
Esper Ranger |

I've never been a big fan of the whole "memorize, cast, forget" way that magic works in RPGs so I've been toying with the idea of adding an extra stat to each character called "Magic Points".
They work pretty much like those used in video game RPGs. The character starts each day with a fresh supply of points and spends them to cast their spells. 1st level spells cost 1 point, 2nd level costs 2 points and so on. Spells may be cast multiple times as long as they have enough points left.
Would I be dramatically unbalancing the game? Should 0 level spells be free or cost half a point?
When a character levels up what would be a good way to increase their allotment of magic points? Roll a d20? Increase it by an amount equal to their INT or WIS score?

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Since 0 level spells are unlimited in PF, they should be free to cast under a MP system.
Keep in mind that the only real change this system makes is allowing casters to spend all their points on their highest level spells, instead of being forced to use their lower level spells when they have no more of their highest level slots.
Remember that PF spellcasting, and even 3.5 casting, never mentions anything about casters 'forgetting' spells. If it helps, think of a spellcaster like a vending machine. It gets stocked every day, but when one kind is sold out, it doesn't matter how many of another kind you have, you still have to wait for the next restock.

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If it helps, there was a Spell Points system in the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana, which can also be found on d20srd.org.
I have done my own conversion of this system to Pathfinder RPG on my own website.

VoodooMike |

A better way to look at wizard spells is to say that it is not an issue of memorizing/forgetting, but rather one of spell completion. Each day while preparing spells, the wizard performs the lengthy ritualistic parts of each spell, leaving out only the final words and gestures necessary to enact the effect. Then, later during the day when he needs the spell effect, he performs the final words and gestures, and provides the materials, and the ritual is complete and the effect happens.
The benefit with this is that formulaic magic is treated as long rituals that would not be suited for combat if not for the fact that the ritual need not be completed in the same sitting to take effect. It gives the magic a different flavour than sorcery, too, and is considerably more rational than thinking of things as being forgotten when cast.

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A better way to look at wizard spells is to say that it is not an issue of memorizing/forgetting, but rather one of spell completion. Each day while preparing spells, the wizard performs the lengthy ritualistic parts of each spell, leaving out only the final words and gestures necessary to enact the effect. Then, later during the day when he needs the spell effect, he performs the final words and gestures, and provides the materials, and the ritual is complete and the effect happens.
That's pretty much the way I see it.
A more flowery description could portray magic as threads of possibility waving around, that only wizards can see, and gather together into intricate patterns, capturing leftover energy from creation itself, possible things that never were created, and bind them into a creation of his own design. They lie within him, pulsing, waiting, trembling slightly and ready at any moment to be unleashed, and he simply has to reach within himself and pull a single thread that binds this arcane knotwork of forces together into a stable pattern, causing it to rush free, unleashing whatever magical effect he constructed it to manifest.
Arcane magic is the leftover 'raw material' of creation, raw unforced possibility itself, and the wizard is the man who has peeked at the blueprints, and can reach out and temporarily cause forces and effects and substances and even creatures to pop into (or out of...) existence.
Other wizards might have completely different theories. None of them can truly be proven right or wrong, as all of the wizards seem to be able to cast the same sorts of spells, regardless of how they think it all works behind the curtain.