Friday, November 18, 2022

Did I Just Solve Spell Points?

I’m thinking of a freeform sort of spell point/tally system… it works this way. As a caster, you have a maximum spell tier and a tally die. That’s it. That’s how you track your available spells that day…
 

Level  

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Spell Tier

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

Tally Die

1d4

1d6

1d6

1d8

1d8

1d10

1d10

1d12

1d12

1d12

 
You have a daily number of tallies equal to your caster level. You roll your tally die (based on your level), after each spell you cast. If you roll that spell’s tier or lower, you receive a tally. Once your total tallies equal your level, you are done for the day.
 
As a Magician 1, each spell I cast has a 25% chance of being my last one for the day. I could be one and done, but I could also get on a hot streak and cast ten spells before fate intervenes and stops me. Moving to level 2 gives me an extra tally every day, and also decreases my chances of getting a tally from 25% to 16%, so it’s a significant step up. I’m not more powerful per se, but I have more control over how I cast spells. The system alternates every level between increasing raw spell power and increasing your ability to manage that power effectively.
 
As a Magician 5, I can get 5 tallies before I’m done for the day. I can cast spells of tier 1, 2, or 3, and I roll my tally die (1d8) every time I cast a spell; if I roll the tier of the spell I just cast or lower, I receive a tally. Tier 1 spells have only a 12.5% chance of giving me a tally, while tier 3 spells have a 37.5% chance of giving me a tally. Early in the day, I may not worry too much about getting a tally, so I drop a tier 3 spell when I maybe didn’t need to, because I don’t mind taking the risk. However, during the fight with the big bad, I might be at tally 4… so every spell I cast is a risk… yes, even a tier 1 spell could be the end of my casting day, or I could keep getting lucky and keep rolling high all day, never running out of energy.
 
As a Magician 10, I’m incredibly powerful. Even my best spells (tier 5) only have a 42% chance of giving me a tally, and I can get 10 of those… yes, I could be out for the day after ten tier 1 spells, but that would mean I’m doing nothing but rolling 1s on a d12, so that’s pretty unlikely…
 
Cantrips would have their own system; you just apply your tally die as both the chance of getting a tally and the total number of tallies for the day. You only get a tally on a 1; as a Magician 1, I use 1d4 as my tally die for cantrips, and I have 4 tallies worth of cantrips every day. As a Magician 10, I have an 8% chance of getting a cantrip tally (a 1 on 1d12), and I get 12 of those every day, so I use cantrips without a care. My availability (or lack thereof) of cantrips has nothing to do with my standard spell casting.
 
Please excuse my hyperbole, but I think that this system if frickin’ brilliant. All I have to write on my character sheet is (tier 3/tally 1d8) for my spell casting ability, and I know everything I need to know to run my spell points for that day.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, and I am doing little perks for having an attribute rated 11+, so with a Lore 11+ as a magician (my replacement for intelligence), you get one free tally every day before your level kicks in. For clerics, it's Insight (instead of Wisdom).

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  2. So, what? You're a spell doctor now, too? This is pretty cool.

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