Spell Research in PFS

[deusvult]

CRB wrote on inventing one's own spells:
"Independent Research: A wizard can also research a spell independently, duplicating an existing spell or creating an entirely new one. The cost to research a new spell, and the time required, are left up to GM discretion, but it should probably take at least 1 week and cost at least 1,000 gp per level of the spell to be researched. This should also require a number of Spellcraft and Knowledge (arcana) checks."

I have to assume that my inability to find anything in PFS saying a GM cannot approve new player-created spells is an oversight, or a lack of ability on my part to really scrutinize everything I should be.

So, I assume that it does in fact fall under the 'anything that says the GM may approve, in PFS he may NOT approve' stance that PFSOP otherwise uses.

And assuming that's correct, has there been any thought towards a mechanism for player-designed spells? I realize that vetting them for sanctioned use, even if only by that player and not by the PFS playerbase at large.. is an enormous problem.

What about letting the players themselves propose new spells, including spellcraft DCs & costs involved, for peer-review? Set some sanity threshhold (perhaps at least X number of players to hit a button saying they'd approve of it) and then most losing ideas are weeded out, leaving potentially a few gems for M&M and/or VC/VL or 4 star GMs or whathaveyou to give final approval for.

Needn't even be approved a whole lot of the time, and would sure be a fun way for players to feel like they've contributed to PFSOP if one of 'their character's' spells becomes approved for use by pathfinders around the world.

[bdk86]

While the idea of being able to do spell research is in and of itself always a "dream" when playing a spellcaster character, there are a number of issues organized play & PFS present:

1) Balance & Time

At the end of the day, it is the Campaign Coordinator and other in house individuals working on PFS who determine the balance of items for use in organized play. While I certainly think a peer review process would be an excellent way to weed out most of the chaff, at the end of the day it still means more work for said coordinator & staff. A staff who is already swamped in scenario submissions, in addition to the regular scenarios they are writing, the modules they are reviewing for OP sanction, the newer content coming down the shoot that needs to be reviewed for suitability for OP, etc. etc. etc.

From a more in character perspective, the campaign's lack of any organized Time Unit system makes what should be a time consuming process a series of quick rolls at the end of a scenario. This means anyone could churn out dozens of "new spells" a year as long as they passed muster. This is part of the reason crafting is not allowed; there is no way to functionally limit how many half-price magic items a caster is churning out in a given time period without creating a time units system everyone has to adhere to. And honestly, these systems do NOT encourage more gameplay, they restrain it. I don't want to see one in PFS.

2) Fan Material & Copyright

There is a whole mess of legal issues with taking fan generated material and declaring it part of the PFS "core assumption" or another document for use in PFS play. While I doubt anyone here would do this out of anything but love for their character & the game, it creates a potential legal fiasco years down the road if someone decides they don't like that Paizo is now using their content for another project. It's just not a wise idea from an IP standpoint.

3) Power Creep

This happens enough just through the evolution of new material as part of the game itself. Custom spells won't help and if you think the "X Should Be Banned from PFS" threads are common now, wait until player created spells enter the mix even with peer review.

4) The Tradeoff Between OP & Home Games

Part of having a shared campaign world means your PC isn't going to contribute much in the way of unique events outside of highly controlled circumstances (Read: Specials run by the Campaign Staff/Coordinator at big Cons). This is because the world is shared, and allowing people to freely alter it means at some point someone's PFS is negatively impacted.

The sad part is, a large portion of the game supports direct mechanical impacts on the campaign world: Custom magic items, custom spells, the Leadership feat, buying property, becoming a King/Vassal/General/Demi-God. Part of the trade off to choosing OP is that you give a lot of these things up when you sign on, because there is no way to ever fairly adjudicate them and give everyone the same opportunities.