Change to concentration

[Galithar]

So with a new campaign coming up I'm reviewing houserules and looking for ways to make the game more enjoyable for me and my players. Today's topic is concentration, what is it good for?

I'll start with my personal view on what I do and don't like about concentration.

Pros:
It keeps casters from dominating combat.
Surprise is already dangerous enough without the opposing side having had the chance to put up 20 buffs.
Powerful spell combos get restricted to multiple casters, promoting teamwork.

Cons:
Support casting is strictly limited.
Concentration is inconsistent. Why does Mordenkainen's Sword use it, but Spiritual Weapon doesn't?

Now, I both like and dislike concentration as a mechanic and want to lower the cons section without taking away from the Pros.

The idea. Spells that require concentration, but have the sole purpose of buffing an ally, now require "focus" instead. When you focus on a spell you must make concentration saving throws as if you were concentrating on a spell. The spell ends on a failure. A creature may only be effected by one spell that you are focusing on at a time. You may also concentrate on a spell as normal.

What this does is allow you to buff multiple people in a party, but can't make anyone of them into Superman by stacking buffs on them.

Pros:
The intent is to aid support casters in doing more. This does that.
Casters become both more valuable, but more vulnerable. A single concentration save failure can knock out all of your buffs.

Cons:
Having buffs up on the whole party before combat was not an intended possibility, but at least they can't stack them.

This is just my rough draft, so it may need refinement (or completely abandoned).

I am aware this ups the overall effectiveness of casters, a group that honestly probably doesn't need it, but they do so by making OTHERS more powerful so they are less likely to steal the show.
What does the Playground think?

[sithlordnergal]

Mmmm, I think the two biggest issues you'll need to worry about are these:

1) What do you consider to be solely a buff spell? Does Haste require Focus? How about Crusader's Mantle? Is it restricted to single target spells, or can you use multi-target buff spells like Bless with this system?

2) The Sorcerer's Twin Spell could be surprisingly potent with this. You could Haste two people, then cast another on-going effect.

Honestly, this is a decent idea, but I feel it would add unneeded complexity to the game.

[Galithar]

Mmmm, I think the two biggest issues you'll need to worry about are these:

1) What do you consider to be solely a buff spell? Does Haste require Focus? How about Crusader's Mantle? Is it restricted to single target spells, or can you use multi-target buff spells like Bless with this system?

2) The Sorcerer's Twin Spell could be surprisingly potent with this. You could Haste two people, then cast another on-going effect.

Honestly, this is a decent idea, but I feel it would add unneeded complexity to the game.

1. Any spell that is a buff. Multi-target spells count for this, but any creature affected by it would count as having a focus spell on it. So you couldn't Bless and Haste someone. Crusader's Mantle brings up a good point though. Self targeting and/or Aura spells may need to be limited. I'll have to look into how many of these there are and address it. Since it's a houserules I may just adjudicate it on a case by case basis. I generally have my players give me updated character sheets on level up so that I can keep track of their power. It helps me judge what an appropriate encounter is it I know what they are capable of so I could address many of these issues before they got to the table, allowing them to modify selections if things end up not working how they anticipated.

2. Sorcerers twin is already pretty potent, this would only boost them equal to what everyone else gets. In other words they maintain their position as one of the best, if not the best buffer, but I don't think it ventures into broken territory. After all they are spending a limited resource to get that effect, they deserve it to be potent.

As for complexity I'm not worried about it in the slightest. 5e is bordering on oversimplified in many ways. I don't necessarily want to go back to having to add up 20 different +1 modifiers or anything, but a new kind of spell that is easily distinguished doesn't add that much complexity. It's not like characters have 10+ things to track during a combat. So, yes, it adds complexity, but I disagree that it is unneeded. It would allow a lot of buff spells that rarely see use to have a purpose because they no longer stop you from using your highly effective spell. Of course every table is different and this very well may be too much complexity for some people. It's just not a personal concern of mine.

[DeTess]

On the complexity-side, if i were to run this rule in my own group I'd worry about players forgetting about rolling for their focus spells. Some already forget about concentration sometimes, and this'd add even more on top of that.

Maybe another way to do this without loading all the extra complexity on the casters would be 'If you cast a concentration spell targeting one or more allies, one of those allies can choose to count as concentrating on the spell instead.'

[Galithar]

On the complexity-side, if i were to run this rule in my own group I'd worry about players forgetting about rolling for their focus spells. Some already forget about concentration sometimes, and this'd add even more on top of that.

Maybe another way to do this without loading all the extra complexity on the casters would be 'If you cast a concentration spell targeting one or more allies, one of those allies can choose to count as concentrating on the spell instead.'

We use condition rings, including for concentration, so remembering is less of an issue for us. Also, on passing the concentration to another creature I feel that opens up room for way more issues. The Wizard with 10 con can buff the Paladin and have him concentrate with his 18 Con and Warcaster? The Wizards spell is interrupted when the Rogue gets hit? This also would prevent the Wizard from buffing the Cleric that cast Spirit Guardians without losing his ability to cast Wall of Force. Which is specifically what I'm trying to allow.

Thank you for the input regardless though. I just don't think it would be relevant for my table. It's a good alternative for someone else looking to alter concentration, but that maybe has issues with increased complexity.