Spellcasting Variant

[Avigor]

Instead of using slots, every spell causes a cooldown equal to the spell's normal casting time (rounded up to the nearest full round) * the spell level (including metamagic effects) - 1 round, during which other spells cannot be cast. For example, if you cast a magic missile, you can cast it again the following round, while casting acid arrow forces you to wait 1 round before you can cast another spell.

You cannot cast a spell of an effective level higher than your class would normally have slots based on your effective spells per day level (albeit metamagic workarounds still apply).

Quickened spells, time stop, and similar effects designed to allow multiple spells to be cast within the same round still allow more than one spell to be cast in the same round, but if this is done the cooldown becomes the total of all spells cast stacked together.

Command word, spell completion, and spell trigger magic items that replicate spells use this same cool-down, in addition to any cost in item charges. Spell-like and supernatural abilities that replicate spells and do not already specify a different cool-down (such as specifying it can be used again after 1d4 rounds or such) also use this same cool-down instead of whatever uses per day they used before this variant was put into effect. Abilities or items that don't replicate a specific spell will not be effected by this variant.

You can only have a number of effects which persists after casting (such as summons, polymorphing, explosive runes, etc, but not including the results of magic item creation feats) equal to your casting ability bonus (minimum 0).

Spellcasters that normally must prepare their spells each day instead of casting spontaneously must choose a number of spells of any level equal to their effective spells per day level + their spellcasting ability bonus (minimum 0) each day when they would normally prepare their spells; all spells cast over the course of the day are chosen from this list. If you are a prepared caster with a spontaneous conversion mechanic (such as a wizard with spontaneous divination or the UA Conjurer variant, or a cleric with spontaneous cure/inflict), those spells are added as bonus prepared spells that don't count towards your limit.

Versatile Spellcaster can be taken by anyone, but cannot be used to cast spells above your spells per day level's normal limit.


What do you think? The idea was to reduce the "linear fighter, quadratic wizard" effect.
EDIT: Changed the persistent limiter, added a prepared vs spontaneous distinguisher I'd forgotten to apply earlier, and added a caveat in case existing abilities already had cool-downs instead of per-day uses. Yes I'm using the 5e spells prepared system now.
Another Edit: Broke down and applied the -1 to the cooldown, also added in spontaneous conversion; otherwise some minor rewording and reorganization.

[noob]

So the more everburning torches I create the more I must wait between castings?(until they get dissipated)
Then I would probably ask way more money when selling an everburning torch: I am lengthening a lot all my cooldowns by having an everburning torch active.
(I mean if I make 10 everburning torches then that I cast magic missile I have a cooldown of 10 rounds instead of 1)
so if that spellcasting variant is implemented then the cost of everburning torches would be probably of a few thousand gps instead of 110 gp.(because if I am crippling by spellcasing for my whole life I want a good return especially since I am able to cast level 3 spells if I can make an everburning torch)
also if I cast a fireball spell and that it kills an opponent I lengthen the cool-down of my spells until that opponent is resurrected("
Any effect which persists after casting " does not seems to exclude "the opponent have been killed") Similarly if I resurrect someone the cool-down of my spells is lengthened until that person die again.
And If I have the bad idea to cast iron wall I will forever have lengthened cool-downs since I increased the amount of matter in the universe.

So I guess the main effect is that people would play an artificer to avoid the whole "cooldowns increased forever" problem(it would be some hirelings which would suffer from the definitively increased cooldown)

[clash]

This is from 5e so it will need some adjusting but I use the basic idea for that here in the battlemage http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500635-Battlemage-New-Base-Class

[jqavins]

So the more everburning torches I create the more I must wait between castings?... And If I have the bad idea to cast iron wall I will forever have lengthened cool-downs since I increased the amount of matter in the universe.
Let's assume that "lasting effect" means within the duration of the spell, i.e. the magic is still active. Dispel Magic won't drop someone who's been resurrected. But for everburning torches you're right. I like to cast Continual Light on small objects like copper pieces or pebbles to use for various purposes.

So, if my party members carry, between us, three lanterns with my Continual Light pebbles in place of their wicks, and I've got two more in my pack to fling down dark corridors, that's five. Entering the black dragon's cave, I kick off combat with a fireball. I now have a 15 round cooldown during which I am either twiddling my thumbs or feebly attempting to hit the dragon with sling bolts. By the time I can cast another spell, the combat is long over (and since I was virtually no help, the dragon is probably munching on the party's bones.)


What do you think? The idea was to reduce the "linear fighter, quadratic wizard" effect.
I think you've achieved "linear fighter, linear over 10 wizard."

[Goaty14]

What do you think? The idea was to reduce the "linear fighter, quadratic wizard" effect.

This just reduces their effectiveness by Tons. Also it doesn't really impact T1s out of combat, given that rounds aren't typically measured at that time. I would change this to instead expend something else than rounds (like I dunno, hit points?), or nerf how many rounds in between.

I would just restrict the # of spells they can prepare per day according to the spontaneous version. Therefore wizards wouldn't prepare as many slots as the sorcerer , but he could change which ones are prepared of utility.

[Avigor]

This just reduces their effectiveness by Tons. Also it doesn't really impact T1s out of combat, given that rounds aren't typically measured at that time. I would change this to instead expend something else than rounds (like I dunno, hit points?), or nerf how many rounds in between.

I would just restrict the # of spells they can prepare per day according to the spontaneous version. Therefore wizards wouldn't prepare as many slots as the sorcerer , but he could change which ones are prepared of utility.

Okay, modified it a little to distinguish prepared vs spontaneous and change the persistent effect rule. If I nerf the rounds between spells, it'll be by -1, so level 1 spells can be cast every round, level 2 spells give you 1 round of no magic, level 3 spells give you 2 rounds of no magic, etc... and maybe to allow a feat that damages you in order to reduce this gap, quite possibly while reducing your CL at the same time...
EDIT: Okay, broke down and added the -1 to the delay.

[Morphic tide]

This works fairly well with one additional clause, and removing the "continual effect" clause. The extra clause being to put a limit to how many spells are able to be cast at a time. So you could launch off 10 9th level spells, but then you have to wait for one of those cooldowns to finish before you can cast anything again. I'd have it be 1/2 caster level + casting modifier

And don't bring this to Psionics directly. Make it so Psionics has constant PP regeneration that accomplishes the same effect and cut down their PP pool to have the same end result as the spellcasters. This is mainly because wording around Augmentation is a pain in the ass.

[Avigor]

This works fairly well with one additional clause, and removing the "continual effect" clause. The extra clause being to put a limit to how many spells are able to be cast at a time. So you could launch off 10 9th level spells, but then you have to wait for one of those cooldowns to finish before you can cast anything again. I'd have it be 1/2 caster level + casting modifier

You mean to say, allow multiple spells before the cool-down starts without requiring investment in something like quicken spell, while removing the clause intended to prevent one plastering ridiculous numbers of trap spells or long-duration buffs all over everything in sight while summoning an army every day? That would kind of defeat the point of the variant... I might be tempted to add the spells per day level (or more likely half of that) to the continuous effect limit, but I wouldn't want to remove it.

[Morphic tide]

You mean to say, allow multiple spells before the cool-down starts without requiring investment in something like quicken spell, while removing the clause intended to prevent one plastering ridiculous numbers of trap spells or long-duration buffs all over everything in sight while summoning an army every day? That would kind of defeat the point of the variant... I might be tempted to add the spells per day level (or more likely half of that) to the continuous effect limit, but I wouldn't want to remove it.

It's not quite that. It's having multiple cooldowns to work with. The cooldowns still exist, but are split up. I'd extend the baseline cooldown to 1 minute per spell level, so that you aren't getting cooldowns in-combat to any meaningful extent, and it's easy enough to track in combat for lower-level effects.

A compromise would be to have the extended cooldowns count as a spell level modifier and have them contribue half their normal cooldown/spell level. This results in a cap of 6 Glyphs of Warding per cooldown slot, when you have 9th level spells. If you have a cooldown slot every two levels, you have a fundamental maximum of 59 Explosive Runes before you can't cast any more of them. If you're going for spell glyphs, then you have a maximum of 56 of 3rd level or 2nd level, or 58 of 1st level, as you need to have two available slots to make a Spell Glyph. Impressive, yes, but not permanently game shattering

This means that you have a good capacity to make an impressive number of traps, but it eats up spell slots fairly quickly. A clause would have to be added to have Permanent effects not count towards ongoing effects because such things have impressive problems with getting rid of them. An alternative to giving Permanent effects a pass would be to put in a modifier of some kind to make low-level ongoing effects do nothing to your cooldown.

With full-cooldown contribution, you get a much more reasonable set of limits. For instance, Shapechange fully burns out a cooldown slot until it ends, which makes sense given that it lets you change form each round for up to three hours the level after you are first able to cast it. You end up with a limit of 3 Glyphs of Warding per slot, with a cap of 29 no matter what you do.

[Jormengand]

I believe you have just reinvented the wheel, or rather, the recharge magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargeMagic.htm) system. It's generally considered to make spellcasters stronger by negating (or at least downsizing) the drawback of spellcasters. In this case, it just means that spellcasters have to try their damnedest to end fights in one round, which is largely what they were doing anyway. At first and second level, it makes completely no difference except that they have infinite spells/day; at third and fourth it encourages you to use your second-level spells only as finishers or if you know that you're better off with one second-level spell and one crossbow bolt than two first-level spells.

At fifth and sixth levels you start to have to kill the encounter in one third-level spell or use your firsts powerfully; fortunately burning hands still does more damage than most of your other party members (burning hands against two opponents: 10d4=25; greatsword: 2d6+8=15). Alternatively, if you can predict when combat will start, you can Summon Monster III long enough before combat for the cooldown to expire but not the effect. Seventh level is when your ability to have Quickened Spells becomes a thing, for when you absolutely, positively need an extra 1d3 damage strapped to your finishing attack, but you should probably save that for 9th where the extra 17.5 damage that a magic missile spell deals (or the extra 31.5 damage that chill touch does if you're a cheese-weasel with a rules compendium) is actually relevant. Of course, if you can get your hands on easy and practical metamagic, then you could always quicken a third and cast a fifth in one round (practical metamagic on a wizard is hard but there are workarounds).

At seventeenth level, of course, the standard tactics of delayed blast fireballs inside nested time stops applies, and while it will stop you from casting for a while, it will hardly ruin your day (Say you need to land 5 DBFs, you'll end up cooling down for 53 rounds, which is 5 minutes 18 seconds, probably how long you'll spend looting anyway). Best of all, it doesn't cost you two ninth- and 5 seventh-level spell slots that you would have missed.

This falls foul of Grod's Law quite significantly: you cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use. See how it makes low-OP tactics (Meteor swarm to the face) even less effective, and high-OP tactics (screwing about with time stops) even more effective?