Freezy
2019-08-25, 06:42 AM
I am currently playing an archivist and this was my first time reading on the 3.5 rules for wizards and learning new spells.
It's a low magic campaign, so access to scrolls and spellcasters is scarse.
I was hoping that money + downtime = versatility.
There is a reference to researching new spells, which was both cheaper then any other source and had a negligible risk attached.
Thanks to Divine Inspiration, high intelligence and maxed ranks, the DC of 15+level of spell is just laughably low
It did not feel like the spells would be earned properly.
Expanding on the little amount of rules I found, I revamped the system to be both more exciting and less overpowering.
Making it a complex skill check, adding spell list restriction, explicit DM veto rights and enough DM influence to allow forbidden stuff again.
Using this research variant, existing spell research becomes a modified complex skill check.
There is some risk involved, which can be mitigated by being a higher level caster and through ranks in Spellcraft.
Research is time intensive, but it allows you to learn spells without a source and cheaper than paying another spellcaster for services or acquiring a scroll.
Costs might even be lowered further by the DM, as they see fit, for instance if you research a magic item, you might be able to gleam the inner workings of a spell used in its creation for half the cost. Or you could be granted access to spells normally not on your spell lists. Or adding survival, heal or spellcraft check to extract materials from creatures with spell-like abilities or magical properties.
For level 1 spells, the major downside on early levels is the risk of failure, the DC 20+ will prove a problem until the researcher gains access to at least 5 ranks in Spellcraft or a nice bump to Spellcraft checks.
At level 5 researching level 1 spells is already becoming a lot easier, but how many level 1 spells do you really need?
Making research expend spellslots just makes sense to me, as you are literally trying to cast a new spell.
Technically at higher levels you could spend more 8 hours cram sessions back-to-back because you can expend all those spell slots.
So here goes:
Spell Research
Pick a valid spell from a spell list that you have access to and could cast if you knew the spell.
Ask for DM Approval before you start your research, some exotic spells might be beyond the scope of your characters imagination.
Researching entirely new spells (homebrew or from spell lists you do not have access to) might result in failure might require higher DCs or more expensive research materials.
Your character should be able to gauge the likelihood of success in some way before investing a lot of resources and time into the research.
Spell Research steps:
- First spend twice the amount of what it would cost to have an NPC cast that spell on research materials (see D20 SRD rules)
- Succeed one Research Check for every level of the spell
- Once you succeeded all the checks, depending on how the relevant class learns new spells, you add the spell to your spells known, add it to a personal spell list or memorize it once when you regain spells for the day so you can write it into your spellbook.
Skill: Spellcraft - Research Check:
You keep track of each Spell Research separately, you can never use the effects of one research to influence another.
To make a research check you expend four spell slots as if you had cast the spell you are researching.
Special: if you do not have four slots available per day for the spell, you can instead expend all your spells for the day. This also leaves you exhausted at the end of the day.
Time: 8 hours of study
Spellcraft DC: 20 + level of spell
Aid Another: an single assistant can give use aid another to assist you in your Spellcraft checks.
Synergy:
The higher your spellcasting skills the more tolerance you have for failure. You may disregard the failure by adding another day of research, you may do so a limited number of times per research:
• once per 5 (appropriate) caster levels
• once for every 5 ranks you have in Spellcraft
If you suspend your research, you can resume the research at no additional cost as long as your materials remain undisturbed.
If your research was disturbed the DM might add additional fees or checks to reorganize or restock your research before you can resume.
For every day spent away from the research you will incur a -1 penalty (to a maximum of 5) to your next Spell Research check made to progress that specific research.
This penalty is removed if you gained a rank in Spellcraft or the DM grants you some token of insight relevant to your research.
Keep track of this penalty for every Spell Research you are pursuing.
If you are disturbed significantly during your 8 hours of research, your DM may require one or more concentration checks.
If you enter combat, treat your spellslots as if you had expended a quarter of the spellslots required every 2 hours, when you resume your research, if you can no longer expend the spell slots required, you treat the day as an automatic failure. If you were researching a higher level spell and were going to expend all your spellslots, using or losing even a single spellslot would result in a research failure. Wizards and Archivists stockpile offensive and defensive scrolls in their libraries for this very reason.
Research Feats
Here are some nice and fluffy feats for those archivists that do not want to delve into DMM cheese and find themselves with a feat slot or two.
Expeditious Researcher [Research]
Reduce the time it takes to study a scroll or make Research Check by half (4 hours).
Writing spells into a spell-book only takes you one hour per level of the spell (half for copying your own spellbook).
This feat can only be taken once.
Inspired Research [Research]
You may research spells that could be available to your class, as if you had access to the domains, feats or prestige classes offered by your deity.
Any spells that your research might gain access to in this manner could have their levels adjusted by your DM, check before you take this feat.
Special: this feat can be used by arcane spellcasters as well, but they must practice their religion (DM approval),
Eternal Student [Research]
Prerequisite: 1 other research feat, spellbook
At each level up you may add one additional spell to your spellbook for free, this spell must be an existing spell that you can research (you have access to it through a spell list) and it may be up to one level lower then the highest level spell you can cast.
Fieldwork Research [Research]
Prerequisite: must have successfully researched 5 spells
If you are researching a spell of a level for which you have at least four slots available, you may prepare the spell up to four times.
Casting these spells requires a Spellcraft check (DC 15+ level of spell) each time, this does not count as a Spell Research check.
Failure means the spell fails and the spellslot is expended.
You must successfully cast this spell twice before you rest to regain your spells for the next day, otherwise this counts as a failed Research Check.
If you succeed at least twice your efforts count as a successful Research Check.
If you expended all the slots of this spell but did not yet succeed twice, and you still have spell slot left of at least one spell level higher, you may cast the spell using that slot as if you had the spontaneous casting ability once per day. Doing so requires a DC 20+level of the spell, if you succeed casting this spell, count it as a success Research Check.
Dark Archivist [Research]
Prerequisite: Dark Knowledge class feature
When you interrupt a spell-like ability that is based on a spell available to you for research, you may expend one use of your dark knowledge to gain one Research Check success towards researching this spell.
This can be done even before you spend the required amount on research materials.
For a number of turns equal to your intelligence modifier you gain another successful research check if you fail a save versus the same spell-like ability or if you interrupt it again.
As an additional benefit.
You can now extract materials from creatures with spell-like abilities that mimic spells.
Extracting Research materials requires no skill checks.
The DM will assign a GP value to the materials extracted from such creatures.
Materials extracted can be used for arcane and divine spell research regardless of the source of the creatures power.
This requires the target creature to be either helpless or dead.
Doing so on a helpless creature requires a coup-de-grace.
Zealous Archivist
For every research feat you have, you gain one additional use of your Dark Knowledge per day.
You may also count Draconic Archivist and Archivist of Nature as [Research] feats for this purpose.
It's a low magic campaign, so access to scrolls and spellcasters is scarse.
I was hoping that money + downtime = versatility.
There is a reference to researching new spells, which was both cheaper then any other source and had a negligible risk attached.
Thanks to Divine Inspiration, high intelligence and maxed ranks, the DC of 15+level of spell is just laughably low
It did not feel like the spells would be earned properly.
Expanding on the little amount of rules I found, I revamped the system to be both more exciting and less overpowering.
Making it a complex skill check, adding spell list restriction, explicit DM veto rights and enough DM influence to allow forbidden stuff again.
Using this research variant, existing spell research becomes a modified complex skill check.
There is some risk involved, which can be mitigated by being a higher level caster and through ranks in Spellcraft.
Research is time intensive, but it allows you to learn spells without a source and cheaper than paying another spellcaster for services or acquiring a scroll.
Costs might even be lowered further by the DM, as they see fit, for instance if you research a magic item, you might be able to gleam the inner workings of a spell used in its creation for half the cost. Or you could be granted access to spells normally not on your spell lists. Or adding survival, heal or spellcraft check to extract materials from creatures with spell-like abilities or magical properties.
For level 1 spells, the major downside on early levels is the risk of failure, the DC 20+ will prove a problem until the researcher gains access to at least 5 ranks in Spellcraft or a nice bump to Spellcraft checks.
At level 5 researching level 1 spells is already becoming a lot easier, but how many level 1 spells do you really need?
Making research expend spellslots just makes sense to me, as you are literally trying to cast a new spell.
Technically at higher levels you could spend more 8 hours cram sessions back-to-back because you can expend all those spell slots.
So here goes:
Spell Research
Pick a valid spell from a spell list that you have access to and could cast if you knew the spell.
Ask for DM Approval before you start your research, some exotic spells might be beyond the scope of your characters imagination.
Researching entirely new spells (homebrew or from spell lists you do not have access to) might result in failure might require higher DCs or more expensive research materials.
Your character should be able to gauge the likelihood of success in some way before investing a lot of resources and time into the research.
Spell Research steps:
- First spend twice the amount of what it would cost to have an NPC cast that spell on research materials (see D20 SRD rules)
- Succeed one Research Check for every level of the spell
- Once you succeeded all the checks, depending on how the relevant class learns new spells, you add the spell to your spells known, add it to a personal spell list or memorize it once when you regain spells for the day so you can write it into your spellbook.
Skill: Spellcraft - Research Check:
You keep track of each Spell Research separately, you can never use the effects of one research to influence another.
To make a research check you expend four spell slots as if you had cast the spell you are researching.
Special: if you do not have four slots available per day for the spell, you can instead expend all your spells for the day. This also leaves you exhausted at the end of the day.
Time: 8 hours of study
Spellcraft DC: 20 + level of spell
Aid Another: an single assistant can give use aid another to assist you in your Spellcraft checks.
Synergy:
The higher your spellcasting skills the more tolerance you have for failure. You may disregard the failure by adding another day of research, you may do so a limited number of times per research:
• once per 5 (appropriate) caster levels
• once for every 5 ranks you have in Spellcraft
If you suspend your research, you can resume the research at no additional cost as long as your materials remain undisturbed.
If your research was disturbed the DM might add additional fees or checks to reorganize or restock your research before you can resume.
For every day spent away from the research you will incur a -1 penalty (to a maximum of 5) to your next Spell Research check made to progress that specific research.
This penalty is removed if you gained a rank in Spellcraft or the DM grants you some token of insight relevant to your research.
Keep track of this penalty for every Spell Research you are pursuing.
If you are disturbed significantly during your 8 hours of research, your DM may require one or more concentration checks.
If you enter combat, treat your spellslots as if you had expended a quarter of the spellslots required every 2 hours, when you resume your research, if you can no longer expend the spell slots required, you treat the day as an automatic failure. If you were researching a higher level spell and were going to expend all your spellslots, using or losing even a single spellslot would result in a research failure. Wizards and Archivists stockpile offensive and defensive scrolls in their libraries for this very reason.
Research Feats
Here are some nice and fluffy feats for those archivists that do not want to delve into DMM cheese and find themselves with a feat slot or two.
Expeditious Researcher [Research]
Reduce the time it takes to study a scroll or make Research Check by half (4 hours).
Writing spells into a spell-book only takes you one hour per level of the spell (half for copying your own spellbook).
This feat can only be taken once.
Inspired Research [Research]
You may research spells that could be available to your class, as if you had access to the domains, feats or prestige classes offered by your deity.
Any spells that your research might gain access to in this manner could have their levels adjusted by your DM, check before you take this feat.
Special: this feat can be used by arcane spellcasters as well, but they must practice their religion (DM approval),
Eternal Student [Research]
Prerequisite: 1 other research feat, spellbook
At each level up you may add one additional spell to your spellbook for free, this spell must be an existing spell that you can research (you have access to it through a spell list) and it may be up to one level lower then the highest level spell you can cast.
Fieldwork Research [Research]
Prerequisite: must have successfully researched 5 spells
If you are researching a spell of a level for which you have at least four slots available, you may prepare the spell up to four times.
Casting these spells requires a Spellcraft check (DC 15+ level of spell) each time, this does not count as a Spell Research check.
Failure means the spell fails and the spellslot is expended.
You must successfully cast this spell twice before you rest to regain your spells for the next day, otherwise this counts as a failed Research Check.
If you succeed at least twice your efforts count as a successful Research Check.
If you expended all the slots of this spell but did not yet succeed twice, and you still have spell slot left of at least one spell level higher, you may cast the spell using that slot as if you had the spontaneous casting ability once per day. Doing so requires a DC 20+level of the spell, if you succeed casting this spell, count it as a success Research Check.
Dark Archivist [Research]
Prerequisite: Dark Knowledge class feature
When you interrupt a spell-like ability that is based on a spell available to you for research, you may expend one use of your dark knowledge to gain one Research Check success towards researching this spell.
This can be done even before you spend the required amount on research materials.
For a number of turns equal to your intelligence modifier you gain another successful research check if you fail a save versus the same spell-like ability or if you interrupt it again.
As an additional benefit.
You can now extract materials from creatures with spell-like abilities that mimic spells.
Extracting Research materials requires no skill checks.
The DM will assign a GP value to the materials extracted from such creatures.
Materials extracted can be used for arcane and divine spell research regardless of the source of the creatures power.
This requires the target creature to be either helpless or dead.
Doing so on a helpless creature requires a coup-de-grace.
Zealous Archivist
For every research feat you have, you gain one additional use of your Dark Knowledge per day.
You may also count Draconic Archivist and Archivist of Nature as [Research] feats for this purpose.