I'm a huge fan of games which treat magic as something a little more that 'spells'. I have both played and run, WFRP, Mage: The Ascention and Mage: The Awakening. Have owned Ars Magica and Shadowrun in the past as well.
Now, as far as i can see, spellcaster is currently hugely more powerful than say fighters. I would like to propose that the way to deal with this, is not to make the fighter and co more powerful, but rather, to make spell casters use there powers more Wisely.
I humbly put forward that the way to do this, is to introduce a backlash system to the game.
Something along the line of this.
When an arcane magic user casts a spell, he rolls a will save with a DC of 10+ caster level. If he fails this roll, he looses hitpoints equal to the spells caster level. This damage is caused as arcane energies rush through you, burning your body and mind.
This effect could be mitigated though things like equipment, feats and your familiur.
Mitigation could fall into two camps, damage absorbition and bonus to will saves against backlash.
In the case of divine spell casters, a system which represented either the displeasure of there good or a deepening of there faith, exagerating their beleifs to the point of zealotry.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I'm a huge fan of games which treat magic as something a little more that 'spells'. I have both played and run, WFRP, Mage: The Ascention and Mage: The Awakening. Have owned Ars Magica and Shadowrun in the past as well.
Now, as far as i can see, spellcaster is currently hugely more powerful than say fighters. I would like to propose that the way to deal with this, is not to make the fighter and co more powerful, but rather, to make spell casters use there powers more Wisely.
I humbly put forward that the way to do this, is to introduce a backlash system to the game.
Something along the line of this.
When an arcane magic user casts a spell, he rolls a will save with a DC of 10+ caster level. If he fails this roll, he looses hitpoints equal to the spells caster level. This damage is caused as arcane energies rush through you, burning your body and mind.
This effect could be mitigated though things like equipment, feats and your familiur.
Mitigation could fall into two camps, damage absorbition and bonus to will saves against backlash.
In the case of divine spell casters, a system which represented either the displeasure of there good or a deepening of there faith, exagerating their beleifs to the point of zealotry.
I don't think a system like this would be very backwards compatible, which is one of the main design goals of PRPG. On the other hand, I think something like this would be pretty interesting balancing mechanic for a warlock like class that has no limit on the use of their magic, but has to worry about backlash.
I always thought the easiest thing would be to give fighters eight slots for magic items, and spellcasters two. Then give our decent magic items (not flat bonuses or one encounter per day BS).
I don't think a system like this would be very backwards compatible, which is one of the main design goals of PRPG. On the other hand, I think something like this would be pretty interesting balancing mechanic for a warlock like class that has no limit on the use of their magic, but has to worry about backlash.I'm a huge fan of games which treat magic as something a little more that 'spells'. I have both played and run, WFRP, Mage: The Ascention and Mage: The Awakening. Have owned Ars Magica and Shadowrun in the past as well.
Now, as far as i can see, spellcaster is currently hugely more powerful than say fighters. I would like to propose that the way to deal with this, is not to make the fighter and co more powerful, but rather, to make spell casters use there powers more Wisely.
I humbly put forward that the way to do this, is to introduce a backlash system to the game.
Something along the line of this.
When an arcane magic user casts a spell, he rolls a will save with a DC of 10+ caster level. If he fails this roll, he looses hitpoints equal to the spells caster level. This damage is caused as arcane energies rush through you, burning your body and mind.
This effect could be mitigated though things like equipment, feats and your familiur.
Mitigation could fall into two camps, damage absorbition and bonus to will saves against backlash.
In the case of divine spell casters, a system which represented either the displeasure of there good or a deepening of there faith, exagerating their beleifs to the point of zealotry.
I struggle to see a way in which the arcane backlash system would not be backwards compatible.
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I struggle to see a way in which the arcane backlash system would not be backwards compatible.
Well for one, without extensive reselection of the feats/magic items you yourself suggested, all spellcasting NPC's would have no protection from casting their own spells. While there have been some changes to the 3.5 rules set under the PFRPG Alpha, there hasn't been anything I wasnt able to convert on the fly.
Your proposal, while interesting, would require me as a DM to seriously re-work the NPC's.
Not neccisarially. Both sorcerers and wiszard gain good will save improvement as they become more powerful. So they always gain a degree of protection, NPC's and PC's might well choose only to mitigate it through equipment and familiers, under which conditions, no you would not have to alter your NPC's. It is after all a simple matter to add a peice of equipment to an NPC.
New NPC's and PC's, might however be stated out to be better at backlash mitigation. Its a form of specialisation, sure such a mage is going to be more durable, but he won't have the raw power of a focused meta magic studying wizard.
Ofcause the other interesting thing that could be done with it, is that, ranger and paladine spells could be made into spell like abilities, which would allow them to by pass this. It might also go some way toward sorting out these classes.