Alternate Spell Systems?

[Enix18]

So, I've been working on a character for a D&D game that my new DM is about to start up, but I've run into a frustrating snag: there is a great disparity between my character concept and what my character is actually capable of, mechanically speaking.

Unfortunately, D&D's Vancian magic system just doesn't work for the character I'm trying to build. Now, my DM is a big fan of the concept I've come up with (essentially, a very flexible spontaneous caster with some self-imposed restrictions) and he's more than willing to try and find a way around this hindrance. We really don't want to have to try and rewrite the rules ourselves, though, so I've been trying to find an alternative spellcasting system that could easily be substituted into the game.

My first attempt was Guardians of Order's "Advanced d20 Magic" which, despite looking very promising, turned out just to be a very poorly thought out port of some magic variant rules for d20 BESM. Currently, I'm at a loss for where to look next, so I came to consult the playground.

Do any of you folks know of a workable alternative d20 magic system that I could consider?

[Reynard]

D&D's Psionics. The system is rather different to Vancian, based off of Power Points (mana for all intents and purposes) rather than spell slots.

The mostly-fluffless classes are on the SRD, change that to arcane and you're good to go.

[Glimbur]

What is the concept?

If endurance is the issue, Warlocks and Incarnates don't run out of juice. If, as the ninja mentions, you want non-vancian but still limited, psionics is worth considering. Binders are cool and kind of magical, I guess. Truenamers... we don't talk about them positively.

[DragoonWraith]

There was a really cool adaptation of Tome of Battle's rules for spells on the Homebrew forums at one point; you might consider that.

[Enix18]

Actually, I think Reynard's idea would work pretty well. It's so simple, yet it seems to offer a good deal of flexibility and versatility. My DM and I are probably going to make some minor tweaks, but overall I think using the psionics rules will work.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

[Tetrasodium]

if you find a copy of the slayers d20 book, magic is handled in a rather interesting & different manner. Basically you make a fort save & spellcraft check based on the DC of the spell & it will work/not work/hit you (if you fail bad enough) with some non-lethal damage depending on how well you do on them.

[dsmiles]

if you find a copy of the slayers d20 book, magic is handled in a rather interesting & different manner. Basically you make a fort save & spellcraft check based on the DC of the spell & it will work/not work/hit you (if you fail bad enough) with some non-lethal damage depending on how well you do on them.

+1! I swapped all of the 'standard' DnD magic systems for the The Slayers d20 magic system in my 3.5 campaign world. You'llreally have to make some changes, though. That magic system makes saving against a spell (as a target) very difficult.

[panaikhan]

2.x 'options & powers' (or whatever the books were called) gave a point pool system for spellcasters.
If you can find it, it might be easily adaptable.

[Tyndmyr]

D&D's Psionics. The system is rather different to Vancian, based off of Power Points (mana for all intents and purposes) rather than spell slots.

The mostly-fluffless classes are on the SRD, change that to arcane and you're good to go.

This is basically the spell point system from Unearthed arcana. It suffers from a few problems, such as making spont casting classes entirely irrelevant, and making novaing high level spells much more viable.

It also has a few wierd interactions that allow you to break the game entirely in half. For instance, a literal reading of Sanctum Spell indicates that you can use it to cut the spell point cost of spells by a level. Also, reserve feats lose the balancing factor of actually having to keep a spell in reserve. In general, it's a solid power boost to casting classes.

[dsmiles]

2.x 'options & powers' (or whatever the books were called) gave a point pool system for spellcasters.
If you can find it, it might be easily adaptable.

I think the Players Options series of books, which Spells and Powers was a part of, was like adding Tome of Battle and Magic of Incarnum to 3.5. It added abilities that were outside the norm for that edition, and then later became the norm for that edition. All said, the spell point pool for 2e wasn't that bad, but conversion may be a PitA, as it was with a lot of 2e to 3.x conversions.

[subject42]

What about the recharge magic system from UA? I had a player use it, and while it's kind of fiddly to keep track of the cooldowns, it worked pretty well for his concept.

I do warn you that if you're going to use it, only use it for sorcerers and other casters with a fixed list of spells known, rather than wizards.

[Tyndmyr]

What about the recharge magic system from UA? I had a player use it, and while it's kind of fiddly to keep track of the cooldowns, it worked pretty well for his concept.

I do warn you that if you're going to use it, only use it for sorcerers and other casters with a fixed list of spells known, rather than wizards.

A good warning. Wizards are ludicrously powerful under this variant.

I find that keeping track of cooldowns is already a bit fiddly for my tastes, as you said, and that it tends not to have much of an impact at higher levels in any practical sense. Fights tend to end before you run out of options to cast, and the recharges mean you probably should nova off your highest spells first, and work your way down the list. You likely wont have to worry about recharging before your next combat.

Also, it's a pita to look up recharge times for those that don't fall into general rules. Nobody really wanted to do that in my experience. And when you go outside of core, you end up having to assign them recharge times too...that's a royal pain.