Raenel
2015-07-05, 03:01 AM
So, I'm new here on these forums (at least, this is my first time signing in and posting) and I was wondering if anyone would like to comment and help on a new way of spellcasting and some feats for it. Here are the changes;
Spellcasting:
Everytime a player casts a spell, he or she must make a special will save(here after called casting check), verses a dc equal to (spell level + number of spells already cast since last 8 hour rest + other modifiers).
If the player passes, they cast the spell normally. If he or she fails to beat the check, not only does the spell not go off, then they must now roll a fort save (Same dc as above) or have their casting dc increase like they had cast it. When a player reaches the point where they need to roll a natural 10 on their highest level of spells, not including effects that reduce the dc, they become fatigued (can be reduced by magic or rest, but bypasses immunities) . Once the player can no longer hit the casting dc for even their lowest level spells (not cantrips), not including effects that reduce the dc, even on a natural twenty, they lose access to spell casting until they rest for a minimum of 8 hours. The player is also exhausted (can be reduced with magic and rest, but bypasses immunities). Bonuses to saves from sources besides progression, feats, ability score, and only certain class abilities don't count (it will say in the class abilities description) . Using these changes will replace the spells per day system, but the level at which a character gains a level of spell will remain the same. Additionally, if you have multiple classes that give you spells, both classes run off of the same casting check (meaning casting spells from one class increases the casting check of both).
Critical Success and Failure:
Failure
When casting a spell, a character has a chance to truly fail. On a natural one, if the character fails the roll by 5 or more, it is considered a critical failure. Roll a 1d6 and look at the chart below to determine how the character failed. On a crit failure, the fort save is negated and the character automatically increases there casting check as if they had successfully cast the spell.
1: The caster lost control of the energies present in casting. They and all creature within a (5 x their caster level) radius takes (1d10 x the level of spell being cast) in damage. This damage is purely magical in nature and bypasses all resistances.
2: The caster failed to concentrate on the spells target and fired the spell off at random. The spell hits a random target within the area of the spell.
3: The caster accidentally cast the wrong spell. Pick a spell at random that the character is able to cast. This spell is used in place of the cast spell.
4: The caster lost control of the energies present in casting, but managed to suppress the effects slightly. The caster takes (1d10 x the level of spell being cast) in damage. This damage is purely magical in nature and bypasses all resistances.
5: The caster lost control of the energies present in casting, burning out their magic for a while in the process. Roll 1d4 + the level of spell being cast. This is how many turns the caster losses access to their spell casting.
6: The caster lost the energies in the spell from a split second of losing focus and found more drained out of them than they bargained for. Roll 1d4. Increase the casting check by this amount, in addition to the casters increase from failing the spell.
Success
Just as a character can suddenly lose focus or control, they can sometimes find that same control or focus heightened. On a natural 20, if the caster beats their casting check by 5 or more, then it is considered a crit success. The caster can choose an effect from the following list (or roll 1d4 if they want).
1: The caster suddenly feels their spell hitting a new level of power. If the spell deals damage, it increases it's damage by 50%. If the spell doesn't damage, but has an area of effect, the area is doubled. If it has neither damage nor area of effect, it's DC gets +2 and the spell ignores spell resistance.
2: The caster has a sudden inspiration on how to manipulate a spell a certain way. Choose two more target for the spell within range. The spell effects that character the same way, even if the spell normally can only target a certain number of creatures.
3: The caster draws more energy into their spell than normal. They gain +5 to the caster level of the spell and if the spell has a caster level cap, this cap is increased by 5 as well.
4: The caster manages to waste no effort on his or her part of casting the spell. The doesn't increase the characters casting check and the spell functions even in areas without magic (including anti-magic areas and spells that produce similar effects).
Feats:
Mental Shift: Use your spell casting modifier for casting checks instead of regular will ability score modifier
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 1 *note: characters with classes that gain up to ninth level spells should gain this feat for free
Magic Training: You increase your will save for casting checks by 3. This feat can be taken more than once, up to three times, but each time the caster level requirement is increased by 5.
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 5
Blood Magic: Can use your, a helpless creatures, or a willing participants hp to lessen the casting check (Every 10 hp given up decreases the check by 1). Cannot heal the damage taken this way through magic, only rest. This only applies to one spell per use of the feat. Blood Magic does not work on creatures or characters without blood or a soul.
Pre-Reqs: Caster level 1, Int, Cha, or Wis 16, Con 14, Non-Good alignment
Improved Blood Letting: Increases the conversion rate of hp to 5 for 1 for the Blood Magic Feat.
Pre-Reqs: Blood Magic, Caster Level 5
Greater Blood Letting: The decrease in caster checks applies to a second spell, though you must cast this spell within 2 rounds of the first one.
Pre-Reqs: Improved Blood Letting, Caster Level 10
Masterful Blood Letting: The decrease to casting checks applies to a third spell, though you must cast it within 2 rounds of the second spell. In addition, once per week, you can get a conversion rate of hp to 2 for 1. This only applies to the first spell, others get the normal rate.
Pre-Reqs: Greater Blood Letting, Caster Level 20
Empowering Casting: Can increase the casting check to increase caster level of spell being cast. Increasing a spell this way also increases the caps a spell has, if any, on caster level by an amount equal to the caster level increase. 5 to the dc increases the caster level by one. The caster increase only applies to the one spell, but the casting check increase applies to all checks afterwards.
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 1
Improved Empowering: The bonus to caster level and cap applies on the next spell you cast as well.
Pre-Reqs: Empowering Casting
Effortless Empowering: The conversion of casting check to caster level increases to 5 to 2.
Pre-Reqs: Improved Empowering, Caster Level 8
Grand Empowering:The conversion of casting check to caster level becomes 2 to 1. In addition, the increase to caster level and cap applies to the next spell you cast (stacks with improved empowering, meaning the second spell you cast after the first one gets the bonus as well)
Pre-Reqs: Effortless Empowring, Caster Level 15
Elemental Focus: When a character first gains this feat, they must choose one element (fire, cold, acid, electricity, sonic, or force). When casting spells with a descriptor matching the element chosen or a spell that deals matching damage, they gain +2 to their casting check. With all other elements, they take a -2 to casting check.
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 1, at least 1 spell with the chosen elements descriptor
Elementalist: When casting a spell that benefits from elemental focus, the character also gets +1 to their caster level and +1 to any caster level caps that spell has.
Pre-Reqs: Elemental Focus, Caster Level 3, at least 3 spells with the chosen elements descriptor
Improved Elemental Focus: The bonuses from elemental focus increase by 2 (for a total of +4), but the penalties from also increase by 2(total of -4). In addition, creatures with resistance to the element chosen from elemental focus have their resistance cut in half from the spellcaster's spells.
Pre-Reqs: Elemental Focus, Caster Level 5, at least 5 spells with the chosen elements descriptor
Adept Elementalist: The bonus to caster level and caster level caps on spells that gain the benefits of elemental focus increase by 1 more (for a total bonus of +2).
Pre-Reqs: Elementalist, Caster Level 8, at least 8 spells with the chosen elements descriptor
Grand Elemental Focus: The bonuses from elemental focus increase by one (for a total of +5). In addition, creatures with resistance to the chosen element are treated as if they didn't have resistance to it from the spellcaster's spells and creatures with immunity still take half damage.
Pre-Reqs: Improved Elemental Focus, Caster Level 10, at least 10 spells with the chosen descriptor
Master Elementalist: The bonus to spells which gain the bonus from elemental focus increases by 1(for a total of +3). In addition, spells you cast that gain this bonus are treated as half a spell (meaning that it takes two casts to increase their casting check). However, all other spells are treated as 2 spells (meaning every spell cast that doesn't gain elemental focus increases the casting check by 2).
Pre-Reqs: Grand Elemental Focus, Adept Elementalist, Caster Level 15, at least 15 spells with the chosen descriptor
Dual Elements: The bonus from elemental focus applies to a second element, but elements that don't gain elemental focus have double the penalties from elemental focus and feats or abilities that modify it. In addition, if the character has any other feats with the prerequisite of elemental focus and a certain amount of spells, they must also have the same number of spells for the newly chosen element before taking this feat and to take any of those feats after.
Pre-Reqs: Elemental Focus, *special (read the description)
Future Changes and Lore
- changing the abilities of some of the weaker or too powerful spells or altogether scrapping the current spell system and making it more free form and interesting.
- changing some of the casting classes to better fit my system
- tweak the system bit by bit to balance it and make it more fun
- other various odds and endsSo, this section is more dedicated to the reasons behind these changes, my personal feelings on the current system of magic, and in what kind of settings I think would fit best for this system. To start off with, I've always loved the idea of magic. The mystery, the power, the experiments and tests, all the little bits that make magic.... well, magic. That's why I personally hate the magic in pathfinder (or any system with similar casting). It takes the mystery, the experimentation out and replaces it with cold, hard facts. x does y to z. I feel that magic should feel rewarding and challenging, not like you're following a recipe out of a book, but more like you are writing said cookbook with your own ideas and touches. Maybe some of you will understand where I am coming from. Maybe you wont. How I'm going to do this major change? I honestly have no idea yet. Which is why I'm posting this on here, to try to get help and see if anyone has any ideas of their own. I just know that I want every single magic user to feel TRULY different from one another, not just small variations on the same old idea. Take this for example: John the cryomancer is a sorcerer who is totally in love with using his biggest, most powerful ice based spells and is always spending all his energy improving his capacity to throw out the largest amount of ice possible. His friend Steve is a utility mage, a wizard who spends his time learning new, unique spells that have nothing to do with combat at all. While John uses huge, devastating spells to effect and has trained to cast those spells all day, he isn't really that great at any other type of magic and the effort needed for those other types of magic are easily 2-3 times more draining for him. Steve on the other hand, while he doesn't have as much raw magic power, is able to utilize spells of many different types and is more then capable in his own rights. Both are viable styles, one more suited to certain tasks than others sure, but both having there own strengths and weaknesses. And I know pathfinder has some of that, but it doesn't differ as much as it should, in my opinion. There are way to many Mary Sue and Gary Stu magic users who are the be all end all. Too many magic users feel too similar, especially where spell slots are concerned. Is it fair that a magic user who mostly uses weaker, less costly spells on a regular bases with an emphasis on utility should have the same amount of magic available as a character who prioritizes casting lots and lots of blasty type spells, just because they have the same level and stats? In my opinion, no.
Now, as for what kind of settings I think this system would be good? Any where there is no truly formal way to learn spell casting would be a good one. It would help to explain why so many people cast there spells in different ways, if they where all taught spellcasting from completely different sources. Or a setting where magic is common as dirt, where magical advancements are made daily by people and different ways of casting had been uncovered. Really, it could fit just about any setting you could think of. All it would need is a little tweak here or there and bam!, new spellcasting. Feel free to leave in the comments what setting you would use a system like I am trying to make. I would appreciate the different view points.
Special thanks go to:
To VoxRationis, for his suggestion on fatigue, and on blood magic
To Nonsi, for his suggestion to switch the casting check to will and failure check to fort, his questions about blood magic, and for his suggestions of other variant systems
Please, feel free to comment and tell me what you think and if you have any suggestions. This will not be all the feats or casting changes, more will be coming.:smallbiggrin:
Spellcasting:
Everytime a player casts a spell, he or she must make a special will save(here after called casting check), verses a dc equal to (spell level + number of spells already cast since last 8 hour rest + other modifiers).
If the player passes, they cast the spell normally. If he or she fails to beat the check, not only does the spell not go off, then they must now roll a fort save (Same dc as above) or have their casting dc increase like they had cast it. When a player reaches the point where they need to roll a natural 10 on their highest level of spells, not including effects that reduce the dc, they become fatigued (can be reduced by magic or rest, but bypasses immunities) . Once the player can no longer hit the casting dc for even their lowest level spells (not cantrips), not including effects that reduce the dc, even on a natural twenty, they lose access to spell casting until they rest for a minimum of 8 hours. The player is also exhausted (can be reduced with magic and rest, but bypasses immunities). Bonuses to saves from sources besides progression, feats, ability score, and only certain class abilities don't count (it will say in the class abilities description) . Using these changes will replace the spells per day system, but the level at which a character gains a level of spell will remain the same. Additionally, if you have multiple classes that give you spells, both classes run off of the same casting check (meaning casting spells from one class increases the casting check of both).
Critical Success and Failure:
Failure
When casting a spell, a character has a chance to truly fail. On a natural one, if the character fails the roll by 5 or more, it is considered a critical failure. Roll a 1d6 and look at the chart below to determine how the character failed. On a crit failure, the fort save is negated and the character automatically increases there casting check as if they had successfully cast the spell.
1: The caster lost control of the energies present in casting. They and all creature within a (5 x their caster level) radius takes (1d10 x the level of spell being cast) in damage. This damage is purely magical in nature and bypasses all resistances.
2: The caster failed to concentrate on the spells target and fired the spell off at random. The spell hits a random target within the area of the spell.
3: The caster accidentally cast the wrong spell. Pick a spell at random that the character is able to cast. This spell is used in place of the cast spell.
4: The caster lost control of the energies present in casting, but managed to suppress the effects slightly. The caster takes (1d10 x the level of spell being cast) in damage. This damage is purely magical in nature and bypasses all resistances.
5: The caster lost control of the energies present in casting, burning out their magic for a while in the process. Roll 1d4 + the level of spell being cast. This is how many turns the caster losses access to their spell casting.
6: The caster lost the energies in the spell from a split second of losing focus and found more drained out of them than they bargained for. Roll 1d4. Increase the casting check by this amount, in addition to the casters increase from failing the spell.
Success
Just as a character can suddenly lose focus or control, they can sometimes find that same control or focus heightened. On a natural 20, if the caster beats their casting check by 5 or more, then it is considered a crit success. The caster can choose an effect from the following list (or roll 1d4 if they want).
1: The caster suddenly feels their spell hitting a new level of power. If the spell deals damage, it increases it's damage by 50%. If the spell doesn't damage, but has an area of effect, the area is doubled. If it has neither damage nor area of effect, it's DC gets +2 and the spell ignores spell resistance.
2: The caster has a sudden inspiration on how to manipulate a spell a certain way. Choose two more target for the spell within range. The spell effects that character the same way, even if the spell normally can only target a certain number of creatures.
3: The caster draws more energy into their spell than normal. They gain +5 to the caster level of the spell and if the spell has a caster level cap, this cap is increased by 5 as well.
4: The caster manages to waste no effort on his or her part of casting the spell. The doesn't increase the characters casting check and the spell functions even in areas without magic (including anti-magic areas and spells that produce similar effects).
Feats:
Mental Shift: Use your spell casting modifier for casting checks instead of regular will ability score modifier
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 1 *note: characters with classes that gain up to ninth level spells should gain this feat for free
Magic Training: You increase your will save for casting checks by 3. This feat can be taken more than once, up to three times, but each time the caster level requirement is increased by 5.
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 5
Blood Magic: Can use your, a helpless creatures, or a willing participants hp to lessen the casting check (Every 10 hp given up decreases the check by 1). Cannot heal the damage taken this way through magic, only rest. This only applies to one spell per use of the feat. Blood Magic does not work on creatures or characters without blood or a soul.
Pre-Reqs: Caster level 1, Int, Cha, or Wis 16, Con 14, Non-Good alignment
Improved Blood Letting: Increases the conversion rate of hp to 5 for 1 for the Blood Magic Feat.
Pre-Reqs: Blood Magic, Caster Level 5
Greater Blood Letting: The decrease in caster checks applies to a second spell, though you must cast this spell within 2 rounds of the first one.
Pre-Reqs: Improved Blood Letting, Caster Level 10
Masterful Blood Letting: The decrease to casting checks applies to a third spell, though you must cast it within 2 rounds of the second spell. In addition, once per week, you can get a conversion rate of hp to 2 for 1. This only applies to the first spell, others get the normal rate.
Pre-Reqs: Greater Blood Letting, Caster Level 20
Empowering Casting: Can increase the casting check to increase caster level of spell being cast. Increasing a spell this way also increases the caps a spell has, if any, on caster level by an amount equal to the caster level increase. 5 to the dc increases the caster level by one. The caster increase only applies to the one spell, but the casting check increase applies to all checks afterwards.
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 1
Improved Empowering: The bonus to caster level and cap applies on the next spell you cast as well.
Pre-Reqs: Empowering Casting
Effortless Empowering: The conversion of casting check to caster level increases to 5 to 2.
Pre-Reqs: Improved Empowering, Caster Level 8
Grand Empowering:The conversion of casting check to caster level becomes 2 to 1. In addition, the increase to caster level and cap applies to the next spell you cast (stacks with improved empowering, meaning the second spell you cast after the first one gets the bonus as well)
Pre-Reqs: Effortless Empowring, Caster Level 15
Elemental Focus: When a character first gains this feat, they must choose one element (fire, cold, acid, electricity, sonic, or force). When casting spells with a descriptor matching the element chosen or a spell that deals matching damage, they gain +2 to their casting check. With all other elements, they take a -2 to casting check.
Pre-Reqs: Caster Level 1, at least 1 spell with the chosen elements descriptor
Elementalist: When casting a spell that benefits from elemental focus, the character also gets +1 to their caster level and +1 to any caster level caps that spell has.
Pre-Reqs: Elemental Focus, Caster Level 3, at least 3 spells with the chosen elements descriptor
Improved Elemental Focus: The bonuses from elemental focus increase by 2 (for a total of +4), but the penalties from also increase by 2(total of -4). In addition, creatures with resistance to the element chosen from elemental focus have their resistance cut in half from the spellcaster's spells.
Pre-Reqs: Elemental Focus, Caster Level 5, at least 5 spells with the chosen elements descriptor
Adept Elementalist: The bonus to caster level and caster level caps on spells that gain the benefits of elemental focus increase by 1 more (for a total bonus of +2).
Pre-Reqs: Elementalist, Caster Level 8, at least 8 spells with the chosen elements descriptor
Grand Elemental Focus: The bonuses from elemental focus increase by one (for a total of +5). In addition, creatures with resistance to the chosen element are treated as if they didn't have resistance to it from the spellcaster's spells and creatures with immunity still take half damage.
Pre-Reqs: Improved Elemental Focus, Caster Level 10, at least 10 spells with the chosen descriptor
Master Elementalist: The bonus to spells which gain the bonus from elemental focus increases by 1(for a total of +3). In addition, spells you cast that gain this bonus are treated as half a spell (meaning that it takes two casts to increase their casting check). However, all other spells are treated as 2 spells (meaning every spell cast that doesn't gain elemental focus increases the casting check by 2).
Pre-Reqs: Grand Elemental Focus, Adept Elementalist, Caster Level 15, at least 15 spells with the chosen descriptor
Dual Elements: The bonus from elemental focus applies to a second element, but elements that don't gain elemental focus have double the penalties from elemental focus and feats or abilities that modify it. In addition, if the character has any other feats with the prerequisite of elemental focus and a certain amount of spells, they must also have the same number of spells for the newly chosen element before taking this feat and to take any of those feats after.
Pre-Reqs: Elemental Focus, *special (read the description)
Future Changes and Lore
- changing the abilities of some of the weaker or too powerful spells or altogether scrapping the current spell system and making it more free form and interesting.
- changing some of the casting classes to better fit my system
- tweak the system bit by bit to balance it and make it more fun
- other various odds and endsSo, this section is more dedicated to the reasons behind these changes, my personal feelings on the current system of magic, and in what kind of settings I think would fit best for this system. To start off with, I've always loved the idea of magic. The mystery, the power, the experiments and tests, all the little bits that make magic.... well, magic. That's why I personally hate the magic in pathfinder (or any system with similar casting). It takes the mystery, the experimentation out and replaces it with cold, hard facts. x does y to z. I feel that magic should feel rewarding and challenging, not like you're following a recipe out of a book, but more like you are writing said cookbook with your own ideas and touches. Maybe some of you will understand where I am coming from. Maybe you wont. How I'm going to do this major change? I honestly have no idea yet. Which is why I'm posting this on here, to try to get help and see if anyone has any ideas of their own. I just know that I want every single magic user to feel TRULY different from one another, not just small variations on the same old idea. Take this for example: John the cryomancer is a sorcerer who is totally in love with using his biggest, most powerful ice based spells and is always spending all his energy improving his capacity to throw out the largest amount of ice possible. His friend Steve is a utility mage, a wizard who spends his time learning new, unique spells that have nothing to do with combat at all. While John uses huge, devastating spells to effect and has trained to cast those spells all day, he isn't really that great at any other type of magic and the effort needed for those other types of magic are easily 2-3 times more draining for him. Steve on the other hand, while he doesn't have as much raw magic power, is able to utilize spells of many different types and is more then capable in his own rights. Both are viable styles, one more suited to certain tasks than others sure, but both having there own strengths and weaknesses. And I know pathfinder has some of that, but it doesn't differ as much as it should, in my opinion. There are way to many Mary Sue and Gary Stu magic users who are the be all end all. Too many magic users feel too similar, especially where spell slots are concerned. Is it fair that a magic user who mostly uses weaker, less costly spells on a regular bases with an emphasis on utility should have the same amount of magic available as a character who prioritizes casting lots and lots of blasty type spells, just because they have the same level and stats? In my opinion, no.
Now, as for what kind of settings I think this system would be good? Any where there is no truly formal way to learn spell casting would be a good one. It would help to explain why so many people cast there spells in different ways, if they where all taught spellcasting from completely different sources. Or a setting where magic is common as dirt, where magical advancements are made daily by people and different ways of casting had been uncovered. Really, it could fit just about any setting you could think of. All it would need is a little tweak here or there and bam!, new spellcasting. Feel free to leave in the comments what setting you would use a system like I am trying to make. I would appreciate the different view points.
Special thanks go to:
To VoxRationis, for his suggestion on fatigue, and on blood magic
To Nonsi, for his suggestion to switch the casting check to will and failure check to fort, his questions about blood magic, and for his suggestions of other variant systems
Please, feel free to comment and tell me what you think and if you have any suggestions. This will not be all the feats or casting changes, more will be coming.:smallbiggrin: