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I just saw a suggestion/option on the forums that was supposedly a rule in 1E. If a caster decides to cast a spell, the spell takes time to cast equal to the spell's level in initiative turns. So if the caster goes first and casts a spell (say 2nd lvl) with their standard action, then the spell will go off at the end of the second-next person's turn. A first level spell would go off after the next person's turn. If a spell has more levels than there are initiative counts, then it goes off just before the start of the caster's next turn.
Enemies have the option to see the spell being cast and interrupt it or evade the effect somehow.
Any spell with a cast time other than standard would be unaffected.
They can still take any other action as normal.
What do you think? Would this encourage team work and tactical creativity or is it just a burden to casters?
I usually use readied actions and delayed initiative to allow smart opponents to react to the spells being cast.
Your proposition is more a burden than a tactical stimulation. If spells take place latter in the initiative, I think that some glitch could occur :
Exemple 1 :
Wizard begin to play, he cast charm person on the ogre barbarian
Ogre play, charge and kill the wizard.
Ogre is affected by charm person, the wizard is dead, no effect.
Exemple 2 :
Wizard begin to play, he cast acid pit on the squares occupied by 3 goblins rogues.
Goblins move at their initiative (they don't even know about the spell)
The spell take effect and...no effect, no one still on the squares affected.
When a caster use control and tactical spells, he most target opponents or squares according to the battlefield situation. If this situation evolve before the spell takes effect, the spellcaster is loosing his time throwing spells blindly. Opponents don't even have to react to spells to dodge them, they are just moving out of range.
Furthermore, your barbarian raging teammate is now able to throw himself in your fireball area before it takes effect, thank to his -1 spellcraft check. Now, you have a caster that can kill teammates even if he tries to be careful.
If you want to see opponents countering spellcasters, use readied actions, counterspell, and towershields (total cover VS lighting bolt = no effect).
Wow.
I can't believe I haven't considered this yet.
Seems worth a try, actually.
This will have effects similar to Kirthfinder, long lasting spells and utility spells become more useful. If I spend five more rounds on overland flight, it's no big deal.
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This isn't how I would describe the 1e rule.
Time in 1e was 100 segments= 10 rounds= 1 turn= 10 minutes. Combat was conducted in rounds; characters acted 1/minute in combat. Each spell had a casting time, usually in segments.
The problem was that 1e never spelled out how segments related to action order in a round, or how other related concepts might fit in.
To add this concept in PF, maybe a smooth fit would be spells going off a number of initiative counts later equal to spell level. It's a bit of a kludge, because rounds don't have a fixed number of initiative counts. It would also require some additional rules for swift spells and maybe some corner cases. It would make some big tactical changes.
It would also suggest parsing down when the attacks of a full attack come in and has effectively dial acted the time scale. There is a complexity here that would kinda big things down.
