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LordArcana
Seeker
USA
53 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Jan 2008 : 21:32:29
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Over the last several months both my playing group and my DMing group have been experimenting with house rules regarding magic and spell casting.
1. Any non-spontaneous spell caster my sacrifice spell prepared spell slots to cast spells unprepared. The spells to be cast must have been "learned" or "prepared" and some previous time. The mechanics of this are simple, a spell caster gives up slots equal to twice the level of the spell wished to be cast. For simplicity we originally put no limit on spell levels over slots but recently we agreed sacrificed spell slots must be of equal level or higher.
ex. A wizard out on the road decides he NEEDS to cast Darkness but does not have it prepared. He chooses to sacrifice his Melfs Acid Arrow and Flame Sphere which are wiped from memory and he goes through the routines of casting his Darkness spell.
2. Cantrips - As i posted elsewhere, a wizard from levels 1-4 can cast a number of cantrips per day equal to their intelligence score. At 5th level and from the time the wizard creates his personal sigil they can cast cantrips out of sheer willpower. They no longer need to prepare them or keep track of them.
3. Automatic Metamagic - Each level a wizard advance they get automatic metamagic they can apply to zero level spells only. The wizards (level+5) corresponds to the the +modifier of the metamagic feat. At fifth level the wizard can automatically apply +0 metamagic feats to his zero level spells (energy substitution comes to mind). At sixth level they can apply +1 metamagic feats.
Since wizards rarely cast zero level spells post 5th level this is more for "role-playing" aspects similar to how Elminster used a cantrip of Uber Power to prove his worthiness to enter the mage fair. It does come in handy when wizards can swift cast zero level spells to pop off a lightning bolt and a quickened ray of frost.
4. Various spell changes. Virtue, Resistance and Guidance are all automatically swift actions. The ability modifying spells are all condensed into the spell Ability Boost which can provide +2/+4/+6 to an ability for hours/minutes/rounds per level. There is a 4th level spell haste Celerity which allows a spell caster to cast one spell per round as a swift action and his regular spell normal. The draw back is the duration is round per level and the spell caster is limited to NO movement...not even a 5' step.
Anyone else have magic specific house rules that seem overpowered on paper but after being play tested turned out to be not so powerful?
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Not really overpowered...
