Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kruulus 09-18-06, 07:05 PM	I was walking my dog and started toying around with this idea in my head. tell me what you think. this would either be in the form of a feat or simply an alternate way to play a wizard (this would actually work for any class that prepares spells). for now i'm calling this "flexible preperation" and it's sort of inspired by how psionics work (loosely). Basically what this entails is that the power of some spells can be divided into smaller proportions to give yourself a small amount of durability in situations where full power is overkill but you still want to hurt opponents, or you can break up the duration of spells into shorter portions over the course of the day. the key here is caster lvl. when a mage makes a magic item he can use the minimum caster lvl of the spell lvl involved, this system sort of extends that idea in a ay so that you can use a lower caster lvl when casting a spell allowing you to raise the rest for later. if it is in the form of a feat the prereq would be ability to prepare nd lvl spells. let's say for example a lvl 8 wizard prepares two fireballs. under the normal style of play these would be two fireballs that each deal 8d6 damage. using flexible preperation, the dice can be pooled together and divided out as you see fit. the only limitations being that the minimum dice you can use is equal to minimum caster lvl needed to cast the spell and the maximum dice you can use being the normal amount you would be able to cast with your caster lvl. spells where the damage is not determined by caster lvl remain unaltered. so this wizard can either cast 2 8d6 fireballs or he can cast 3 fireballs that deal 5d6, 5d6, and 6d6. this only improves the wizards durability, allowing him to deal smaller amounts of damage to weaker foes without blowing away entire spell slots. the same wizard could prepare 3 magic missles which would total to 12 missles which can be divided into any combination of 1-4 missles. i was thinking this idea would not only apply to spells that do damage but also to spells with durations, allowing you to divide the overall duration of something out through the day. so the lvl 8 wizard prepares 1 cat's grace which would have an 8 minute duration but he can divide the minutes around as he wishes. the wizard must choose the number of minutess he wishes to use when he casts and the minimum is still based off the minimum caster lvl needed to cast the spell. so this wizard can have a 3 minute portion and a 5 minute portion, or just one 8 minute portion. he could also use this to cast cat's grace on mutiplie people while only preparing it once, giving 3 minutes to one friend then 5 minutes to himself (this would still require two casts). spells must be divided based on an effective caster level, so spells with a duraton based on minutes/lvl must be divided into minutes, 10 minutes/lvl must be in divisions of 10 minutes, and so on. spells with a duration of 24 hours or greater are not effected. spells where concentration is a factor are also uneffected. what about metamagic feats? well let's say the lvl 8 wizard has empower and he prepares 2 regular magic missles and 1 empowered magic missles. that is 8 regular missles(combinations of 1-4) and 4 empowered missles (combinations of 2-4). they are treated as different "pools." what about extend? the overall duration would be doubled as would the minimum and maximum portions. so 1 extended cat's grace (16 minutes) would have a minimum portion of 10 minutes, and a maximum portion of 16 minutes. notice that the minimum durations and dice are shifted up when a higher spell slot is needed for the metamagiced version. what happens if you've already used a small portion of your pool, then want to cast a big portion and are left with a remainder that can't technically be used? for example, if the lvl 8 wizard were to prepare 2 fireballs (16d6) and then cast a 5d6 then an 8d6, 3d6 would remain in the pool. would the 3d6 go to waste? what i was thinking was that you could still cast these 3d6, but you would only deal 75% damage. the same goes for durations 75% of the remaining duration, rounded down to the nearest round. beyond duration and damage dice i feel that any other aspect would cause problems if allowed to be divided (like number of targets, because then technically you could prepare 1 mass bear's endurance and use it as several single bear's endurances). in the case of a spell that deals both caster level determined damage and has a duration (can't think of any though) the duration becomes divided and the damage remains that of the standard rules. what do you guys think? Special Cases: Disintegrate- since this spell has the secondary damage on a made save, it would be unbalanced to allow a person to divide the spell out. besides when you get to higher lvl spells, dividing the dice or durtion out is just not practical since you'll always have a remainder until you've doubled your minimum caster lvl. False Life- just no. Stoneskin- the division of DR points and duration must be divided proportionally. so a lvl 14 wizard could have two portions of 70 DR points for 70 minute each. or at lvl 16 it would be 75 DR points for 80 minutes if divided into to equal portions. there are probably lots of spells where this system breaks down. you and your dm should just use your common sense. Example: LVL 8 Wizard (evoker) Prohibited Schools: Necromancy & Illusion Metamagic Feats: Extend INT 20 LVL 1: 6+1 Evocation 4 Magic Missles (20 missles, 1-4) 1 Detect Secret Doors 1 True Strike 1 Floating Disk (9 hours, 1-9) LVL 2: 4+1 Evocation 2 Scorching Rays (4 rays, 1-2) 1 Extended Mage Armor (16 hours, 6-16) 1 Extended Sheild (16 minutes, 6-16) 1 Acid Arrow (4 rounds, 2-4) LVL 3: 4+1 Evocation 2 Fireballs (18d6, 5-9) 1 Extended Fox's Cunning (16 minutes, 10-16) 1 Extended Cat's Grace (16 minutes, 10-16) 1 Summon Monster 3 (8 rounds, 5-8) LVL 4: 3+1 Evocation 1 Fire Sheild (9 rounds, 7-9) 1 Extended Herosim (160 minutes, 140-160) 1 Stoneskin (80 points/80 minutes, 70/70-80/80) 1 Extended Fly (16 minutes, 14-16)
airwalkrr 09-20-06, 05:25 AM	I really like this idea. I may have to consider implementing it in some form or fashion.