Post/Author/DateTime	Post
TieraStarr 03-18-04, 09:58 AM	This alternate magic system was originally developed for AD&D and was dropped when DnD 3 introduced the sorcerer. With the current debates of Wizard vs Sorcerer, and various alternate magic systems (as opposed to Vancian) I decided to rework Spell Revision to be compatible with DnD 3½. =================== Instead of preparing spells, the wizard studies the spells in his spellbook and revises them. Spell Revision incurs all the same rest and peaceful state limitations as Spell Preparation. Refresh Spell Slots: Spell slots for spells previously cast are refreshed while revising spells. At least 15 minutes is required to refresh spell slots, which can be done simultaneously with revising actual spells. Spell Revision Time: After resting, a wizard must study her spellbook to revise any spells that she wishes to study that day. Typically she will spend one hour revising one spell of each spell level she can cast. Thus a 10th level wizard could refresh one spell of each level 0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in one hour. Quick Revision - 30 mins: If in a hurry, she may take only half an hour and either revise one spell of the highest level she can cast, or one spell of each spell level she can cast except her highest. Thus a 10th level wizard could refresh one 5th level spell or one spell of each level 0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in half an hour. Quick Revision - 15 mins: If in a hurry, she may take only half an hour and either revise one spell of the second highest level she can cast, or one spell of each spell level she can cast except her two highest. Thus a 10th level wizard could refresh one 4th level spell or one spell of each level 0th, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in a quarter of an hour. Extended Revision: If she continues her revision beyond an hour, each successive hour is half as effective as the previous hour. Also, her intelligence bonus is the maximum number of hours that she may spend in spell revision each day. If she has no intelligence bonus, then she is limited to a maximum of half an hour of revision each day. Thus a 10th level wizard with at least 16 Intelligence could spend the first hour revising one spell of each level 0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, and an additional hour revising a second 5th level spell, and a third hour revising a second 4th level spell. Practical Revision: Any spell successfully cast the previous day is automatically revised and doesn't need to be included in this days revision session. Casting a Spell: When attempting to cast a spell that hasn't been revised today (or successfully cast yesterday) then she must make a Revision check or fail to cast the spell. This is a caster level check vs a DC of twice the spell level + the number of days since last revision (or last successful casting). Retries: Subsequent attempts to cast failed spell are at a cumulative penalty of DC+5 until the spell is either revised or successfully cast. This means that after four failures the wizard will be unable to cast the spell until she has properly revised it. Specialization: When a specialist wizard attempts to cast a spell from her specialty school, she gains a +2 bonus to the revison check. Observing: When observing another wizard successfully cast a spell that she has previously learnt, she may choose to observe and gain the benefit of an on-thy-fly revision. She may perform no other action while observing this spellcasting, but this reduces the DC for the revision check for this spell by 5. If the spell has been modified by metamagic, then the revision DC is only reduced by 2 instead of 5. Exception: The revision DC cannot be reduced below 2 x spell level + 2 by observation. If in combat, this is a full-round action and she is vulnerable to to interruption for the full round. If she sustains any damage before her next action she must make a concentration check vs 10 + spell level + damage taken or be distracted and thus the observation will have no effect. Thus if Mialee last revised fireball eight days ago, her revision DC to cast fireball would be 22 (3x2+8x2). If she watches Soveless successfully cast fireball, her DC will reduce by five to 17. If she then watches Soveless cast a stilled fireball, her DC will only reduce by a further two to 15. If the observed wizard blunders and fails to cast the spell (because he fails his revision check) then the observing wizard will then suffer a DC+2 penalty when she attempts to cast the spell (before her next revision). Rewriting a Spellbook: If a wizard loses her spellbook, she may attempt to rewrite it with all the spells she has learned. She will need to make a revision check for each spell to correctly record it in the new spellbook. If not hurried, she may take 10 on these checks. Spells per Day: The wizard is still limited to casting no more than his allotted spells per day. However rather than preparing spells in these slots, she may use them to attempt to cast any spell she has learnt (and hopefully recently revised). Metamagic: Since all spells are cast spontaneously, a move-equivalent action is required to add metamagic to a spell whilst casting it. (You may prefer to use the increased casting time as outlined in the PHB instead.) =================== Sorcerers: This alternate magic system gives wizards spontaneous casting and thus makes sorcerers obsolete. Divine Spellcasters: Divine spellcasters can also use this system, but a devine caster does not require a spellbook and merely revises spells while connected to her deity via meditation. The maximum length of a meditation/revision session is limited by Wisdom bonus instead of Intelligence bonus. Also, good clerics never need to revise Cure spells, and evil clerics never need to revise Inflict spells. Bards: Using this variant, bards require spellbooks, but they resemble music script rather than a wizards spellbook. Also the maximum length of revision time is limited by Charisma bonus instead of Intelligence bonus. Finally, bards are no longer limited by the number of spells they can know. =================== Comments? Questions? My concerns are: Is it too much bookkeeping? Basically, you need to put a tally mark next to each spell you haven't revised or cast each day, and erase all the tally marks upon a successful casting or revision. What about Charisma? By dropping the sorcerer, are we are again making charisma less important. Well it is 1am now, so I think I'll post it now.
TieraStarr 03-27-04, 06:47 AM	Assuming a wizard only has her starting spells, and picked up two spells of the highest allowable level for each level attained, that wizard will know eighteen 0th level spells (plus read magic which doesn't require revision), 5 + initial int bonus 1st level spells, and 4 spells of any spell level she has been able to cast prior to this level, and 2 spells of any spell level she has just gained access to (if any). Except for a 19th or 20th level wizard who will have six or eight 9th level spells respectively. So, a 10th level wizard that started her career with 16 int, will have eighteen 9th level spells, eight 1st spell level, and four of each 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th level. Putting both her ability increases to intelligence would give her an 18 int now. using DC = 2 x spell level + days since last revision Assuming she cycles through her revising her spells each day and never casts any spells, one of her 0th level spells and one of her 1st level spells would be revised 7 days ago. She will automatically make her revision check on 11 of her 0th level spells, and have a 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35% chance of failure for the other seven. She will automatically make her revision check for up to ten 1st, eight 2nd, six 3rd, four 4th, and two 5th level spells, having a 5% and 10% chance of failure for her remaining two fifth level spells. using DC = 2 x spell level + 2 x days since last revision Based on the above calculations, I am thinking that perhaps the revision DC is too low. Perhaps it should be double spell level plus two per day since last revision or successful casting instead. That would make it so that she would be guaranteed to cast only six of her 0th level spells, and guaranteed to fail two of them. Of her 1st level spells, only five would be guaranteed, with a 5%, 15%, and 25% chance of failure on the remaining three. She would still be guaranteed all four of her 2nd level spells, and three of her 3rd level spells, with a 5% chance of failure on the fourth. Only two of her 4th level spells would be guaranteed, with a 5% and 15% chance of failure on the remaining two. Only one of her 5th level spells would be guaranteed, with a 5%, 15%, 25%, and 35% chance of failure on the remaining three. Of course regular castings of these spells, or extended revision times, would reduce solve her problems. I am thinking the second extrapolation is much better and will change the original post. Now lets looks at it from the opposite angle. Let's see how many spells our 10th level wizard with 18 int could confidently revise using her maximum four hours of revision each day, but never actually casting a spell nor observing another spellcasting. Each day, in four hours, she can revise a 0th, 1st, 2nd, two 3rd, two 4th, and two 5th level spells. Any 5th level spell revised today, 4th level spell revised yesterday, 3rd level spell revised two days ago, 2nd level spell revised three days ago, 1st level spell revised four days ago, and 0th level spell revised five days ago, can automatically be cast (no chance of failure). Therefore, she can effectively know 6/5/4/6/4/2 spells. Dropping revision time to the standard one hour brings this down to 6/5/4/3/2/1. Comparing these to the sorcerer spells known of 6/6/6/6/5/3 seems reasonable. At 20th level, using the standard one hour daily revision, the wizard would know: 11/10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2 spells. This compares reasonably well against the sorcerer spells known of 6/6/6/6/6/6/6/6/6/6. Should I perhaps make it more difficult? - increase all the revision DC's +10, so the above is merely the spells that the wizard has at least a 50% chance of success with. =================== Or maybe make it spell level (count 0th level spells as ½) times number of days since last revision. Then the chances for higher level spells would drop off quickly, but any spell revised today, yesterday, or the day prior would be an automatic success.