Pardon me if I ramble a little, just got done driving for 4 1/2 hours (currently 4:42 AM here) to make it for 4th of July in another town. Anyway, I had a thought to make casting more dramatic. Roughly, area effect damage dealing spells (Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, Flame Strikes etc.) have a chance to 'blow people away' so-to-speak. What I'm thinking of, is on a failed save, the Caster can make a Bull Rush against the victim with a bonus equal to their CL + level of the spell. No other feats, spells, abilities etc, can boost this. On a successful save, the Caster can still make the check, but at only half CL + half Spell level. If the victim takes no damage (such as from Evasion, Immunity, SR etc.) there is no effect.
I like the idea of a Wizard hitting someone with a Lightning Bolt and pushing them off the balcony, or out the window, or a Fireball sending people flying when it goes off.
I think I would only apply this to Area Effect Evocation spells, so no conjure balls of Acid to send people flying. Spells like Chain Lightning wouldn't wort either, because they don't have an area, they have a number of targets.
Anyway, any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, criticisms or what have you would be appreciated. This is just an idea in it's infantile stage (thought it up while driving) so nothing is permanent.
I would only make this happen with spell crits. Either a critical miss on the save, or make your players roll their "spell attack" against the creature's "Save Score" (10+Save)and if they crit, add some neat effects to the spell.
Or add a meta magic feat that adds force to AoE spells at a cost of 2 or so levels.
Giving casters more power is not going to help, IMHO. I can imagine myself making an evocation specialist that can do a lot of damage, stack dazing spell on top, and now I have all the enemies prone. If I can stack selective spell on top then none of my people are affect.
I would only make this happen with spell crits. Either a critical miss on the save, or make your players roll their "spell attack" against the creature's "Save Score" (10+Save)and if they crit, add some neat effects to the spell.
Or add a meta magic feat that adds force to AoE spells at a cost of 2 or so levels.
There was a feat that did this in 3.5, but my players don't really take metamagic feats. They don't really think they're useful. The last time I ran a game, they were one session away from running into a caster (boss of a dungeon) that very much-so enjoyed meta magic, but half of them got wiped out when a Black Dragon in a lake decided grapple + sinking to the bottom was the best method of combat. Some of them decried me as being unfair because they think monsters should just stand still and trade blows. To see a monster use tactics is cheating. The other half knew what I was doing and knew I was preparing the first half (mostly new players) for higher levels.
Anyway, I also don't use spell crits, so that really isn't an option. Maybe I could limit the bonuses to be their BAB (instead of CL) + spell level, that way their is still a chance it could happen, but it's not going to happen every shot?
Giving casters more power is not going to help, IMHO. I can imagine myself making an evocation specialist that can do a lot of damage, stack dazing spell on top, and now I have all the enemies prone. If I can stack selective spell on top then none of my people are affect.
True, but remember, this is a personal house rule. I know my players and I know I don't have to worry about that. They generally aren't too concerned about optimizing their builds. In fact, the one guy who consistently plays Casters, is used to Wizards from older editions where, apparently, blasting was a very good option.
The few times I've seen any optimization going on, it was usually at my own suggestion. The most optimized character I've seen brought to my table, was an archer, and that was mostly because I told him what to pick/choose.
The way I see it, adding force is like adding a spell ontop of a spell, that's why I am worrisome of doing it without metamagic or doing it on EVERY cast.
You could add spell crits, but just not double the damage. Just make a spell crit add effects to any spell.
You could even make each spell crit an event, having the spell behave uniquely depending on what it hits, where it is cast, etc.
Double damage spell crits are bad, but "Special" spell crits can be fun.
Makes casters a lot more like volatile weapons of mass destruction.
I once made a critted charm permanent. It was a low level creature, so having him around lead to no real power increase, but the wizard soon became very annoyed by this goblin rubbing on his leg all the time.
The way I see it, adding force is like adding a spell ontop of a spell, that's why I am worrisome of doing it without metamagic or doing it on EVERY cast.
You could add spell crits, but just not double the damage. Just make a spell crit add effects to any spell.
You could even make each spell crit an event, having the spell behave uniquely depending on what it hits, where it is cast, etc.
Double damage spell crits are bad, but "Special" spell crits can be fun.
Makes casters a lot more like volatile weapons of mass destruction.
I once made a critted charm permanent. It was a low level creature, so having him around lead to no real power increase, but the wizard soon became very annoyed by this goblin rubbing on his leg all the time.
I think if I limited it to say, BAB + Spell Level, I should be fine. Short of a lucky roll, the Wizard isn't really going to be making Bull Rushes against the Giant, but he could easily scatter that horde of goblins running down the hall way (blowing them back or aside) so the Fighter can charge the Giant. For instance, a 5th level Wizard casting Lightning Bolt at those Goblins would have a Bull Rush bonus of +5, which isn't very high. Maybe those who fail their save take a penalty to their CMD equal to the casters ability modifier so making a save would still be a good thing to do?
I'm just tossing out ideas here, but I do like the idea of 'Special' spell crits, instead of things like double damage.
However, I'm heading to bed, I'm squinting as it is just to stay awake, so I'll continue this tomorrow.