Make more spells like Heal / Magic Missile, especially cantrips

[Whirling Dervish]

Heal is a really cool spell because it takes advantage of the three action system in a really interesting way. Not enough spells do this!

I’m not saying that all spells should have 1/2/3 action versions, but more certainly should, especially cantrips which need to be more of spellcasters’ bread-and-butter. This lets players do interesting things with fewer choices during character creation/spell selection. And then interactions with metamagic become more interesting too!

Here’s an example with Ray of Frost:
One Somatic Action: Melee range only
One Somatic, one Verbal: As written
One somatic, one verbal, one material: The Target also takes 1 persistent cold damage

Simple changes like this make players feel like they have more agency and choice in what they’re doing, and I think that the three action system feeds into this beautifully.

[Draco18s]

Heartily agreed!

[Blave]

I basically agree. However...

I don't think it works too well for many spells. Magic Missile feels like a waste if you cast it with less than 3 actions.
Heal/Harm is way better, having a significantly different effect on 3 actions without devaluating the 2 action version.

It also makes Metamagic less usable which may or may not be an issue.

If they can find enough variants to spells that are worth 3 actions but don't make me never wanting to cast with less than 3 actions, sign me up.

[Lyee]

Blave wrote:

I basically agree. However...

I don't think it works too well for many spells. Magic Missile feels like a waste if you cast it with less than 3 actions.
Heal/Harm is way better, having a significantly different effect on 3 actions without devaluating the 2 action version.

It also makes Metamagic less usable which may or may not be an issue.

If they can find enough variants to spells that are worth 3 actions but don't make me never wanting to cast with less than 3 actions, sign me up.

For 1+ level spells, sure

Cantrips should never feel like a waste though, so I think they're the perfect candidate for this system! I'm going to update many of my homebrew cantrips to handle it.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

I like the implementation when it comes to heal, but 1 action ray of frost as a melee attack really sounds too good.

[Ramanujan]

Metamagic kind of adds this to every spell.

Or would if there were more 1 action spells.

[Gaterie]

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

I like the implementation when it comes to heal, but 1 action ray of frost as a melee attack really sounds too good.

I fail to see your point. Ray of frost deals less damage than a weapon.

[Shiroi]

It almost feels like they made the format to use as a blog, and abandoned putting any more research into it. I was super sold on the idea of action economy gating the power and efficiency of spells. I can see a lot of potential for combining spells - featherfall->anthaul>fly adding duration and then power/control. I can see a lot of potential for additional range, changing the shape of the blast, or adding piercing or other secondary effects to nuke spells, I can see all kinds of things that can make spell craft more than just 3/day fireball, 3/day dispel magic and a few cantrips.

This system can be expanded greatly, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings in the slightest.

[kpulv]

It does feel like spells are not utilizing the 3 action system nearly enough. So far in my sessions the martial characters feel like they have a lot to do even at level 1, and decisions to make during combat, but the caster is still just "I cast and move" every turn. I would love to see all spells in the game really explore all the design space that the 3 action system allows.

[Whirling Dervish]

Ramanujan wrote:

Metamagic kind of adds this to every spell.

Or would if there were more 1 action spells.

True, but it’s very same-y. And I think that metamagic would see more use if there were different versions of spells that require different numbers of actions. Here’s another example of a different flavor of this idea with the cantrip Forbidding Ward (which is one of my favorite new cantrips):

Forbidding Ward
Casting Somatic Casting or more
Range 30 feet; Targets one ally and one enemy
Duration concentration, up to 1 minute
Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting You ward your ally against the attacks and hostile spells of the target enemy. The target ally gains a +1 conditional bonus
to Armor Class and saving throws against the target enemy’s
attacks, spells, and other effects.
Somatic Casting If you have a Forbidding Ward already active, you may change either the target ally or target enemy, but not both. This counts as Concentrating on the spell.
Material Casting, Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting Take the Assist action without meeting that actions’s requirements. Use your Spell Roll instead of making a melee attack. If you have a two-action version of this spell active, this counts as concentrating on it.

[RazarTuk]

kpulv wrote:

It does feel like spells are not utilizing the 3 action system nearly enough. So far in my sessions the martial characters feel like they have a lot to do even at level 1, and decisions to make during combat, but the caster is still just "I cast and move" every turn. I would love to see all spells in the game really explore all the design space that the 3 action system allows.

The big problem is that they tied actions to components. For example, if something requires somatic and verbal components, it requires two actions. Want to improve magic missile? It has to be with a material or somatic component. Want to cast heal/harm at range? Hope you aren't deaf or anything.

This isn't a problem in and of itself, except for one detail- virtually every spell has both verbal and somatic components. I found a database of spells in 1e, and while 317 had Somatic NAND Verbal, the other 2542 had both. And while the playtest clearly doesn't have 2,859 spells yet, it's certainly continuing the dominance of "Components V,S".