Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jack Daniel 02-08-07, 12:49 PM	I've recently decided to implement two sets of house rules that are... well, they're doozies (as in, "Watch that last step, it's a..."). Kind of radical in the way that they alter gameplay, but hopefully not by much. What I'm wondering (since I've only had limited opportunities to testplay them) is, can any of you out there in math-and-game-design-land spot any obvious holes or problems with the following systems? Unlimited Magic Access My setting has only four basic casting classes: the cleric, shaman, mage, and psychic. There is no real distinction between "divine" and "arcane" magic. All casters use spell-books, and they must learn spells just like a standard wizard; however, all spell-casters are also spontaneous casters. They can cast any spell they know, like a sorcerer, under certain conditions. Here's what I have in mind: 1) Spell-casters do not need to prepare their spells in order to cast them. Instead, they merely need to have their spell-book out and open to the appropriate page. Regardless of how many spells the caster knows, turning to a given spell is always a standard action. So long as the spell-book remains open to that spell, the caster may continue to cast that spell, so long as he has spell slots/points (whatever you want to call them) remaining; but if he wants to switch to a different spell, it takes a round to do so. 2) Spell-casters are able to memorize a very small selection of spells, amounting to a number of spell levels equal to their caster level plus their key ability bonus. Memorized spells can be cast without the spell-book out and open (or even on the caster’s person), and require only one free hand to perform the somatic components (whereas un-memorized spells require one hand to hold the book and one hand for the somatic components). Memorized spells may also be cast under conditions where the caster cannot read his book (such as in the dark, for casters who are not dwarves or half-orcs). Memorizing spells otherwise works just like standard spell preparation. Critical Damage This variant replaces the standard rules for critical hits. Under these rules, a natural 1 on an attack roll is still an automatic miss, and a natural 20 is still an automatic hit, but there is no longer any such thing as a critical threat. Instead, all weapons deal damage just like the arquebus did in AD&D 2nd edition. That weapon dealt 1d10 points of damage, and whenever a 10 was rolled, you could roll another 1d10 and add that on to the total. If you continued to roll 10s (which is, of course, extremely unlikely, but still possible), you continued to snowball the damage. Here’s how that would translate into present-day D&D combat: • Any weapon that deals at least 1d4 points of damage allows you to re-roll the damage die and add that damage on whenever you roll maximum damage. If the die continues to turn up maximum damage, you continue rolling critical damage. Modifiers from strength, magic, weapon specialization, et al. apply only once. • If a weapon deals two dice of damage, you roll another two dice of damage only if both dice come up maximum. If one die maxes out and the other does not, you only roll one additional damage die. If you roll damage on a greatsword, for example, and get a 5 and a 6, the 6 would entitle you to roll another 1d6 damage (and each successive 6 would allow you to roll another damage die). If you roll double 6s on your greatsword damage, you could roll another 2d6, and again, each 6 could be re-rolled and added to the total, until you roll a 5 or lower. • Weapons for races different sizes, instead of dealing smaller or larger damage dice, instead take a bonus or penalty to the damage die which is the inverse of that race’s size modifier to attack rolls. Small characters, for example, get a +1 bonus to attack rolls, so their weapons deal -1 damage. (This is to prevent dagger-wielding gnomes and halflings from being unfairly nerfed.) • Attacks that deal 1 or 1d2 points of damage do not deal critical damage. A weapon that deals 1d3 points of damage, like a whip or an unarmed strike, can deal additional critical damage on a damage roll of 3, but the additional damage is only ever nonlethal damage, regardless of whether the base damage was lethal or nonlethal. • The following things are eliminated from the game: keen edge and keen weapons, Improved Critical, rolling a saving throw for massive damage after sustaining 50 points of damage (and possibly, the distinction between simple, martial, and exotic weapons). • Anything immune to critical hits is immune to critical damage. • Generally speaking, spells and traps cannot cause critical damage (unless they specifically employ a physical weapon to deal damage), and neither can falling, grenade-like weapons, or most other sources of damage that do not normally critically hit. Even spells that require an attack roll and can critically hit in the standard rules do not cause critical damage. Extra damage dice (sneak attack, elemental weapons) do not roll critical damage when they turn up maximum. So, this goes out to the math majors out there. Have I accidentally gone and made unarmed strikes and daggers more lethal than greatswords and greataxes?
DIESCUMDIE 02-08-07, 01:33 PM	Changing the critical rules don't really have any real balance implications, so its just a question of wether you prefert the flavour. Unlimited magic has its greatest implication for spells cast outside of combat, a character could keep a legion of summoned creatures around them at all times for example.
Jack Daniel 02-08-07, 01:49 PM	Changing the critical rules don't really have any real balance implications, so its just a question of wether you prefert the flavour. Unlimited magic has its greatest implication for spells cast outside of combat, a character could keep a legion of summoned creatures around them at all times for example. Well it's not an unlimited number of spells per day. Just unlimited access to the spells that you know and have in yoru spell-book. There isn't any "I didn't prepare spell X today, and I didn't leave any blank slots, so I can't cast spell X until tomorrow."
Fargren 02-08-07, 03:13 PM	1) Spell-casters do not need to prepare their spells in order to cast them. Instead, they merely need to have their spell-book out and open to the appropriate page. Regardless of how many spells the caster knows, turning to a given spell is always a standard action. So long as the spell-book remains open to that spell, the caster may continue to cast that spell, so long as he has spell slots/points (whatever you want to call them) remaining; but if he wants to switch to a different spell, it takes a round to do so. What kind of action is it? When you are making a rule abouta new type of action, don't say how much ime it takes, say whay kind of action is it. Is it move, standard or full round action? Also, in order to know what implication will this have, we will need to kno how many slots does a caster have at each level, and how many spells can he have in a spellbook. Otherwise, we can't really tell how powerful an spellcaster will be.
Jack Daniel 02-08-07, 08:35 PM	What kind of action is it? When you are making a rule abouta new type of action, don't say how much ime it takes, say whay kind of action is it. Is it move, standard or full round action? Also, in order to know what implication will this have, we will need to kno how many slots does a caster have at each level, and how many spells can he have in a spellbook. Otherwise, we can't really tell how powerful an spellcaster will be. Sorry. Let me just double check. Hmm... opening book to a new spell, standard action... casters write spells into spellbooks just like a standard wizard... everybody casts spontaneously like a sorcerer... Yup. My post was in English all right. Just checking.
Fargren 02-08-07, 10:19 PM	"Everyone casts spontaeusly as asorcerer" doesn't necesarily mean that they have the same amount of spells per day and spell known as a sorcerer(even though it can imply it). And yeah, sorry about the standard action thing. My bad.
Cyanide300 02-08-07, 11:51 PM	Well, one implication would be the difference between spontaneous casters and prepared casters in terms of meta-magic feats. Some feats will be made less valuable by your system, while others will be made quite useful. Keep in mind that by making all casters spontaneous but allowing them to know any number of spells, you are providing them with an enormous array of spells to apply meta-magic to at the cost of only a full round action. Realize that you will be creating casters capable of dealing any damage type, maximized, while still having the ability to cast any number of utility spells, with extended range, duration, or area. Also, keep in mind that making players regularly expose the spellbook in combat means that they will be more likely to lose said book. If you've never seen a player lose his spellbook, just imagine the most angry rabid wolverine you could possibly imagine, then multiply that by 42 and you'll be somewhere near the level of anger and frustration expressed by said player. On the other hand, maybe people will actually use some of the spellbook related items out of Complete Arcane.
FoxmanFX 02-09-07, 07:04 PM	I'm not going to address the magic side of things - I don't like having to rewrite all the NPC's in my games to use new magic rules and got tired of players finding neat loopholes in them ;) Criticals - at first I thought about it and went wow! thats really cool - but the more I thought about it the more I dislike it. You are more likely to roll 3 or 4 4's on a d4 in a row than 12's on that great-axe, that means that a dagger is more likely (on a critical) to do more damage.... If you want rolling criticals consider the following.... Roll a critical confirm critical roll if the roll to confirm is succesfull deal critial damage if the roll to confirm is also a critial threat, roll to confirm again - if that is successful - increase the multiplier by one (x2 becomes a x3), repeat Example - Keen rapier boy threatens on a 15-20. Stabbing mr. happy Rapier boy rolls an 18 to hit - critical threat rapier boy rolls a 17, confirms critial, threatens bigger critical rapier boy rolls a 19, confirms bigger critical (x2 moves to x3) and rolls again rapier boy rolls a 15, confirms bigger critial (x3 moves to a x4) and rolls again rapier boy rolls a 13, which hits, confirming the critial again (x4 to x5) but doesnt get to roll again. Just an idea...