OK, so I like the magic system tweaks that Monte Cook made in his AE setting. I am considering using the same system, changed for Pathfinder. I am wanting the method of casting, such as laden spells, spell weaving, heightened & diminished effects. I'm not looking to convert the casting classes. I happen to like what has been done with the wizard, sorcerer, cleric & druid classes. The question comes down to how to handle the classes, though. I am leaning to keeping it as is, such as preparation casters & spontaneous casters. I have considered though how the Magister is presented. He prepares spells, but then can choose any of the for the slots used. My thought was if I used that method for all casters, how do I differentiate between the former spontaneous casters & such. I was thinking if I did this, I would just make, say sorcerers, use bloodlines as a 'focus' for casting. Then require , say the wizard, to use a focus. The specialist wizards can learn an extra spell from their school each spell level learned, and the sorcerer gets to keep the extra spells known from their bloodline as a a bonus spell that is always prepared. Anybody have any ideas for this?
Typically, when people have tried to make the Wizard a spontaneous caster in the past, the overwhelming advice seems to be "It'll make the Sorcerer pointless!"
It seems this would be another thread in which to reiterate that advice.
I am one of the ones that says that. The only reason this might be different, is the whole specialist & bloodline thing. I was thinking about having both casters cast in the same manner. Anyway, I am more leaning to keep the casters as is.
I did something similar with 3.5. Basically I made them all "readied/spontaneous" like AE does.
To differentiate the sorcerer more like the AE Witch giving them some "powers". Pathfinder bloodlines get you halfway there already.
Wizards had to have their spellbook in their hands to cast the spells in the same way Magisters need a staff.
Wizards could only ready spells that are in the spellbook.
Sorcerers still had spells known instead of spells readied.
Austin's point is still valid. It would make they both feel very similar. I'd suggest messing with meta-magic feats. Like one for wizards that allows them to spontaneously cast at the cost or either casting time or spell level.
I think the point people are missing is that IF, and I mean a BIG IF, I did the change to wizards like that I would change the sorcerer too. Both classes would prepare & cast the same way. The difference would be that Wizards would be INT casters & required to a focus item (No Familiars allowed except from a feat). Sorcerers would be CHA casters with their bloodline replacing the need for a focus. Not so much spontaneous casters as Natural Casters. The spells per day list would look more like the Magister's for both classes.
I know there would need to be other things tweaked, but the nature of casting would be changed. Natural versus schooled, rather that prepared versus spontaneous.
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Would you want to go to the step of removing the Metamagic feats, and adding the various Spell Template feats?
Some of the Minimized / Heightened Spells could serve to replace current spells, with Lesser Confusion, for instance becoming a sort of lower-slot casting of Confusion, or Mass Bull's Strength becoming a Heightened version of Bull's Strength (various effects being tweaked to suit the single spell level difference, obviously, as it wouldn't be balanced to just port those specific examples over to the appropriate spell levels).
There are some things about the Arcana Evolved spell system that I really like, but I would probably go with an "all-or-nothing" conversion (well, maybe "most-or-little" is more accurate). If I were to keep the PFRPG spellcasting classes, then there's only one or two things that I'd cherry-pick from AE (heightened/diminished spells, maybe some of the spell templates) but that's about it.
That's true for the source material. If I use it, what I will do is use the same ideas. Have some racial spells for elves & dwarves & such. Bring the emphasis back to the schools like it is in standard D&D/PFRPG. I will be inspired by, not wedded too, lol. My idea, if I do this, is to the classes like I said before. Everybody will prepare some & spontaneous some. Might even tie some spells to the bloodlines like some spells are tied to races. Some of that is done thru the Cleric Domains & Bonus Sorcerer spells for bloodline. Sorcerer will still be different, just not the same as he is now.
As to metamagic, I would use the system in Arcana Evolved. Templates can have an effect too. Dragon Mag had an issue for introducing spell templates into 3.5e once. They pointed to AE as inspiration. I believe with the AE version of metamagic, the feats would actually see more use.
This wouldn't be a simple conversion. I know it would take some work. The sad thing is, I don't get many spellcasters in my games, so I would be doing this strictly for the mental exercise. If I posted it, maybe somebody here would get a kick out of it & tweak it even further for their use.
Would you want to go to the step of removing the Metamagic feats, and adding the various Spell Template feats?
Some of the Minimized / Heightened Spells could serve to replace current spells, with Lesser Confusion, for instance becoming a sort of lower-slot casting of Confusion, or Mass Bull's Strength becoming a Heightened version of Bull's Strength (various effects being tweaked to suit the single spell level difference, obviously, as it wouldn't be balanced to just port those specific examples over to the appropriate spell levels).
I would need to carefully go thru all of the Pathfinder spells & compare them to AE spells. Thank goodness I own AE & Spell Treasury, lol. I started to do this for 3.5e, but got side trekked. This could take me all summer, to say the least.
I believe with the AE version of metamagic, the feats would actually see more use.Spell templates are, IMO, way cooler than metamagic feats.
Then again, their balance can be wonky. The War template is pretty sexy, for instance.
They used both. AE metamagic was achieved by Laden Spell. One feat covered most of the core metamagic feats that upped the caster level by one or two levels, mainly one. You would basically cast the spell normally, but use two slots. Done on the fly & , if I remember right, no increase in caster time. Spell weaving let you combine 3 spell slots from one level to cast the next level up. Let you get use out of lower slots that sometimes go neglected because you don't find low level spells useful anymore.
