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I'm drawing up various house rules to make 3.5 "more attractive." One thing that occurred to me seems relatively simple and not too imbalancing.
Regarding Cantrips and Orisons:
1. Spells Per Day actually means the number of cantrips or orisons that are available that can be cast unlimited times per day.
2. Add your Wis, Cha, or Int mod like you can with 1st level spells and above have included as the number of orisons and cantrips available unlimited times per day.
Neither cantrips nor orisons seems over powered and I question how often people use them anyhow. This would provide a little flavor to spellcasters but shouldn't be too imbalancing.
Thoughts?
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In our campaigns, we use the spell point system presented in Unearthed Arcana. A cantrip or Orison costs 1 spell point to cast, unless the caster succeeds on a DC 15 (or 12, depends on the campaign) Spellcraft check. Thus, for an experienced mage, casting such a simple spell is but an afterthought. However, a caster reduced to 0 spell points cannot cast anymore, even 0-level spells.
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so what you are suggesting is that a 1st level wizard can prepare 3 cantrips per day, and use those three cantrips unlimited times? And they can switch these day by day?
The only problem I can foresee is Daze, because it can daze for 1 round and with this rule can be used round after round. Although this likely won't cause too many problems as its will save isn't that high, it's worth taking into consideration. Other than that minor abuse, I don't see much wrong with it.
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Cure minor wounds becomes a problem in this case. Of course, if you don't mind people always having full hp between encounters, it's not a big deal.
If you want flavour for it, just imagine it as a cleric praying intensely for 1-100 rounds after a fight to bring his buddy back around.
My gaming group has been booting this one back and forth and haven't found a really good fix. The best we had was that cure minor could be used constantly but you could only get back to 0 / your con score in hp before it stopped working. This effectively makes it good for a downed foe, and limits the abuse.
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Cure minor wounds becomes a problem in this case. Of course, if you don't mind people always having full hp between encounters, it's not a big deal.
If you want flavour for it, just imagine it as a cleric praying intensely for 1-100 rounds after a fight to bring his buddy back around.
Cure Minor Wounds was the one orison that I balked at, but your "flavour" suggestion works for me. The person prays over his comrade for a minute straight (6 rounds), and with cure minor wounds, heals him 6 points. Playing this out over an hour of prayer shouldn't be too game-hindering. Frankly, unless the group is clear of a threat, I can't envision them abusing this. And if I felt like it was being abused, I need only provide narrative to the group that articulates just how long this is taking.
In our campaigns, we use the spell point system presented in Unearthed Arcana. A cantrip or Orison costs 1 spell point to cast, unless the caster succeeds on a DC 15 (or 12, depends on the campaign) Spellcraft check. Thus, for an experienced mage, casting such a simple spell is but an afterthought. However, a caster reduced to 0 spell points cannot cast anymore, even 0-level spells.
I read through the Spell Point section in Unearthed Arcana. At first, I was interested. But I fear that my players would be resistant to that much of a departure from the 3.5 standard rules. Could be wrong though.
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Maybe they can fill these slots as many times as they want, but they have to re-prepare? For sorcerers this just means that they have to spend an amount of time replenishing those spell slots.
There are rules for recharging magic in unearthed arcana, maybe apply that to just 0-level spells? I can post them if you need me to.
I like the idea actually.
Cantrips and the like aren't game breaking by any means. If you're wanting to put a cap on it, just use your WIS/INT score.
I'm going to propose this idea to my group and see what they think.
Actually, while I'm thinking about it; I've been working on a Lv 0 summon monster/nature's ally spell. What should be its limitations? All I'm really expecting is basic animals (rat/bat/cat/dog/etc...)
-Kurocyn
There are rules for recharging magic in unearthed arcana, maybe apply that to just 0-level spells? I can post them if you need me to.
Recharge Magic is open content in the SRD.
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Cure Minor Wounds is indeed the sticking point, but that can be dealt with by having it only convert hp damage to nonlethal damage, or limiting it to only be able to cure hp / day for a person equal to their normal HD, and indeed subtracting from their daily healing rate!
This would result in a 3rd level Fighter being able to get up to 3 hp of Cure Minor Wounds per day, and forfeiting the normal 3 hp he'd be getting over night in the process.
Actually, while I'm thinking about it; I've been working on a Lv 0 summon monster/nature's ally spell. What should be its limitations? All I'm really expecting is basic animals (rat/bat/cat/dog/etc...)
Given the power levels, a cat might be the gold standard (much as the badger tends to be for SM1), while something like bats could even appear in 1d3 numbers at the cantrip level. It's not like they are terribly effective at anything.
Actually, while I'm thinking about it; I've been working on a Lv 0 summon monster/nature's ally spell. What should be its limitations? All I'm really expecting is basic animals (rat/bat/cat/dog/etc...)Given the power levels, a cat might be the gold standard (much as the badger tends to be for SM1), while something like bats could even appear in 1d3 numbers at the cantrip level. It's not like they are terribly effective at anything.
My idea is more geared towards flavor/minor out-of-combat applications.
I like the 1d3 bats idea actually; I think I'll use that. Thanks Set. ^ ^
-Kurocyn
With the rule from the Rules compendium that you can use Detect Magic to Identify magic items, you have the potential to really SPEED UP game play using this house rule. I like it, and may use this in my next campaign.
Can anyone else think of ways to abuse this? The Daze spell came to my mind also at first, as did Acid Splash being used in place of a thief to bypass... well just about anything if you can use it unlimited times per day. (stone walls and iron doors and all locks are what I was thinking of specifically)
A possible limitation for cure minor wounds would be to say that it cant cure you above 1/2 maximum hit points.
I am about to run a game where I am allowing people to use the heal skill to heal 1/2 the skill in hit points as a fullround action (provoking AoO etc)- but it cant go above 1/2 max hp
wish I had thought of it. Make max uses for CMW equal to current heal skill. Or even only useable with a heal check, making it a standard(?) action that provokes AoO.