Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Spell Points in D&D


I thought I'd share one of the ideas I've had percolating in my mind. It has always occurred to me that spell points aren't broken, as many people say. I just think most D&Ders haven't seen a good one. This one is based entirely on existing 3.5 spells/level. This system is 99% compatible with the spells out of the 3.x rules. The only thing that might be weird is the "falls unconscious from the strain." If you don't like it, don't use it!


Spell Points
If you cast a 1st level spell it costs 1 pt. If you cast a 2nd level spell it costs 2 pts, a 7th level spell will cost 7 pts, etc. Mages will know all first level spells.
Restrictions:
  • You can never cast more spells of a given level per day than your main ability modifier +2. That means if you have a 16 Int, you can cast 5 spells per level per day, unless you make a Spellcraft roll. See below. This means five 1st level spells, five 2nd level spells, ad infinitum.
  • You may cast five 0th level spells per day, until 2nd level onwards when you are able to cast six.
  • You may not cast spells of more than ½ your character level (rounded down), except at 1st level. That is, when you are a 7th level mage, you may cast no more than 3rd level spells. At 1st thru 3rd levels, you may cast no higher than 1st level spells, unless you make a Spellcraft check. See below.
  • You may make a Spellcraft check to cast higher level spells. The following table shows the DC:
Level of Spell DC
1 level higher
20
2 levels higher
25
3 levels higher
30
4 levels higher
35
5 levels higher
40

    If you fail your Spellcraft DC, not only does the spell not activate, but you also lose the spell points for the spell. So, if you failed to cast a 7th level spell, you would lose 7 spell points. If you roll a 1, you fall unconscious from the strain.
  • You may attempt to cast more spells per day of a given level. You would have to make a Spellcraft roll for each spell. E.g., you are limited to 6 per day, and you want to cast a 7th one. The DC for this would be 20 for the first one, 25 for the second one, and so on.

    If you fail your Spellcraft DC, not only does the spell not activate, but you also lose the spell points for the spell. So, if you failed to cast that extra 3rd level spell, you would lose 3 spell points. If you roll a 1, you fall unconscious from the strain.
  • OPTIONAL: Instead of a Spellcraft check, GMs can opt to have the mage spend twice the spell points for the spell. That means if they want to cast an extra 3rd level spell, they'd need to expend 6 spell points. If they can only cast 4th level spells and they want to cast a 6th level spell, then they'd need to spend 12 spell points.
  • Once the spell points are all spent, the mage falls unconscious from the strain.
The following table shows how many spell points a spellcaster would have at each level.

Level Spell Pts
1st
3
2nd
4
3rd
5
4th
9
5th
10
6th
18
7th
19
8th
20
9th
22
10th
26
11th
28
12th
32
13th
34
14th
38
15th
40
16th
44
17th
46
18th
50
19th
52
20th
54

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