Making Each Spellcaster Class Unique

[Jon talks a lot]

Disclaimer: This is not meant as a suggestion for all games. Just a modification to the game for my homebrew world.

Artificer: INT Spellcaster
Stays the same.

Bard: CHA
All spells have only verbal components. All spells can be ritual cast. To compensate, their spell list contains no damaging spells.

Cleric: WIS
Only uses spellcasting focus for material components. All spells require material components.

Druid: WIS
Spells only require somatic components.

Paladin: WIS
Only spells they can cast are oath spells. To compensate, they get their subclass at level 2 and the oath spell lists are expanded. Their spells require no components. All paladin features relying on CHA are now changed to WIS

Ranger: WIS
Uses weapon as spellcasting focus.

Sorcerer: CHA
Uses the spell points variant rule. Spells only require verbal components.

Warlock: INT or CHA
Player now chooses INT or CHA as spellcasting modifier at level 1.

Wizard: INT
Stays the same.

[Segev]

I admit I don't get why druids would have somatic-only, and you'll want to watch out for any spells with expensive material components becoming too powerful.

Bards getting everything as ritual spells is probably going to break a lot of things. Be very careful with that.

[sayaijin]

Bards getting everything as ritual spells is probably going to break a lot of things. Be very careful with that.

Especially with magical secrets.

[togapika]

Cleric: WIS
Only uses spellcasting focus for material components. All spells require material components.


So resurrections doesn't require 1k worth of diamonds?

[PhantomSoul]

And subtle spell (assuming it still exists) just got one whopper of a boost (for those it isn't now useless for).

[Jon talks a lot]

Especially with magical secrets.

Magical secrets is a curated list of spells for this game. Sorry for confusion!

[Sorinth]

Since V, S, M isn't something that comes up all that often to begin with I'm not sure playing around with that stuff would make the classes all that unique.

I would think the easiest way of making the classes more unique is to have less sharing of spells in their class lists so that there are more unique to a specific class spell. Making those unique spells tend towards being the stronger spells for that level would also keep them a bit more distinct.

For the more complex option where classes are re-done to be really unique.

Wizards - Everything can be cast as a ritual, however the time required for the ritual gets higher and higher every level. So 1min for a 1st level spell but something like 24+ hours for higher level spells.

Bards - Casting spells is very hard to distinguish from regular music, generally Insight vs Deception to notice that it's a spell. So the Bard humming, or playing a ditty on their instrument might be a spell or might not. Additionally they can attempt to cast quietly by doing things such as tapping out the beat with their foot, or humming at a whisper level. Generally this would mean a Perception check for someone to notice, but still wouldn't know if a spell was actually being cast without the Insight check.

Sorcerers - Can use Hit Dice to regain Sorcery Points (Probably not at 1:1)

Clerics - Can regain spell slots if spending a SR in prayer. Similar to Arcane Recovery but recovering less spells but not limited to once a day. This puts them somewhere between being a full SR caster and a LR caster.

Warlock - Mostly fine, I would probably just add a few more spell based invocations and change the ones that require spending a spell slot (E.g Thief of Five Fates) to not require spending the spell slot.

Artificer - Probably fine as is

Druid - Have them use Pact Magic instead of regular spell casting and create a list of Druidic themed invocations. I'd probably also bump the number of wildshapes to be equal to Proficiency bonus, as some invocations would probably call for spending a wildshape use to produce something cool.

Not sure about the Half/Third casters, leaving them as is probably fine beyond fixing some Ranger spells so that they are actually useful.

[Jon talks a lot]

Druid - Have them use Pact Magic instead of regular spell casting and create a list of Druidic themed invocations. I'd probably also bump the number of wildshapes to be equal to Proficiency bonus, as some invocations would probably call for spending a wildshape use to produce something cool.



I actually love this. I hadn't thought of it at all before.

[Amnestic]

Artificers shouldn't need V components. If I toss my vial of explosive flame at an enemy (fireball spell) what's the V component involved? Yelling "yeah, burn 'em! burn 'em good!" to reinforce my alchemical mixture's self-esteem?

[Jon talks a lot]

Artificers shouldn't need V components. If I toss my vial of explosive flame at an enemy (fireball spell) what's the V component involved? Yelling "yeah, burn 'em! burn 'em good!" to reinforce my alchemical mixture's self-esteem?

Also a good point.

[quindraco]

Warlocks getting to choose their spellcasting ability modifier requires a lot of maintenance on other abilities to render generic, from multiclassing to agonizing blast. Paladins are a particularly odd duck, here. I think we can do better.

Assuming we accept that a half-caster is intrinsically distinct from a full-caster, as you tacitly did by leaving Artificers and Wizards alone, but that choice of modifier does not qualify for distinctness, which your list of abilities also implies (you put work into distinguishing Druid from Cleric), and neither does known vs prepared (i.e. Rangers and Paladins need to be rendered meaningfully distinct from each other), and neither does having a distinct spell list, here's what needs to be done:

Arcane Trickster vs Eldritch Knight
Artificer vs Ranger vs Paladin
Bard vs Cleric vs Druid vs Sorcerer vs Wizard

(Warlocks should be intrinsically unique - their progression is as inherently different from everyone else as a half-caster's is distinct from a full caster's).

Universal rule for below: any caster can modify any of their spells to require their relevant focus, much like Artificers can.

Full Caster Distinctness:

Bard (Charisma, Known): A bard can make a Charisma (Performance) check as part of casting any spell, opposing the Wisdom (Insight) of an observer. If the bard wins, the observer does not know a spell is being cast - any Verbal or Somatic components are incorporated into an apparent music performance. This requires the use of a musical instrument as an arcane focus for the spell, and does not work for any spell requiring an M component beyond the focus unless the component goes unobserved.
Cleric (Wisdom, Prepared): Already unique - can wear their holy symbol or bear it on a shield. If you want more, let martial weapon domains bear their symbol on their weapon, and heavy armor domains on their armor.
Druid (Wisdom, Prepared): Can cast spells in Druidic. This works like the Bard ability, but instead of rolling performance vs insight, an observer who speaks Druidic succeeds automatically, and one who does not rolls Wisdom (Perception) against DC 15, as for realizing a message in Druidic is a message.
Sorcerer (Charisma, Known): When a Sorcerer applies any metamagic option to a spell, their body can serve as an arcane focus for the spell, which they do not have to hold.
Wizard (Intelligence, Prepared): Already unique - Preparedness is nerfed by needing to acquire spells in-world.

Half Caster Distinctness:

Artificer: Already unique - any infusion can be a focus.
Paladin (Charisma, Prepared): As Cleric; if Clerics can bear their symbol on their weapons or armor, Paladins can do both.
Ranger (Wisdom, Known): As Sorcerer, but instead of requiring metamagic, it requires the spell to be cast targeting a favored enemy or favored foe, or to be cast while in favored terrain.

Third Caster Distinctness:

Arcane Trickster: Arcane Tricksters can use Thieves' Tools as Arcane Foci (like an Artificer, but much more limited). If they have a Mage Hand out, they can consume both their action and their bonus action simultaneously to perform the S component of a spell with the Mage Hand.
Eldritch Knight: Eldritch Knights can use their bonded weapons as Arcane Foci.

[stoutstien]

Artificers shouldn't need V components. If I toss my vial of explosive flame at an enemy (fireball spell) what's the V component involved? Yelling "yeah, burn 'em! burn 'em good!" to reinforce my alchemical mixture's self-esteem?

Agreed. My personal change was to make them full prepared casters using the spell point system but remove all components other than the mandatory material one.

[LudicSavant]

One from one of my settings: The reason only Druids speak Druidic is because learning Druidic *makes* you a Druid, and speaking it lets you cast Druid spells. In fact, you can’t even speak it with Tongues.

Druidic is unlike normal human tongues. It is the natural language of the world, the means by which one communes with the earth. It is written in arrangements of nature — the arrangement of stones in a druid circle can communicate a message. Faerie circles and the like are messages in Druidic. And other messages... well, a grove might tell an entire story invisible to a normal person. And the mountains may speak.

[Osuniev]

One from one of my settings: The reason only Druids speak Druidic is because learning Druidic *makes* you a Druid, and speaking it lets you cast Druid spells. In fact, you can’t even speak it with Tongues.

Druidic is unlike normal human tongues. It is the natural language of the world, the means by which one communes with the earth. It is written in arrangements of nature — the arrangement of stones in a druid circle can communicate a message. Faerie circles and the like are messages in Druidic. And other messages... well, a grove might tell an entire story invisible to a normal person. And the mountains may speak.

As always, LudicSavant, while your expertise on the crunch of the game is obvious, to me it's the way you give fluff a flavour that I love; Every little detail like this is a golden nugget. Whenever you've got time, I'm still hoping for more on your pantheons... My players loved your lore on Lolth so much that our new campaign is centered around her...

[Osuniev]

Bard: CHA
All spells have only verbal components. All spells can be ritual cast. To compensate, their spell list contains no damaging spells.


This makes Bard **extremely** powerful, although my vision might be skewed because I play Gritty Realism and my spellcasters never have spell slots they dont care about. If your campaign routinely has spellcaster with plenty of spell slots, this might be all right.

Ritually casting Polymorph ALL the time, for example...
Ritually casting Sending, Detect Toughts, Locate Object, Locate Person, Legend Lore, Geas... All have the potential to break the campaign.

[KorvinStarmast]

Disclaimer: This is not meant as a suggestion for all games. Just a modification to the game for my homebrew world.
Interesting idea, but too fiddly for me.

My next campaign is as follows: the only arcane full caster class allowed is Warlock. (No Hexblade, still banned at my table) Archfey, GOO, Fiend, Celestial, Genie, Deeps are all good.

There's been a purge of wizards and all of the "academies" have been burned to the ground. (Think Luddites, but vis a vis arcane magic). Artificers have been lynched and hugn up in stocks, then beheaded. Their guilds disbanded/burned.
All of those magic items wreaked havoc on the world, yadda yadda, more Luddites ascendant ...

Sorcerers have been hunted down and killed. (Kind of like the Robert Jordan Whitecloaks gone mad, Wheel of Time thing)

No Cleric PCs: but the MM and Volo's NPC clerics are around.

Yes Paladins. Yes Rangers. Yes Druids.
(Still not sure if I am going to say yes or no to Moon Druids. So far, yes)

EKs and ATs can choose from Bard or Wizard spell lists.

All of a sudden, four elements monks begin to look attractive.:smallbiggrin: (I am cutting ki costs and making all disciplines be available).

I am still working on expanding, slightly, the Mystic Arcanum feature of Warlocks too but that's Tier 3 and if we ever get started I'll have time to make an adjustment. There are a few key spells I want to add to that warlock feature, and I am leaning hard toward "change Mystic Arcanum spell if desired on a long rest" which is inspired by some of Tasha's PC options.

Have not gone final yet.

Oh, and one last item: any spell in the PHB or Xanathar's might be findable on a scroll. As treasure, and can be cast by anyone with spell casting ability, with a chance of failure. (DC spell level yadda yadda yadda)
Failure causes a roll on the wild magic table.

Magic is both rare and dangerous.

[Sorinth]

This makes Bard **extremely** powerful, although my vision might be skewed because I play Gritty Realism and my spellcasters never have spell slots they dont care about. If your campaign routinely has spellcaster with plenty of spell slots, this might be all right.

Ritually casting Polymorph ALL the time, for example...
Ritually casting Sending, Detect Toughts, Locate Object, Locate Person, Legend Lore, Geas... All have the potential to break the campaign.

It can be balanced somewhat by requiring much longer rituals. I've been playing around with the idea of wizards being able to ritually cast any spell but the ritual time is based on level. It would start at 1min for 1st level spells but ramp up pretty quickly into the hour plus ranges. So say 1hr to cast Sending doesn't, 4hrs to cast Polymorph, etc...

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Disclaimer: This is not meant as a suggestion for all games. Just a modification to the game for my homebrew world.

Artificer: INT Spellcaster
Stays the same.

Bard: CHA
All spells have only verbal components. All spells can be ritual cast. To compensate, their spell list contains no damaging spells.

Cleric: WIS
Only uses spellcasting focus for material components. All spells require material components.

Druid: WIS
Spells only require somatic components.

Paladin: WIS
Only spells they can cast are oath spells. To compensate, they get their subclass at level 2 and the oath spell lists are expanded. Their spells require no components. All paladin features relying on CHA are now changed to WIS

Ranger: WIS
Uses weapon as spellcasting focus.

Sorcerer: CHA
Uses the spell points variant rule. Spells only require verbal components.

Warlock: INT or CHA
Player now chooses INT or CHA as spellcasting modifier at level 1.

Wizard: INT
Stays the same.

I think to make each mage class unique, you need to give them each their own unique mechanics, like say for example, giving the Wizard some feature that shows they're intelligent... Such as the ability to drone on about their knowledge and "bore enemies to death" or use that same sort of feature to help others with Int based skills.

As it is now, Wizards are so bland even with their subclass and spells.

[Dr. Cliché]

Druid - Have them use Pact Magic instead of regular spell casting and create a list of Druidic themed invocations. I'd probably also bump the number of wildshapes to be equal to Proficiency bonus, as some invocations would probably call for spending a wildshape use to produce something cool.

Seconding this as being a great idea.

One suggestion, though - might it make more sense to give them an ability like Channel Divinity instead of Wild Shape?

Beast druids can use their 'Channel Druidity' to Wild Shape, as now, but other Druids would have more appropriate uses for their Channel Druidity.


Not a huge thing but would allow Wild Shape to be more focussed and would also allow other Druids to have a more thematic ability, rather than some only being able to turn into animals even when it really doesn't fit their themes at all.

[Sorinth]

Seconding this as being a great idea.

One suggestion, though - might it make more sense to give them an ability like Channel Divinity instead of Wild Shape?

Beast druids can use their 'Channel Druidity' to Wild Shape, as now, but other Druids would have more appropriate uses for their Channel Druidity.


Not a huge thing but would allow Wild Shape to be more focussed and would also allow other Druids to have a more thematic ability, rather than some only being able to turn into animals even when it really doesn't fit their themes at all.

Theme wise it's no different then the current situation where all druids have Wildshape, and some can spend that wildshape to do something more on theme. But sure if modelled after Warlock there could be a "Pact of the ..." style selection where they choose between Beast which wildshapes and some other options. And then make the enhanced combat stuff from Moon druid and make them invocation if you chose the Beast path. But what would those other thematic paths be as Druid wildshaping is something that is part of the D&D brand for druids.

It's also worth noting, by going Pact Magic there would need to be some cantrip boosting abilities somewhere since like the Warlock there aren't enough slots to use leveled spells all the time. The combat wildshape is already a good substitute for those that want to melee, but there needs to be something for the backline Druid as well.