This variant is designed to make multiclass spellcasters viable. It makes the mystic theurge pointless, since you can now just alternate levels of any two spellcasting classes and get a similar but slightly better character.
To that end, the spells per day progression of all classes is replaced with a single table which different classes climb at different rates and a few bonus spell slots which some classes gain at particular levels. It may sound complicated, but Spells/level/day should end up exactly the same unless you play a sorcerer, oracle or multiclass spellcaster.
You’ll find no Vancian casting here, but don’t worry, if you want to keep it, you could very easily ignore that side or it. Just have the sorcerer and oracle gain no magic rank one level and push their bonus spell slots back a level, then only use the readied spells mechanic for spontaneous casters.
The spell readying and ritual casting systems here are designed to simplify preparation, let spontaneous casters get a little more out of metamagic and stop casters from having to rest for 8 hours just because they prepared the wrong spell, all without disregarding the restrictions designed to keep these classes distinct from each other and under control.
You’ll notice I have changed the action for spontaneous metamagic. Again, if you dislike that, it’s easy enough to remove.
Paladins and rangers get access to the full cleric/druid lists. Again, this can easily be removed by restoring their old spell lists.
I’m aware that something similar was done in Trailblazer. I’m not sure how close the final product is, but I saw a preview version a while ago and there are some significant differences between this and that.
Any suggestions, glaring flaws pointed out or similar things are welcome. Sorry if it’s a little hard to read. I had trouble wording things and finding the right names for new concepts.
Casting classes get a Magic Rank progression. Add up all your magic ranks from all your classes to get your total magic rank. Your total rank shows you which level on the Spell Table to use.
If you don’t do magic, you don’t have a Magic Rank at all. Not having a magic rank is not the same as having Magic Rank 0.
The Spell Table is identical to the wizard’s spells per day table, except with a level 0 marked on it. Level 0 gives you 3 level 0 spells and nothing else. The numbers for each spell level aren’t just your spells per day; they are also your spells readied.
You can cast your readied spells spontaneously.
If you are a multiclass spellcaster, it often matters which class you use to ready a spell, (for example, wizards and sorcerers have the same spell list, but they use different ability scores), so make sure you write which classes you have used to ready each spell. You can ready the same spell multiple times from different classes, if you like.
You can ready and cast any spell you know, provided your casting stat for it is equal or greater than the spell’s level -10, you have a readied spell of that level and its spell level is no higher than the number of magic ranks you have from the class you use to ready and cast the spell.
You no longer have a separate caster level for each class. Add up all your caster levels and use the total for all spells you cast.
All spell slots are refreshed after 8 hours of rest.
All bonus spells for high ability scores are based on Constitution.
A caster can use a ritual to cast any spell he knows, even if he does not have it readied.
The ritual lasts for [10 x the spell’s level] minutes (level 0 spells take 2 minutes). At the end of that time, the ritualist must cast the spell immediately or waste the time. If the ritual is interrupted, it must be started again from scratch. Spellcraft can be used to identify which spell the caster is preparing to cast as though he is already casting it. Casting in this way costs the same as casting a readied spell.
Spells can be readied with metamagic already applied to them. This costs no extra action. Spells with this “built-in” metamagic count as spells of their modified level for the purposes of determining how many spells of each level you can ready. You can’t apply metamagic spontainiously unless you have a class feature for it.
If you use a spell slot to cast a lower level spell, you don’t expend it. Instead, you reduce its level by the level of the spell. When a spell slot is refreshed, it is restored to its original level.
Readying all your spells takes an hour, no matter how many you know or from how many classes you take them.
Magic Rank starts at 1 and increases by 1 at every level not devisable by 3.
They get an extra 1st level spell slot at 3rd level, and extra 2nd level spell slot at 6th level, and extra 3rd level spell slot at 9th level, and extra 4th level spell slot at 12th level, extra 5th level spell slots at 15th and 19th levels, and extra 6th level spell slots at 18th and 20th levels. These slots can only be used for bard spells.
They cast from the bard list as normal.
Bards use the spell tables as their spells known, as well as their spells readied and spells per day.
Bards practice performing to ready their bard spells.
Bardic rituals are magical performances.
Bards can spontaneously add or remove metamagic from a readied bard spell by spending a move action in addition to the spell’s normal casting time. Once one move action has been used, any number of metamagic feats can be applied or ignored. Even quickening spells uses this extra action.
Magic Rank = class level
Know all cleric spells
They must choose a time of day when they can pray to their deity to ready their cleric spells. They cannot ready their cleric spells at other times of day.
They still get domain slots as they gain cleric levels. They can cast their domain spells in their domain slots even if they don’t have them readied. They cannot cast their domain spells in ordinary slots unless they are readied.
Clerics choose to get either all Cure or all Inflict spells they can cast as extra readied spells that cannot be changed.
Clerical rituals are prayers to the cleric’s deity. They must always involve a divine focus.
Magic Rank = class level
They must choose a time of day when they can perform a rite to ready their druid spells. They cannot ready their druid spells at other times of day.
They get all Summon Nature’s Ally spells they can cast as extra readied spells that cannot be changed.
Druidic rituals are secret rites.
Druid Domains work just like cleric domains.
No magic rank at levels 1-3. Magic rank is 0 at level 4. It increases by 1 at 5th level and every odd numbered level thereafter.
Paladins become spellcasters at level 4, even though they may have 0 magic ranks. This means they can ready and cast level 0 spells as a paladin.
Know all spells on the cleric/paladin list.
Paladins must choose a time of day when they meditate can pray to their deity ready their paladin spells. They cannot ready their paladin spells at other times of day.
Rudimentary Magic: At 4th level, a paladin can cast 1st level paladin spells, even if his magic rank shouldn’t allow it. If he doesn’t have any spell slots of that level, he can use 1st level spell slots gained from having a high Constitution. As long as their Charisma is high enough, Paladins with this feature can always ready a minimum of one 1st level spell from the cleric/paladin list, even if the Spell Table says otherwise.
At 7th level, this ability also applies to second level spells. At 10th level, it applies to 3rd level spells and at 13th level is applies to 4th level spells.
At 20th level, paladins get an extra 4th level spell slot. This can only be used to cast paladin spells.
Paladin rituals are prayers to the paladin’s deity or periods of intense concentration. They must always involve a divine focus.
At 4th level, paladins get Bless Weapon as an extra 1st level readied spell which cannot be changed.
At 13th level, they get Holy Sword as an extra 4th level readied spell which cannot be changed.
For reasons unknown to experts in spellcraft, but well understood by people who think paladins making cockroaches grow is just silly, Giant Vermin cannot be readied or cast as a paladin spell. Anti-paladins can use it to their black little hearts’ content.
No magic rank at levels 1-3. Magic rank is 0 at level 4. It increases by 1 at 5th level and every odd numbered level thereafter.
Rangers become spellcasters at level 4, even though they may 0 magic ranks. This means they can ready and cast level 0 spells from the druid/ranger list.
Rudimentary Magic: At 4th level, a ranger can cast 1st level ranger spells, even if his magic rank shouldn’t allow it. If he doesn’t have any spell slots of that level, he can use 1st level spell slots gained from having a high Constitution. As long as their Wisdom is high enough, Rangers with this feature can always ready a minimum of one 1st level spell from the druid/ranger, even if the Spell Table says otherwise.
At 7th level, this ability also applies to second level spells. At 10th level, it applies to 3rd level spells and at 13th level is applies to 4th level spells.
At 20th level, rangers get an extra 4th level spell slot. This can only be used to cast ranger spells.
They know all spells on the druid/ranger list.
Rangers meditate to ready their ranger spells.
Ranger rituals are periods of intense concentration.
Magic rank = class level
They get 2 extra 1st level slots at 1st level, 2 extra 2nd level slots at 3rd level, 2 extra 3rd level slots at 5th level etc. These slots can only be used to cast sorcerer spells.
Sorcerers use the Spell Table as their spells known, as well as their spells readied and spells per day.
Sorcerers meditate to ready their sorcerer spells.
Bloodline spells are both extra spells known and extra readied spells that cannot be changed.
Sorcerer rituals are periods of intense concentration.
Sorcerers can spontaneously add or remove metamagic from a readied sorcerer spell by spending a move action in addition to the spell’s normal casting time. Once one move action has been used, any number of metamagic feats can be applied or ignored. Even quickening spells uses this extra action.
Magic Rank = class level
Wizards study their spellbook to ready their wizard spells.
Spells are added to the spellbook as normal.
Wizard rituals are classic arcane rituals. They must always involve a spell component pouch.
Magic Rank starts at 1 and increases by 1 at every level not devisable by 3.
Extracts are learned as normal, but they are not readied like spells.
Creating an extract costs a spell slot of the extract’s level.
They get an extra 1st level spell slot at 3rd level, and extra 2nd level spell slot at 6th level, and extra 3rd level spell slot at 9th level, and extra 4th level spell slot at 12th level, extra 5th level spell slots at 15th and 19th levels, and extra 6th level spell slots at 18th and 20th levels. These slots can only be used for extracts.
Magic Rank starts at 1 and increases by 1 at every level not devisable by 3.
They get an extra 1st level spell slot at 3rd level, and extra 2nd level spell slot at 6th level, and extra 3rd level spell slot at 9th level, and extra 4th level spell slot at 12th level, extra 5th level spell slots at 15th and 19th levels, and extra 6th level spell slots at 18th and 20th levels. These slots can only be used for Inquisitor spells.
They cast from the inquisitor list as normal.
Inquisitors use the spell tables as their spells known, as well as their spells readied and spells per day.
They must choose a time of day when they can pray to their deity to ready their inquisitor spells. They cannot ready inquisitor spells at other times.
Inquisitor rituals are prayers to the inquisitor’s deity. They must always involve a divine focus.
Inquisitors can spontaneously add or remove metamagic from a readied inquisitor spell by spending a move action in addition to the spell’s normal casting time. Once one move action has been used, any number of metamagic feats can be applied or ignored. Even quickening spells uses this extra action.
Magic rank = class level
They get 2 extra 1st level slots at 1st level, 2 extra 2nd level slots at 3rd level, 2 extra 3rd level slots at 5th level etc. These slots can only be used to cast oracle spells.
Oracles use the Spell Table as their spells known, as well as their spells readied and spells per day.
Oracles can spontaneously add or remove metamagic from a readied oracle spell by spending a move action in addition to the spell’s normal casting time. Once one move action has been used, any number of metamagic feats can be applied or ignored. Even quickening spells uses this extra action.
Mystery spells are both extra spells known and extra readied spells that cannot be changed.
Oracles meditate on their mystery to ready their oracle spells.
Oracle rituals are prayers to the paladin’s deity or periods of intense concentration. They must always involve a divine focus.
Magic Rank starts at 1 and increases by 1 at every level not devisable by 3.
They get an extra 1st level spell slot at 3rd level, and extra 2nd level spell slot at 6th level, and extra 3rd level spell slot at 9th level, and extra 4th level spell slot at 12th level, extra 5th level spell slots at 15th and 19th levels, and extra 6th level spell slots at 18th and 20th levels. These slots can only be used for summoner spells.
Summoners use the spell tables as their spells known, as well as their spells readied and spells per day.
Summoners meditate on the mysteries of the planes to ready their summoner spells.
Summoner rituals are elaborate invocations to draw power from the planes.
Summoners can spontaneously add or remove metamagic from a readied summoner spell by spending a move action in addition to the spell’s normal casting time. Once one move action has been used, any number of metamagic feats can be applied or ignored. Even quickening spells uses this extra action.
Magic Rank = Class level.
Spells are added to the familiar in the normal way, including patron spells.
Witches must converse in secret with their familiar to ready their witch spells. They can ready any spell their familiar has, as normal.
Witch rituals involve invoking the witch’s patron and communing with it. They always require a spell component pouch.
Feats
Spontaneous Metamage
Prerequisite: Ability to spontaneously apply metamagic to spells from one class you have magic ranks in, magic ranks in another class which does not allow spontaneous metamagic.
Effect: You can apply spontaneous metamagic to any spell you can cast.
You do not ready psionic powers like spells. You can just use them.
You get your power points by converting spell slots into points at the same time you ready spells. Any spell slot can convert into [spell level*2]-1 psionic power points. Whenever you ready spells, you can reset all your power points back into their original slots.
The number of power points you can spend in a turn is equal to your Magic Rank