All spell casters have a daily limit of how much power they can channel. Over the millenia, many cultures have come up with many different ways of channelling and controlling magic. However magic does not operate by man-made rules, and as such, no system is entirely perfect, and no system entirely represents how magic works, naturally.
Furthermore, as a roleplaying mechanic the systems are represented, necessarily, as being far more rigid than they have to be. This is so the system can be judged and balance maintained. To add a little more 'realism' into how I believe magic functions, I've created my own method of spell weaving.
Since no roleplaying mechanic is truly representative of the innate flexibility of magic, all spell casters can utilize the following rules. It is not that this is a common element to all teaching methods, it's simply an additional mechanic to illustrate that magic itself is more fluid and flexible than those systems represent it to be.
The way it works, is very similar to the Arcana Unearthed system of weaving, but with some very important differences. The main difference is that a spell caster can weave a spell into any spell they can normally cast, whether prepared or readied or not. This means that a wizard can weave spell slots into any spell they have in their spellbook, a mage can weave spell slots into any spell on the simple or complex list (barring positive and negative energy spells), and a cleric can weave slots into any spell they have on the domain lists.
This is a powerful ability, and proportionately, a significant loss must ensue to balance it out. In the Arcana Unearthed system, one can weave three lower level slots into one higher level slot. I feel this is an appropriate loss and is balanced against the benefit. However, the AU method for downgrading a slot I believe is not balanced in my system, and an appropriate sacrifice must be made in order to have this sort of flexibility. Thus the downgrading of a slot is on a one for one basis. If you desperately need an 8th-level spell, and have a spare Meteor Swarm (9th-level spell) prepared, then you can sacrifice that 9th-level slot to cast whatever 8th-level spell you would normally be able to cast.
In all cases, the casting time is doubled. Therefore a spell that would normally take one standard action to cast, now takes one full round action to cast, and a spell that takes one round normally, now takes two rounds.
Lastly, the Concentration DC to avoid Attacks of Opportunity when weaving, is increased to a base of 20 instead of 15. _________________ In more modern times, only Delglath of Rinloru is known to have crafted any items from the stone of this atrocious place. Even masters of the dark arts such as Xaene and Karoolck would hesitate to follow.
This works. Especially the downgrading. It stands to reason that the extra power of the higher level spell is what is burned up in the weaving process. _________________ I am the thought you are now thinking.
"The trees are our ancestors."----Otto Von Bismark
This works. Especially the downgrading. It stands to reason that the extra power of the higher level spell is what is burned up in the weaving process.
Heh, try telling my players that... :D
The main reason it was changed, however, is that it has to work for the PHB classes as well since I'm developing a wicked, step-brother hybrid of AU and PHB stuff with homebrew and UA stuff thrown in for good measure.
Giving it to the PHB classes either made them too powerful (sorcerer), or didn't really benefit them at all (wizard), and yet nuking it altogether weakened the AU classes since they were balanced with it taken into consideration. So I had to change it so that it would work with all classes and not unbalance or unfairly favour any of them.
I think I succeeded. Only playtesting can really determine if it's broken or not and so far it seems to work well. Most players do it out of combat in order to get a utility spell. As of yet, no-one has tried it in combat because of the limitations, which is how it should be, IMO. It's a big risk, but the payoff for casting the exact right spell at the exact right time is a pretty damned big one. _________________ In more modern times, only Delglath of Rinloru is known to have crafted any items from the stone of this atrocious place. Even masters of the dark arts such as Xaene and Karoolck would hesitate to follow.
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