[theory crafting] Option: Magical Theory

[8wGremlin]

I would like to discuss the ramifications of the following house-rule

At first level you decide where your character gets their magic from, you can go with what is written in the class, or you can take this option here.

Pick from Oath, Study, Innate

Oath: You have made some pact, sacrifice, or prayer to an extra-planar being. (a god, fae, devil, demon, far-realm thing), you offer prayers/mana/something to this being in return it offers you power, and a code of conduct that you must adhere to.

• Your casting stat is Wisdom, and all references to any other stat is superseded for magical class abilities/spells that you use. If you multiclass, the new class also uses this stat
• You have a set of 3 oaths that you must adhere to, please talk to your DM about these Oaths and your Patron.
• Failure to adhere to these oaths, diminishes your power (-1 casting stat mod for abilities) .

Study: You have learned your magical talent through diligent research and practice, you tend to write down your magical spells, notes and abilities in magical treaties and thesis, and practice daily. You may have made a pact with like-minded entities, but they do not hold the power over you. You can learn other spells from other Study theorists.

• Your casting stat is Intelligence, and all references to any other stat is superseded for magical class abilities/spells that you use. If you multiclass, the new class also uses this stat
• You must practice diligent everyday for at least 3 hours everyday, this can not be part of a long rest, but can be broken apart in to 3 x 1 hour short rests
• Failure to adhere to this practice diminishes your power (-1 casting stat mod for abilities).

Innate: magic flows through you, your blood sings with magic as you channel raw chaos and manipulate it to your whim. or perhaps you wield psionic powers of the mind, or your belief in your self is enough to wield such magic. But channeling this magic requires you to be in peek physical and mental health, being tired or drained physically can tax your ability to wield magic.

• Your casting stat is Charisma, and all references to any other stat is superseded for magical class abilities/spells that you use. If you multiclass, the new class also uses this stat
• You must keep yourself in peak physical condition, You must have Current HP
  
  • above 75% to cast fully,
  • above 50% to cast with penalty (-1 casting stat mod for abilities)
  • above 25% to cast with penalty (additional -1 casting stat mod for abilities)
  • below 25% to cast with penalty (additional -1 casting stat mod for abilities).

Questions:

1. How do you think this would affect game play?
2. Are there any issues that might arise from this?
3. Does this open up concepts that were previously closed to you?
4. Does this open up roleplaying aspects?
5. Does this rule interest you as a player?
6. Does this rule interest you as a DM?
7. Any other ideas/concepts that can improve this?

Note: please be aware any new system or concept will always be met with some initial resistance, as people don't like change.
This that doesn't mean that the change isn't good, or that the change isn't worthwhile. But we need to make sure that change is for the better and doesn't detract from the game. (Kaizen)

Thank you for your input.

[Pex]

Forcing players to study for three hours makes the adventuring day about them. Players already discuss with themselves when to short rest and when to long rest. They also debate with you as DM because you have to balance out the resting with encounters. Now you're adding an extra burden where no adventuring is done and no resting. If they can't practice they can't do anything, so no one does anything until they practice. If you do it as downtime you're taking away three hours of personal roleplay from a player to do their own thing for a house rule obligation.

Taking away spellcasting effectiveness due to low hit points is a downward spiral. PCs take damage all the time. The more damage they take the less effective they are at defending themselves and attacking the enemy. One Fireball against them might as well be a TPK. You put extra burden on healing.

[Aeriox]

It’s interesting, maybe, but you just made essentially every caster multiclass easier. The first example I thought of is that now hex blade dips make bladesingers, rangers, and clerics SAD. There are definitely going to be very good multiclasses there. It also seems like it would make all of the casters similar. The downsides are also just kind of a pain.

[8wGremlin]

Forcing players to study for three hours makes the adventuring day about them. Players already discuss with themselves when to short rest and when to long rest. They also debate with you as DM because you have to balance out the resting with encounters. Now you're adding an extra burden where no adventuring is done and no resting. If they can't practice they can't do anything, so no one does anything until they practice. If you do it as downtime you're taking away three hours of personal roleplay from a player to do their own thing for a house rule obligation.

Agree, I did think that the mandatory taking of short rests, gets away from the 1/day nova encounter that seems to becoming more and more prevalent in some of the modules/adventures that I've been involved in.

I was toying with the idea that it would help the other players that have short rest mechanic characters.

Do you have any suggestions in an alternative mechanic, or how we could improve this?

Taking away spellcasting effectiveness due to low hit points is a downward spiral. PCs take damage all the time. The more damage they take the less effective they are at defending themselves and attacking the enemy. One Fireball against them might as well be a TPK. You put extra burden on healing.

Again I agree, from my observations on game play, both tabletop and virtual games, there is an over abundance of healing, and death seems to be easy to avoid. Most effective healing is done to yo-yo characters that are on the brink of death. I was thinking that bringing the need to healing to the top end of the HP curve would have an interesting effect on the game play.

I was looking for a thematic system that could affect the Innate caster, do you have any thoughts on how to improve this, or an alternative system?

[Pex]

Get rid of the restrictions and penalties.

For Study give spells prerequisites. Before you can learn Scorching Ray you need to know (Fire Bolt or Burning Hands) and Magic Missile. To learn Flaming Sphere you need to know Burning Hands and Chromatic Orb. To know Fireball you need to know Flaming Sphere, which means you must also know Burning Hands and Chromatic Orb. It will take time to do this for all the spells, but it might be a fun project.

For Innate enforce a theme for spell selection. As long as it fits it's available. For example a Rainbow mage easily has available Color Spray and Chromatic Orb. However Silent Image/Major Image are ok because it's manipulating colors to make images. Hypnotic Pattern makes a fascinating rainbow. Darkvision is seeing the colors of black and Darkness is creating black.

Oath would be Innate by another name. It works the same, but the spells chosen must adhere to the faith. If you're not ignoring spell lists, see below, at least allow Cure Wounds regardless of faith for practicality of playing the game.

An idea - get rid of spell lists.
All spells are fair game. Due to prerequisites or theme no one can learn all spells anyway. Technically prerequisite could given infinite time but not realistically in normal game play. There is no limit to spells known for anyone and all prepare. If you choose Study you may gain Wizard with subclass abilities, Druid with subclass abilities, or Cleric with domain abilities. If you choose Innate you may gain Sorcerer and subclass abilities, Bard and subclass abilities, or Warlock and invocation abilities. If you choose Oath you gain Cleric with domain abilities, Druid with subclass abilities, or Warlock and invocation abilities. Warlock Pact additional spells become automatically known but not always prepared. Domain spells remain always prepared. Bard magic secrets work the same. Any spell ignoring theme or prerequisites.

Paladin, Ranger, Eldritch Knight, and Arcane Trickster remain the same for all class abilities and utilize this spellcasting alternative for their spells.

Details to be worked out, maybe a subclass has to change an ability to avoid brokenness etc., but it's an idea.