death390
2016-03-27, 01:36 PM
I have a question about bonus spells for partial casters. there are a number of partial casters such as the ranger, duskblade, hexblade, paladin, and artificer who get bonus spells per day with an attribute score that gives them bonus spell slots above their available spell levels.
as an example the duskblade spell levels extent to level 5, a duskblade with a 22 inteligence would have the following bonus spells.
lvl 1: 2, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 1, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1, lvl 6: 1.
as you can see it has a level 6 bonus spell slot available however the duskblade does not have level 6 spells.
a 22 int if a common attribute score for any int based caster. my question is what happens to that level 6 bonus spell.
according to the book you do not get a bonus spell slot until you are able to cast a spell of that level. however by the class parameters you will never gain spells of that level.
if that is the case then increasing the casting attribute on a partial caster is extremely weak compared to a full caster, you literally lose out on a bonus spell per attribute modifier (more at higher levels). the best you get out of it is the DC increase at that point.
please note that all of the partial casting classes take almost twice as long to reach the next spell level as a normal caster.
my assumption on this would be that instead of getting a spell slot of a level you would never be able to cast you would instead wrap-around the end-point of you spell level. the following are four examples, note the * locations are where the bonus spell slots are allocated.
example 1- wrap-around
Continuing the dusk blade example of 22 int he would have.
lvl 1: 2, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 2*, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1.
the level 6 slot would go to the level 3 slot instead. continuing it to 24 int.
lvl 1: 2, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 2, lvl 4: 2*, lvl 5: 2*.
as you can see the level 6 and level 7 slots would move to levels 4 and 5 because those "more complicated spell slots" would be continuing to wrap-around adding to the end of the listed bonus spell slots. this example would be extremely powerful as it progresses due to having many bonus slots available as each new spell level is unlocked. but would give no real returns for early level characters.
example 2- lowest level stack .
Continuing the dusk blade example of 22 int he would have.
lvl 1: 3*, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 1, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1.
this basically adds 2 instead of 1 to each level as it progresses. continuing it to 24 int.
lvl 1: 3*, lvl 2: 3*, lvl 3: 2, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1.
the reason for this one is that level 6 is treated like level 1, level 7 as level 2 and so on, the real change happens around int score of 32.
lvl 1: 5**, lvl 2: 4*, lvl 3: 4*, lvl 4: 3*, lvl 5: 3*.
that is due to int of 30 being bonus 5th lvl spell and 32 giving a second "bonus" bonus spell.
this is probably the most balance version of my wrap-around thought.
example 3- high as you can.
this version is extremely simple, you have your standard bonus spells per day and any bonus spell per day above spell limit you can use for any spell up to the highest spell level you can cast. this is by far the most broken version of the bonus spells per day ideas due to simply being able to use a great deal many more of your most powerful spells. this is in no way the correct way to go about it but i put it in due to what many partial casters would want.
tl;dr
what happens to bonus spells above partial casters available spell levels, if they should get them how should it be implemented. if they shouldn't then why not, due to it greatly decreasing the power of the attribute.
as an example the duskblade spell levels extent to level 5, a duskblade with a 22 inteligence would have the following bonus spells.
lvl 1: 2, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 1, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1, lvl 6: 1.
as you can see it has a level 6 bonus spell slot available however the duskblade does not have level 6 spells.
a 22 int if a common attribute score for any int based caster. my question is what happens to that level 6 bonus spell.
according to the book you do not get a bonus spell slot until you are able to cast a spell of that level. however by the class parameters you will never gain spells of that level.
if that is the case then increasing the casting attribute on a partial caster is extremely weak compared to a full caster, you literally lose out on a bonus spell per attribute modifier (more at higher levels). the best you get out of it is the DC increase at that point.
please note that all of the partial casting classes take almost twice as long to reach the next spell level as a normal caster.
my assumption on this would be that instead of getting a spell slot of a level you would never be able to cast you would instead wrap-around the end-point of you spell level. the following are four examples, note the * locations are where the bonus spell slots are allocated.
example 1- wrap-around
Continuing the dusk blade example of 22 int he would have.
lvl 1: 2, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 2*, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1.
the level 6 slot would go to the level 3 slot instead. continuing it to 24 int.
lvl 1: 2, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 2, lvl 4: 2*, lvl 5: 2*.
as you can see the level 6 and level 7 slots would move to levels 4 and 5 because those "more complicated spell slots" would be continuing to wrap-around adding to the end of the listed bonus spell slots. this example would be extremely powerful as it progresses due to having many bonus slots available as each new spell level is unlocked. but would give no real returns for early level characters.
example 2- lowest level stack .
Continuing the dusk blade example of 22 int he would have.
lvl 1: 3*, lvl 2: 2, lvl 3: 1, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1.
this basically adds 2 instead of 1 to each level as it progresses. continuing it to 24 int.
lvl 1: 3*, lvl 2: 3*, lvl 3: 2, lvl 4: 1, lvl 5: 1.
the reason for this one is that level 6 is treated like level 1, level 7 as level 2 and so on, the real change happens around int score of 32.
lvl 1: 5**, lvl 2: 4*, lvl 3: 4*, lvl 4: 3*, lvl 5: 3*.
that is due to int of 30 being bonus 5th lvl spell and 32 giving a second "bonus" bonus spell.
this is probably the most balance version of my wrap-around thought.
example 3- high as you can.
this version is extremely simple, you have your standard bonus spells per day and any bonus spell per day above spell limit you can use for any spell up to the highest spell level you can cast. this is by far the most broken version of the bonus spells per day ideas due to simply being able to use a great deal many more of your most powerful spells. this is in no way the correct way to go about it but i put it in due to what many partial casters would want.
tl;dr
what happens to bonus spells above partial casters available spell levels, if they should get them how should it be implemented. if they shouldn't then why not, due to it greatly decreasing the power of the attribute.