An Arcane Spell Failure Houserule, opinion please?


Homebrew and House Rules


Armor Check Penalty applies to all Concentration checks for arcane casters. Normal exceptions apply.

When casting an arcane spell in any kind of armor, or while using a shield, you must make a Concentration check as though Entangled* (DC 15 + Spell Level). Failure means the spell fails.

Any ability that would reduce Arcane Spell Failure reduces check penalties on Concentration checks by 1 per 5%. Any ability that reduces armor check penalty, such as Proficiency or a Fighter's Armor Training, also applies to the Concentration check.

*this might be a little high for some people. In my campaign, a failed spell is not consumed, so I feel this is a fair DC.


toyrobots with the failed spell not being consumed this works to me, otherwise I would leave as it is personally.


I would agree that your math seems less along the lines of 2.0 and more along the lines of 3.0 - PFRPG.

I like where it is going.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

So you want to take the arcane failure of a chain shirt which is 20%
Take a level 1 wiz with 18 int.
into DC 15 + Spell Level + (20/5) = 19 +spell level

So the DC at level 1 for a level 1 spell is a DC 20. We go from a 20% fail chance to a 75% fail chance.

Now if he has Arcane armor training that reduces the failure to 10%

With this rule the failure is

DC 15 + Spell Level +10/5 = 17 + spell level

We for the cost of a feat the mage has gone from a 65% spell failure to 55% spell failure.

Now after 20 levels he will be able to get a 30 int and tossing out level 9 spells

DC 15 + Spell level 9 + 20/5 = 28

with a roll of +30 he won't even need the feat.

So what have we accomplished? We have tied an anchor on the low level wizard and given the high level wizard a cool new power.

The high level mages don't need any help and the low level ones really don't need any more anchors to carry.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Homebrew and House Rules / An Arcane Spell Failure Houserule, opinion please? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Homebrew and House Rules