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So, I found a bid old stack of Dragon mags in my attic, and I moved them to the bathroom for toilet reading.
Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.
Anyways, I found some tiny article on arcane focus, which was pretty much just like Psionic focus. And it occurred to me that forcing someone to chill and gather themselves for a big casting is kind of a cool subsystem.
Sometimes it strikes me that casting is a little too...easy. Barring an attack roll, or a concentration check when you're being distracted, casting a spell is like firing a gun. I realize that this is sort of part of vancian casting; you load the powder and the shot at the beginning of the day, then fire your brain-gun later.
We've already got on-the-fly casting in the Words Of Power system, so wouldn't it be kind of cool to also have a few more dramatic casting mechanics?
I guess what kind of sparked this thought was a friend of mine talking about why he liked the magus, but not other casters. he likes to be a s+@+-kicker, and it's hard to be a physical badass as a full-caster.
And then I thought of the Dresden Files. And it got me thinking about more dynamic magic systems, that allow wizards to push themselves in extremis, for example. Like, being able to take hit point or mental damage to cast a spell even when you're out of slots/points, or to jack the caster level at the cost of taking Fatiuge/exhaustion/going unconscious. I'm just saying it would be kind of cool for casters to have obvious physical/mental effort go into their art.
Then again, you could say the same for combat classes. melee combat is freaking tiring; anyone who's played AmtGuard for a few minutes knows that firsthand. even for someone with physical conditioning who isn't a pasty nerd, pulling off extended fighting full of fancy moves would be hard. Special actions like Power Attack could have a cost associated with them, like a certain number of Fatiuge points, maybe based off your con score/mod (like, you have Stamina equal to your Con+class level). A lot like Ki points, really. Yeah, fighter Ki points, that you spend to pull of semi-tome-of-battle-esque special moves, which you get access to via feats (something more to do with fighter bonus feats). Like: Pay 1 stamina, get a free trip with your next attack.
The only problem is that this would be per/day, when it really makes more sense to be per/encounter (up to a point). Maybe between combat, you can regain one or two stamina, but you can still be completely exhausted at the end of the day. It would be cool to have Fatigue come up a little more often, as a penalty for exerting yourself.
Of course, most combats don't go longer than a minute, ususally much less.
I mean, say what you will about 4E, but giving melee dudes lots of cool combat powers that let them shove people or lower their defenses or whatever was a pretty cool idea.
Just random thoughts.
I personally like the idea of spellpoints. 3.5 Psionics weree simlar. They regenerate over time and the more you rest the faster they come back. Of couse sleeping eight hours restores all of them fully. I like the idea that casting is taxing, but resting restore over time.