thansel's page

I have been working on some alternative casting rules for casters. This one uses a spell point variant, but I am trying to preserve the flavor of each class. So far I have only done the 3 classes I am most familiar with (cleric/sorcerer/wizard). This does explicitly shift the power balance to favor a longer adventuring day without the need for a full rest between encounters. This is balanced by less immediately available spell fire power in exchange for more options to regain spell points over time.
In theory these changes incentives casters to part with their spells more readily removing the need to hoard spells, similar to some video games which have low ammo caps but frequent ammo pickups.

I also try to incorporate more dynamic tradeoffs with the action economy system, and greater flexibility in re-casting spells (similar to 5e, simply because I enjoy it more), so overall it might amount to a moderate buff for casters.

Please feel free to let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for how to flavor this for the other base casters (druid, bard).

Flow of Magic v0.5

Note: If other people find this useful enough I will try to work on the formatting to better match other source material.

Edit: accidentally posted in first edition initially, but this is for second edition.

I was crunching some numbers, with the goal of finding a way to provide a more consistent marginal chance of success in encounters against higher level NPC's, and hence a more enjoyable experience. These encounters tend to be common, and NPC modifies tend to be high, especially in the premade adventure I am running (age of ashes), and my players are frustrated feeling that they are fishing for 20's to hit or be effective.

My goal was that the marginal change of success probability be approximately 5% for each step in difficulty. Of course this can only be an approximation with a single die roll for resolution.

I found that the following modifications to a D20 gets within 4%.

1->-9
2->-2
3-> 0
Middle numbers the same
17->18
18->20
19->23
20->30

I am thinking of getting some custom dice printed. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions before I try that? They are not terribly expensive, but they are not super cheap either.

Is the third paragraph of the scourger dedication intended to be a separate benefit, or apply only to the ability to craft temporary items? As written it is unclear. If it is the former, it is a very powerful (if very situational) dedication. If it is the latter, the dedication becomes useful only in a very particular style of campaign (similar to eschew material components).
If it is a separate benefit that applies to all crafting checks, how would you adjucate providing the cost of crafting materials? EG, If a scrounger was willing to take a -10 penalty to craft a 20 gp item, could they gather 10gp worth of anything to pay the initial cost over the first 4 days?
This could be a big benefit to "recycle" the plethora of +1 striking weapons a mid level party will acquire fr their foes without losing the 50% selling them to buy new components.

Here are some ideas to help make playing a caster in combat more fun by avoiding the “well, my one spell this round missed, guess I am done” effect. Please feel free to critique or add your own.

Crafty cantrip: (class 4)
Free action: trigger your next action is to cast a damage dealing cantrip that requires an attack roll and has a heightened +1 entry.
Effect: the cantrip takes one fewer actions, and has its heightened +1 replaced with heightened +2. As usual it is affected by and contributeS to your multi-attack penalty.

Martial Touch: (class1) (AKA spell slap)
Effect: your “cast a spell” actions with somatic components no longer trigger reactions due to having the manipulate trait when delivered at a range of touch.

Spell Strike: (class 6)
••(two actions)
Effect: you cast a spell with a range of touch, then make a unarmed strike or a staff strike with the hand used to deliver the spell. Both attacks use the result of the spell attack roll at a -2 penalty.

Bend Ray: (class 10)
•(one action): your prior action was a ranged spell attack that missed
Effect: you bend the trajectory of your spell to a new target that cannot be the same as the target you missed with the prior action. Make a new spell attack on that target. The multi attack penalty applies.