I’ve been playing DnD for 20+ years now, and one thing has bugged me the whole time: Vancian casting. As a kid, I accepted it for wizards, (we didn’t have sorcerers then), but it always bugged me for Clerics. Shouldn’t they be praying for their spells in the moment, as needed? Maybe they had a set few tricks up their sleeve that they had learned through repetition, but most of their spells should come at the moment they need them. I felt the same way with Druids, Paladins, and Rangers. So, after being out of DnD for the better part of a decade, I went back to 2nd edition (I’d skipped 3rd and what came after), and then a friend turned me on to Pathfinder. I have some issues with the insane wealth that comes with levels (which is a topic for another post), but I’d like to see if anyone can spot a balance mistake in some of the changed I’d like to make. Note that my concern is balancing among the classes, NOT balancing my revamp to its original class.
1) No more Prepared casters. That means no more Wizards, with their role being replaced by Arcane Sorcerers. The feat Imbue Sorcerous Item is an added feat for Sorcerers. This is not a bonus feat.
2) Changing Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers to Spontaneous casting. Clerics and Druids follow Spontaneous progression.
3) Clerics retain Channel and domain abilities and spells, and continue to work of Wisdom. The feat Imbue Holy Object is an added feat for Clerics. This is not a bonus feat.
4) Druids stay mostly the same, including still casting off Wisdom. If they choose to gain extra casting instead of a companion with Natrue’s Bond, the domain abilities and spells work as normal. The feat Imbue Wild Object is an added feat for Druids. This is not a bonus feat.
5) Paladins and Rangers will have a custom spells known and spells known list. I’m still working on that one. Paladins gain access to Imbue Holy Object once they are able to cast 3rd level spells. Rangers gain access to Imbue Wild Object at the same point in their spell progression. This is not a bonus feat.
6) Imbue object feats: These feats each have a requirement of 3rd level caster and Scribe Scroll for Clerics and Druids. Further requirements for Paladins and Rangers are noted above.
A) Imbue Holy Object. This feat will allow Clerics and Paladins to pray to their god for aid in the form of a spell trigger item. They may imbue an object with any spell that is on their available spell list, and they may imbue any masterwork item already in their possession, or create an item in the using of the feat that will work as they spell trigger item. A sacrifice of gold, incense, or items of personal and material value must be sacrificed in the creation of these items, and the cost is equal to the cost of creating a scroll. The time requirement is likewise the same. Imbued items may only be used by their creator.
B) Imbue Sorcerous Item. This feat will allow sorcerers to study arcane tomes to create a spell trigger item following the same requirements and rules as a Cleric using Imbue Holy Item.
C) Imbue Wild Item. This feat will allow Druids and Rangers to pray to the wilds for aid in the form of a spell trigger item. They may imbue an object with any spell that is on their available spell list, and they may imbue any masterwork item already in their possession, or create an item in the using of the feat that will work as they spell trigger item. The creation rules for this feat follow all rules of the Imbue Holy Item feat.
7) Holy monks. I like the idea of holy, mystical warriors, and if a Cleric gives up all armor and weapons, they gain Monk Flurries, Wisdom bonus to AC, unarmed strike, and such. Note: since Monk flurry is full BAB 2 weapon progression, the Holy monks progression needs to be adjusted to good BAB, not full.
8) Imbue Totem feat. This feat will allow the creation of a spell completion item that is not a scroll, but functions in the same way.
9) Any martial class may use a spell completion item that is created specifically for them. A caster does not need to intimately know the martial character in question to create the item (though they must have met personally), but once a caster has created (10-caster level) items for the martial character, the UMD skill used in triggering the item is the casters. This still allows for caster to be paid to make items for martial characters, but not as well as party members.
10) The Arcane feats (i.e. Shield) also become divine feats.
11) The Spell Expertise feats are slightly adjusted. When taken, the character may elect to take a spell not currently on their Spells Known list. If they do take a spell from their Spells Known list, they may immediately choose to remove that spell from their Spells Known list and replace it with a new one.
12) Warlocks, which are now called Invokers. I know they’re not Pathfinder legit, but the conversion will be easy. However, a dedicated ranged blaster is really pretty weak in anything other than an arena fight against a fighter. Yes, they can always fly while invisible, but their damage output is WAY below the damage output of any other dedicated damage dealer of equal level. So, I am going to make a few changes to this class before allowing them:
A) Move blast progression to sneak attack damage.
B) Add an invocation every level.
C) I am going to allow iterative attacks to be blasts.
D) I will be removing the alignment limitations, and renaming/reskinning the ‘demon blast’ part of their class.
E) I will be allowing most Dragonfire Adept invocations.
F) Warlocks will be reskinned into three classes; The Holy, the Fey Touched, and the Warlock.
The Holy will be the Cleric/Paladin match up, and will be members of the church blessed and cursed with channeling the holy power of their god. Their blasts will be holy power (fluff, not magic item quality). I need to design some appropriate invocations, probably cribbed from the cleric list.
The Fey Touched will be the Druid/Ranger match up, and will channel the raw change of the wild. Their blasts will be pure change, growth, and mutation. I need to design some appropriate invocations, probably cribbed from the druid list.
The Warlock will not change much in crunch, other than removing the EVIL. Obviously, the new/changed invocations will be arcane in nature.
G) This class STILL doesn’t fill the role I want it to, which is a fighter that uses magic as his weapon. At 1st level, the character gains a familiar as a sorcerer with the Arcane bloodline would. At 6th level, the animal is blessed by a god/mutated by the wild/infused with arcane power, and becomes an animal companion, with an effective druid level of Invoker level -3.
Thoughts from the community?
Apart from spell preparation, a significant element of Vancian magic is the fact that magic is "packaged" as spells. Spells have fixed effects (can't change a fireball for a firewall - there's a different spell for that) that don't require a proper progression (one can learn delayed blast fireball even without knowing fireball).
Are you moving away from that as well making magic more "freeform"?
As for your opening statement, I too have a harder time at accepting Vancian magic for divine casters. Personally, I love Vancian theories of arcane magic and adds to the wizard = magic scholars, but the fluff works less on, well, everyone else...
'findel
I am not sure. The Word of Power (if I remember the name right) preview from the book of magic (I forgot the name) looks really promising, and easy to personalize.
I just realized I didn't 100% answer your question. I will keep spells as packaged concepts. For DnD I like spells more than the spheres of effects in Mage: the Ascension.
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7) Holy monks. I like the idea of holy, mystical warriors, and if a Cleric gives up all armor and weapons, they gain Monk Flurries, Wisdom bonus to AC, unarmed strike, and such. Note: since Monk flurry is full BAB 2 weapon progression, the Holy monks progression needs to be adjusted to good BAB, not full.
Kobold Quarterly had a "sacred fist" variant class in their Winter 2010 issue. It was basically a monk build that trades several class abilities (including flurry of blows) for cleric spellcasting.
I like most of your non-vancian ideas. I was never really comfortable with the idea that clerics essentially "know" every spell on their class list and just pick a bunch fro the day.