class.

I have long believed that the Sorcerer class is an evolution of this concept anyway. Naturally inborn magic source and all.

[Ktrach]

First, I would definitely make it a feat.

Second, I would restrict it to non-casters. Basically, the spellfire wouldn't let you learn to cast magic, because it would absorb any spell you tried to cast, so you'd never learn how.
Eventually, after an unspecified number of levels (after you learn control) then maybe, but definitely not in the beginning.

Third, I think the rules from AD&D2e could work just fine as a base.... if you lowered the numbers significantly. Max was Con score x10, with danger levels beginning at Con x5 and above.
I would instead make that Con score. Full stop. Anything beyond that becomes dangerous. {(Con x1)+1 to Con x2} is the first dangerous level, building to {(Con x5)+1 to Con x6} being deadly to anyone near.

Each effect absorbed stores one level, regardless of the power of the effect. Very minor effects (cantrips from low level casters, potions, etc, with DM fiat) wouldn't be strong enough to absorb at all. This would be if you wanted the ability to absorb lots and lots of effects. Or make each spell level absorbed count as that many levels, like it did originally. This would be if you wanted to force the spellfire wielder to actively use their spellfire or risk overloading.

It would require a reaction to absorb an effect once you gained control of the power. Single target spells absorbed only (at least initially, maybe later AoE at half absorption, but everyone else is still affected).
1d6 damage per level spent on damaging spellfire. Maybe 2d6 per, as I significantly lowered the reserve total, but in that case a limit on levels spent per blast would be required.
2HP healed per level spent on healing spellfire (maybe 4 per, same reasoning).
Other effects as determined by need and DM fiat.

But that would be the base guidelines that I'd use. Possibly even making it a feat chain to gain other abilities, because spellfire is pretty damned powerful.


Why not 2, or 3, feats instead 1?

The first one give to character the "essence" os Spellfire, in a very instable form.
The character can absorb magic levels just if have prepared a action to do this, absorbing magic levels up to the constitution score without problems, but if absorb more than that the energy will overload and each level above the limit are discharged in the 5 feets area around the him doing 1d6 damage in any creature at this area, including the character himself.
To heal is more difficult, so only 1 point would be healed per invested spell level, and he can't cast a energy bolt using more tham 1 magic level for each 2 characters levels. 1d4 per level.
On the other hand he'll have difficulties casting spells, it means that all target os his spells have advantages on spell save and any attack with spells, or others test maked by this character, will have disadvantage.

The second one cut the problems casting spells, this one can only be chosed if the character have the first one already.
Besides that the character will be able to absorb using a reaction and can absorb more magic levels, up to Cons score x 4 without problems in the same terms above.
To heal is fine and 2 point would be healed per invested spell level, and cast a energy bolt does 1d6 per level.

The last one make possible the character absorb up to Cons score x 8 without problems in the same terms above and cast a energy bolt does 1d8 per level.

Well... This is an idea...

But, maybe, 1 feat with a level progression can do the job.

Sorry by my possibly confuse english.

TKS

[JackPhoenix]

Sorry by my possibly confuse english.

TKS

You shouldn't be sorry for your english, but for replying to a 3 years old thread.