Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gort32 11-16-04, 01:38 PM	I am working with one of my players, trying to adjust the sorcerer a little, helping him be a little more flexible and working more into the "natural talent" that is the focus of the sorcerer. Here's the idea: In order to learn new spells, the sorcerer must study/practice a bit. The sorcerer must decide which spell he/she wants to learn. Then, each resting period he/she rolls a Spellcraft check DC20 + (2 * the level of the spell) Gain a +2 bonus each time the sorcerer observes this spell being cast that day. If succesful, the sorcerer adds that spell to his/her known spell list. Each time the sorcerer learns a new spell in this manner, line up his/her list of spells of that level in some order (alphabetical?) and number them, then roll a d10. If the d10 comes up with a number that is assigned to one in the known spell list, he/she loses that spell from his/her memory and must re-learn it (the sorcerer can only keep so many different spells straight in his/her head). Note: if the d10 lands on a # that is not assigned to any spell in the list, then the sorcerer does not forget a spell. This may push the total number of spells known in that level above what it states in the PHB chart. Every 24 hours (or every rest period, or some other measure of time), if the sorcerer knows more spells in a single level than he/she is alloted in the PHB chart, he/she must make the same kind of d10 roll again, one for each level that has an excessive number of spells. Overall, I would imagine that this would allow (and somewhat *cause*) the sorcerer to have a much wider selection of spells in the long run as he/she would not be limited to the choices that he/she made in the early levels - if the sorcerer wants new spells, then he/she will have to work for them, but they *can* be obtained, however potentially at the cost of other spells... This system inherietly prevents the sorcerer from having more than 9 known spells/level - when he/she learns the 10th spell in that level, then the d10 forget roll cannot fail, bringing the list back down to 9. I rolled this out a bit, trying to twink out a character who could abuse this system, but unless I gave the character magical items that give + to spellcraft, assuming the character has maxed out spellcraft every level, the player will still have to roll high on the d20 in order to learn a new level 9 spell. Earlier spell levels will be easily manuipulated to the sorcerer's liking - I would attribute this to the sorcerer's "mastery" over these simpler spells. However, any time spent messing with his/her level 2 spells is a time that he/she *isn't* messing with the level 9 spell list... Any comments? Does any more experienced DM see any way that this could be horribly abused?
Astrimedes 11-19-04, 06:16 PM	First off, I really do like the idea behind this variant. However, the problem I see with it is that it kind of rips off the wizard in a way. If all sorcerers can do this, then it seems to devalue the ultra-wide spell selection of the wizard class a bit. In effect, it would just give sorcerers a rotating spell list, not to mention the possibility of actually knowing more spells than they should for every level. I do really like the fact that it can be swapped out for a spell completely at random. I do think you could do something to it to avoid the problem I mentioned. One idea is that you could have new spells always be swapped out for old ones; roll a die as described, except make it the number of spells known at each level instead of a static d10. This way the character will have to weigh his options very carefully, as the few spells a sorcerer knows are ones he probably relies on heavily. I would also propose that in addition to this, you make this only possible every week or so instead of every night. This way, if he loses a very neccessary spell, he has to deal with it for a whole week. This also prevents him from spending a couple days trying to "roll out" a more favorable combination of spells, as this would take far longer if he could only retry every week. I belive this spending of days to generate a favorable spell combo list is a very real abuse of this system. Another option would be to make this a feat for sorcerers, possibly requiring a very high cha and int. I would also propose making this feat only available at first level, and replacing the familiar ability permanently. I'm sure there's a variety of other things you could do, but my point is that an ability like this should require the sorcerer to give something up, or to cost him something. After all, the sorcerer gives up spell versatility in exchange for not having to memorize and the ability to cast many more spells per day (of course, he accepts a slower spell level advancement, also). Of course, if everyone seems to like it and no problems arise, then by all means continue, but I believe an ability like this must be paid for; it tends to strengthen the sorcerer's spell list versatility, which is essentially his main weakness as a spellcaster.