Spell points or MP does it make you stronger or weaker?

[zalmatra]

i have looked through the spell points system and it gives you much greater flexibility in spells casted a day although it diminishes sorcs and bards although not entirely since they get the most spell points.

the one thing that caught my eye is that at the cost of more flexibility, you are giving up alot of spells casted per day. the uber powerful cleric that stacks 6 different spells in a cheese way can do it, at the expense of losing almost all spell points and no heals left

what are your thoughts on this

[Optimystik]

Wizards get a huge benefit - they only have to prepare one copy of a spell that they need, and then they can cast it as often as they have points to do so. This frees them from having to guess how many of a given spell they need each day, yet they retain their twin advantages of unlimited spells known and earlier progression over sorcerers.

There are a couple of drawbacks however. The first is that, while wizards have to manually augment to improve their blasting spells (like Psions do), Psions have better augments for their powers: boosting save DC, duration, size category, including additional creature types etc. A blaster wizard can end up spending the same amount of points as a higher level spell, but not getting the higher DC to go with it like a Psion would. So blaster wizards become less effective.

The second is optional, but is a good idea for the DM to include to compensate for the increased flexibility of the system. The Vitalizing Variant applies penalties based on the percentage of spell points remaining to the casters - typically fatigued/exhausted, but they can be anything. Since psionic classes have to pay for emptying their points by no longer being able to psionically focus and/or power many of their feats and items, a similar penalty might be useful for spell point arcane/divine casters.

[Fouredged Sword]

Batman is even more batman. Wizards get a huge power boost they really don't need.

[Tyndmyr]

There are a couple of drawbacks however. The first is that, while wizards have to manually augment to improve their blasting spells (like Psions do), Psions have better augments for their powers: boosting save DC, duration, size category, including additional creature types etc. A blaster wizard can end up spending the same amount of points as a higher level spell, but not getting the higher DC to go with it like a Psion would. So blaster wizards become less effective.

Why blast with spells that allow saves?

Spell points also offers another significant bonus that is often overlooked. All metamagic is now spont applied. This means you use your lower slots to prepare interesting things you want to MM up crazily, and can still keep your high slots used for high level spells. Fantastic flexibility, and you've got all the bennies of a sorc.

[Eloel]

It also encourages 10 minute work day, as 'going nova' is easier.