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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Stub of a subsytem: Mana dice



Morphic tide
2017-03-01, 01:11 PM
So, a lot, and I mean a massive, number of games use a mana system. The closest D&D has ever been to that is either 3e or 2e Psionics, where you have continuous regeneration of PP. 5e has an existing subsystem that looks a bit like it, and also like some fairly useless feats from 3.X that were used by Rogue. I'm talking about Superiority Dice, which are much like both mana in video games and the 3.X Ambush feats, which traded Sneak Attack dice for added effects. Ambush feats sound like a great thing to base a Rogue subclass on, don't they?

At any rate, my idea was basically to have a Warlock based spell progression with a subsystem tacked on to refresh the spells more often than a Short Rest to a limited extent for combat viability purposes. Namely by being Superiority Dice for spells. I'm thinking that d4 is a good dice size for it, with "wasted" dice based on spell range and spell area, as well as further restrictions based on subclass. From there, you could trade "mana dice" for spell slots at a ratio that requires five rounds to recover a spell slot, taking up a full "mana pool" to make just one slot.

As for balancing the practically infinite spells, the mana dice conversion would be the only way to recover slots, and the slots would not be able to be turned back into dice, while the classes would lack anything like Invocations to use for things. In addition, they'd have only Cantrips for non-dice, non-slot casting, with any Invocation like things being attached to the Dice. Gishes, naturally, would have slower progression without Cantrips in exchange for melee abilities that tie into the subsystem.

One way to set it up is to have the number of dice per round follow the Rogue Sneak Attack progression, because then you are starting off with a disadvantage on damage boosts, a very basic thing to use. From there, you need to number crunch average damage and healing values of various levels of spell of various types, then work your dice to spell conversion around that. I tried to calculate the average damage numbers, but Touch spells and spells with lengthy durations throw off the calculations. 3d10 damage on a 1st level spell is quite the outlier... My gut feeling is to have an assumed average of 8 for 1st level spells and an assumed average of 10 for 2nd level spells, as a start.

In terms of effects to add to cast spells and cantrips, adding damage of particular types, converting damage between types, having effects based on the dice like making a Trip or Disarm attempt with particular spells and so on is what I'm thinking of. The exact conversion between spells and dice could be having to roll above a needed number, or expending a bloated number of dice for a guaranteed slot refresh. For instance, you could use either 5 or 6 dice to automatically refresh a 1st level slot, or use less to refresh it if you roll above an 8, which is an 86.33% chance of success for four d4s and a 50% chance for three d4s, according to AnyDice. Have an automatic loss of one die for trying and you have a reasonable point to spending 5 for an automatic 1st level slot refresh.

So, what do you think of it? It looks fairly well balanced, for an outline, given that 5 dice gives a 1st level slot, where the dice have an average of 11.5 and the slot has an average around 8 or 9. What problems do you people see, and what kind of fixes would you suggest?

Morphic tide
2017-03-01, 01:12 PM
This is for a class or subclasses or anything I think of to display the subsystem in use. You may post immediately.

clash
2017-03-01, 01:32 PM
So I am having a hard time understand how this system works. Maybe an example would be useful. As for the average damage of spells I compiled a list here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?504641-Spell-damage-by-spell

Morphic tide
2017-03-01, 02:09 PM
So I am having a hard time understand how this system works. Maybe an example would be useful. As for the average damage of spells I compiled a list here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?504641-Spell-damage-by-spell

Basically, it's Superiority Dice for spellcasters that refresh by round, with the maximum number of dice in the pool being chosen to be close to the average damage of the maximum spell level castable. Actual spell slots would be based on the way Warlocks work, but not be the same as Warlocks for the sake of reaching 9th level spell slots.

As an example of the basic setup, the average damage of a 1st level spell is around 11 damage, so you'd have to roll above 11 to get a 1st level slot back. Or you can expend five or six dice to get it back automatically, without rolling, but this is the limit of what you have at level one.

Outside spell slots, it looks much like regular Superiority Dice, spending dice for effects. Only you use them to boost spells rather than attacks. And they have effects in accordance with that, along with being usable as a means of casting spells directly for lower level things.

Generally, the point is to have a setup for casters who are very close to perpetually useful without being past the normal DPR of the Martial classes, if they moderate their dice use. The spells are there to get up to the DPR bursts of Battlemaster Fighter, which means catching up with both Action Surge and Superiority Dice. Not hard, for spells, but keeping it all in line ends up as an issue.

The balance point really is keeping in line with existing DPR on classes with endless combat power like Rogue and Fighter, unlike the Nova focused DPR of existing casters. It gets weird to manage, when designing, but it'd be very easy to play compared to Wizards and Clerics, though the mass of dice rolling would get annoying, as would tracking the dice pool.