House Rule: Sacrificing HP for Higher CL [Archive] - Wizards Community

House Rule: Sacrificing HP for Higher CL [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
zavin
12-03-06, 10:17 PM I've come up with a house rule that I'd like some feedback on. After reading some novels dealing with magic and sorcerers and such I've come up with the idea of sacrificing HP permenantly to increase caster level for one spell and negate the level cap for spells. It would go something like this;

Every 2 HP a player permenantly sacrifices they can increase there caster level by 5 for One Spell Only. So it would go like; Joe has 80 HP and is a 20th level sorcerer, he casts fireball and sacrifices 2 HP to increase his CL to 25, his fireball now does 25d6.

Does this seem overpowered? Think about it for a bit, Spellcasters don't have much HP to play around with. Any ideas to improve this? Make it more balanced?
CryoSilver
12-04-06, 02:48 AM Making the caster's one weakness even worse is not a fair substitute for increasing their main advantage (spells).

You end up with a character that is mathematically balanced, but will basically have the effect of either toally raping the enemy in one round, or dying instantly.
Tequila_Sunrise
12-04-06, 07:00 PM Ditto. Great stuff from novels often does not make great stuff for a game.
Thomar_of_Uointer
12-06-06, 01:36 AM I'd make it a metamagic feat, and not have it be permanent. Doesn't change the spell's level, but does backlash at you for one die per caster level (approximately how much you'll be adding to the spell). It also needs an upper limit of some sort.
Archangel62
12-06-06, 01:59 AM Actual reason this seems like a bad idea, permanent HP sacrifice seems like a rather stupid thing because it will often lead to the party wizard being easier and easier to one shot, not to mention the obvious issues of what happens if the party runs into a bad straight (IE what if the party gets ambused or bad intel, the caster then starts dumping HP to save the others and kills themselves in the process)

I will admit, the idea does have some definite appeal I also think that with the level caps on spells it sorta loses some of its luster at higher levels but it likely to kill casters greatly at lower levels.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
zavin 12-03-06, 10:17 PM	I've come up with a house rule that I'd like some feedback on. After reading some novels dealing with magic and sorcerers and such I've come up with the idea of sacrificing HP permenantly to increase caster level for one spell and negate the level cap for spells. It would go something like this; Every 2 HP a player permenantly sacrifices they can increase there caster level by 5 for One Spell Only. So it would go like; Joe has 80 HP and is a 20th level sorcerer, he casts fireball and sacrifices 2 HP to increase his CL to 25, his fireball now does 25d6. Does this seem overpowered? Think about it for a bit, Spellcasters don't have much HP to play around with. Any ideas to improve this? Make it more balanced?
CryoSilver 12-04-06, 02:48 AM	Making the caster's one weakness even worse is not a fair substitute for increasing their main advantage (spells). You end up with a character that is mathematically balanced, but will basically have the effect of either toally raping the enemy in one round, or dying instantly.
Tequila_Sunrise 12-04-06, 07:00 PM	Ditto. Great stuff from novels often does not make great stuff for a game.
Thomar_of_Uointer 12-06-06, 01:36 AM	I'd make it a metamagic feat, and not have it be permanent. Doesn't change the spell's level, but does backlash at you for one die per caster level (approximately how much you'll be adding to the spell). It also needs an upper limit of some sort.
Archangel62 12-06-06, 01:59 AM	Actual reason this seems like a bad idea, permanent HP sacrifice seems like a rather stupid thing because it will often lead to the party wizard being easier and easier to one shot, not to mention the obvious issues of what happens if the party runs into a bad straight (IE what if the party gets ambused or bad intel, the caster then starts dumping HP to save the others and kills themselves in the process) I will admit, the idea does have some definite appeal I also think that with the level caps on spells it sorta loses some of its luster at higher levels but it likely to kill casters greatly at lower levels.