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I just had a right and proper brain fart.
What would happen if you allowed all classes with the ability to treat their BAB as caster level and everytime their BAB/caster level gives them access to a spell level they may pick ONE spell that they can then use up to their primary modifier times per day.
So say at lvl 1 a fighter can pick 1 level 0 and 1 lvl 1 spell and he uses his highest ability score to determine how many times a day he can use these abilities. So say 18 str is his highest so he can "cast" 4 "spells" a day.
At lvl 3 he can pick a lvl 2 or lower spell to add and so on.
The caveat being that he has to be able to fluff it in some say. So kind of like dirty trick in that sense.
So say he picks detect magic, we fluff it has sometimes in the presence of strong magic the hairs on the back of his head stand up. Or a rogue with charm person fluffing it as his ability to read and study specific people and manipulate them.
Maybe make it max mod+ BAB/2 (min 1) times per day...
Thoughts?
It honestly does not sound like a good idea at all.
If you want martials to get a mechanic like spells, then consider looking into Path of War's maneuver system.
Why doesnt it sound like a good idea? As i said it was a brain fart and if i didnt think it through properly what did i miss?
It also wouldnt be martials only, it would be available to all classes.
I just think it could add a lot of diversity to the high BAB classes that need diversity, and also add a new interesting add on for lower BAB classes
Giving everyone a ton of spellcasting kind of throws the whole game out of whack. I'm also not seeing any benefit for playing a full spellcaster when martial classes can cast spells better than a wizard. Also, letting spells per day directly scale off ability score modifiers grants an enormous amount of spells. It's not just a class balance thing either. The game assumes that a spellcaster can only cast the highest level of spells maybe once or twice a day, maybe more if it's a low level or a sorcerer. It will have a dramatic effect on your game. Something this big deserves more than a little house rule.
If you want to give more options for players, consider alternate systems that have been designed and playtested. Spheres of Power is pretty amazing at that.
So your biggest issue is the amount of spells and that the full casters loose their schtick?
So change the amount and progression to "a character treats their caster level as BAB/2. They learn a single new "spell" every time they are able to "cast" a new level spell as per the sorcerer list. They may "cast" each level spell once per day."
That way a level 20 fighter can only cast 1 spell of each level up to 5. That certainly isnt any better than a full caster. They also only know 6 "spells"...
At level 1 all characters can cast a single cantrip once a day
Bellow is how full BAB classes would progress:
At lvl 2 they learn a lvl 1 spell
At lvl 8 they learn a lvl 2 spell
At lvl 12 they learn a lvl 3 spell
At lvl 16 they learn a lvl 4 spell
At lvl 20 they learn a lvl 5 spell
At each progression they can still cast each spell only once a day
Cyrad, unfortunately i love in South Africa so the exchange rate kind of kills my chance of getting Spheres of Power or any of the other nice pdf systems already available. Im just brainstorming really and trying to get some input on an idea i had
That sounds a lot more reasonable.
Also, Path of War's system is on d20pfsrd.
That sounds a lot more reasonable.
Also, Path of War's system is on d20pfsrd.
Did not realise that, will have to have a look at it, from an option standpoint how does my idea sound?
Getting a spell you can use once per day every few levels sounds reasonable. Though, there's a big "dead" period between levels 2 and 8, which is where most campaigns happen. Maybe they gain the ability to use cantrips at will at 4th level?
I also think you should give them full caster level for the spells they have so the spells will stay relevant over time.
Another idea is giving all martials the Medium's spell progression. Even for martials that get spells, that's a pretty nice boon.
I had only 2 players so I gave them each a domain cause I was worried they would not be able to take on stuff... it was a bad idea. I got another player and now its just too easy...
It makes things a bit trivial at times and way harder to balance as a GM. If I could go back in time I would not do that. New GM! Learned my lesson!
If you're worried people aren't having fun with straight martials I would suggest to them that they choose a new class with spellcasting progression. Allow them to retrain and trade in equipment they bought one time without penalty. (stuff they found should have to be sold like normal though!)
If you really want to do this I suggest you pick the spell and have them learn it as part of a campaign event or as a reward. Don't promise they will get more spells, just see how it works out and whether it unbalances things too much. At least this way if you regret it, they only have 1 spell that you chose for them and it will probably become less unbalancing after a few levels.
I think I like the spirit of you idea a tad better than the mechanic in making it all happen. Personally, I think that all non-caster classes should get caster archetypes with spell lists that fit them.
A duplicate of this thread?
StuffI would think the key reason a martial would want this is self-buffing? They should be doing way more damage with their weapons at comparable levels.
Would this be much different than potions (up to 3rd level spells) or reading it off a scroll via UMD? except not needing to pay for those items. Especially if you enforced the minimum INT to cast, many martial classes would probably top-out around that 13 INT anyway so just having them get more access to potions may meet your intent of giving them more spell like ability.If its a high magic game that maybe everyone has some magic ability, and that's your game its fine. I'd echo a couple other comments about at least running through some scenarios about how it would work out before leaping in with your players. At least potions you can control access, once you give out class abilities players tend to not like giving them back up.
an option available already, that I'll probably do at 5th level with my druid is...
My opinion is that most martials are doing sufficient damage already. What i was suggesting instead gives all characters the ability to have narrative power. The wizard suggestion is an idea but I was thinking of an option that would allow someone that wanted to play a straight fighter to do so, and not have to dip here and there, and still be narrative relevant.
I wouldn't just let players pick willy nilly any spell. Same as any new testing realm anything would need to be run past me and they would need to describe the fluff to me, and more importantly i suppose, the reason they were taking that spell.
@cycnet, that is probably a very good way to give this a test run, speak to some of my players and see if they are interested and what kind of character they want to develop into and see what spells could fit into that theme.
The main thing i was trying to do was lesson dependance on "magic" by giving it to everybody but fluffing it as "not magic" but rather "anything you can think of that sounds cool and isnt magic"
A duplicate of this thread?
This was the first thread, but i realised the thread topic was putting people off so i made a new one :P
Definitely check out THIS post, and the entire thread from the beginning.
Strangely, though it seems the opposite of what you are wanting, in the end I think the concepts are aligned.
If you want super/anime powers, use spells as SLAs or Path of War Maneuvers or use Spheres of Power as in THIS post.
Which spell list?
Cause honestly? This seems freaking strong lols , ofc it wont compete with a wizard , but i might consider making a full BBA instead of some T2/T3 classes lols.