[3.5] A Translation of Vancian Spellcasting to Psionic Mechanics

[NineThePuma]

Love the system!

My only disappointment is that it's really hard to do a blasty cleric.

[Ernir]

*waves* I did! Or at least I thought you were done.

By the way I've been paying attention to this the entire time and I think this is the first time actually posting here so I like the work.

I've been following! I really love your work, it's been such a help teaching some of my friends how to play d20. You see, a couple of them are only familiar with RPG games if they're on a console, and thus they're used to an MP bar or other such method. This has helped me immensely in getting them comfortable with magic in 3.X. Thank you so much!

Whoo! Means much to me to hear that.

My question is, does this port over to Pathfinder well? Or would it need a bit of work in order to do that?

I honestly don't know, I am not that familiar with Pathfinder.

I guess that the biggest challenge would be setting the classes up to support the archetype system.

Over the years, I have received at two offers to port the project. Searching backwards to see how far those went, I think this is the farthest anyone has gone. Don't know whether that's because porting work is difficult or not interesting.

Love the system!

My only disappointment is that it's really hard to do a blasty cleric.

Hmm, we've got to be able to do something about that!

Are you comparing the difficulty to the difficulty of creating non-Cleric blasters? What options do you think are missing when compared to the other classes?

As is, I think it's very easy to give any Cleric at least a bit of blast-ability, but perhaps making a focused blaster really is too hard, especially in the level 3-6 range. Hmm.

[NineThePuma]

I didn't really do a full read of "every single blasting spell" in the book, but at a glance, the Magic domain, Fire domain, and... I think I also glanced at War and Destruction domains, didn't particularly have a lot of low level blasty potential. Or a lot of blasty utility.

I was trying to build a character archetype that was awkward and weird (Emulating a pseudo-SOLDIER from FF7, specifically Kunsel, who is a Knowledge Oriented Gish) and was running into the issue of Wizard being a terrible choice for that (even with shenanigans) and Cleric not being able to show the breadth of blasting that I would expect. It really made me sad, because every class in this book is excellent, but none could manage. Cleric managed, just barely, and I was going to have to poke around in the expanded domain list and see if I could find something that would give me an excuse to have a suitable breadth of blasting with one or two domains to cover the gaps.

[Ernir]

Okay, let's see what damage options we have already.

The ones I considered fundamental:

• Energized Touch (Sor/Wiz 1). Touch deals SP*(d8+small modifier) points of damage, selectable damage type.
• Magic Missile (Sor/Wiz 1, Magic 1). Missile deals 1d4+1 points of force damage, no save, no miss, no nothing. Additional missile per 2 SP.
• Scorching Ray (Sor/Wiz 1). RTA to deal SP*(d6+small modifier) points of damage, selectable damage type.
• Fireball (Evoker 2). 20' radius burst, SP*(d6+small modifier) points of damage. A difficult saving throw.
• Lightning bolt (Evoker 2). Like Fireball, but in a line.

Some others:

• Acid Arrow (Sor/Wiz 2). RTA to deal 2d4 points of acid damage. Lasts an additional round per 2 SP spent. (Note: Wow, that's bad.)
• Call Lightning (Air 3, Destruction 3). Call down Lightning Bolts that basically deal 3d6 points of damage, +1d6 per 2 SP. (Note: SP-efficient, but also bad...)
• Chain Lightning (Evoker 6). SP*d6 points of selectable damage to lots of targets.
• Cone of Cold (Evoker 5). 60' cone, SP*d6 points of selectable damage and slow. (Note: Didn't remember I gave this one damage selection. Might be overkill...)
• Disintegrate (Destruction 6, Sor/Wiz 6). Lots of damage, Fort save for small damage, yadda yadda.
• Fire Seeds (Fire 6). Lots of fire damage potential, very limited application.
• Fire Storm (Fire 7). Very large area of boring old SP*d6 points fire damage. (Note: This doesn't really deserve its level, I think. There's not enough going on here.)
• Flame Strike (Fire 4, Sun 4, War 4). SP*(d6) points of fire damage and knocks prone. (Note: If there were a fundamental Cleric blasting spell, I think this would be it.)
• Flaming Sphere (Sor/Wiz 2, Fire 2). 2d6 points of fire damage for 1 round/level, no save. Quirky mechanics.
• Horrid Wilting (Necromancer 8, Water 8). Targeted living creatures take SP*d6 points of damage and are Fatigued. (Note: I think this one's level is too high for "just" Fatigue, or Exhaustion with Augment. Thinking about lowering its level.)
• Inflict Wounds (Destruction 1). Let's face it, this one is for healing undead...
• Magic Stone (Earth 1). RTA to deal 1d6+1 points of damage. Double damage to undead. Additional stone per 2 SP.
• Polar Ray (Evoker 8). RTA to deal SP*d6 points of cold damage and freeze the target, no save!.
• Produce Flame (Fire 1). Decent damage, but spread out over lots of attack actions.
• Squirt (Water 2). SP*d6 damage in a line, but it's nonlethal.
• Shout (Bard 4, Sor/Wiz 4). 30' cone, SP*d6 Sonic damage and deafness. Fort save for half and negate deafness. (Note: I think this one's pretty good!)
• Wall of Fire (Sor/Wiz 4). Lots of damage, largely contingent on someone walking through.
• Woodbolt (Plant 1). SP*d6 points of damage, no save, no SR, by succeeding on a normal ranged attack.

Then there are quite a few who technically deal damage, but wouldn't ever be worth it weren't it for the secondary effects (Freezing Sphere, Inflict Wounds, Vampiric Touch, etc.).


Anyway.

I think the thing I have to learn here is that even if Clerics have access to quite a few damaging spells (some of them even good), they are missing the staples. So even if you build a Cleric that can blow stuff up, it's hard to build a Cleric whose routine answer to problems is to blow them up.

The solution I'm thinking of right now is as follows:

1. Make the "generic" damage spells far more widely available. A spell like Energy Ball would be on the Sor/Wiz list (Fireball is currently only on the Evoker list) and on something like the Magic Domain for Clerics.
2. Turn some of the currently awkwardly named spells (Cone of "Cold", "Fire"ball, and so many others) into more specialized spells, and create more specialized spells.

It should make it much easier for most casters to get a "whatever" blasting spell, and hopefully allow dedicated blasters to have the perfect blast spell for more situations.

Am I on to something?

[NineThePuma]

I think having generic blasting spells available easily while having much more specialized versions that are more niche but stronger would be a good move.

I'll admit that of the non-fundamental spells, the only ones I looked for when designing were Flamestrike, Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, and Disintegrate. Seeing you list them out shows a number of "okay" options that aren't immediately thought of, but aren't necessarily bad, just spread out, and spending precious Domain slots on them might not be desirable depending on what they're attached to.

[DeAnno]

I'm looking through this, and I'm really pleasantly surprised at how reasonable everything feels. So far the only really concerning thing is how the Scry and Die feat is a little setting-ravaging. Even if the feat is only usable once per Scry attempt (I'm not sure from the reading), augmenting Scry means you can nick someone of comparable level to death from across the world and it's kind of hard to do anything about it.

Of course Nondetection scales at double speed if you augment it, and Mind Blank ultimately solves the problem entirely, but I'm not sure if that sort of implied paranoia being absolutely necessary was intentional.

EDIT: Rules Queries
1) Can you expend your magical focus for multiple things at once, if they affect the same spell? For example, can you cast an Empowered Maximized Fireball (the metamagic average damage table implies you can)? How about a Careful Pushed Empowered Maximized Fireball?
2) Does applying a metamagic feat to a spell lower its save DC by sucking away spell points? That table from before implies it does, but the rules as written are sort of vague on the matter (to me it seems like it shouldn't, since the points are still spent on the spell).

[Ernir]

I think having generic blasting spells available easily while having much more specialized versions that are more niche but stronger would be a good move.

I'll admit that of the non-fundamental spells, the only ones I looked for when designing were Flamestrike, Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, and Disintegrate. Seeing you list them out shows a number of "okay" options that aren't immediately thought of, but aren't necessarily bad, just spread out, and spending precious Domain slots on them might not be desirable depending on what they're attached to.

I've begun work in this direction. Reorganizing the spell lists is going to be the fun/tough part.

Also, going to improve a few of those slightly-less-than-OK spells.

I'm looking through this, and I'm really pleasantly surprised at how reasonable everything feels.

I made it to be reasonable.
What I'm surprised at is that people actually seem to agree!

Thanks.

So far the only really concerning thing is how the Scry and Die feat is a little setting-ravaging. Even if the feat is only usable once per Scry attempt (I'm not sure from the reading), augmenting Scry means you can nick someone of comparable level to death from across the world and it's kind of hard to do anything about it.

Of course Nondetection scales at double speed if you augment it, and Mind Blank ultimately solves the problem entirely, but I'm not sure if that sort of implied paranoia being absolutely necessary was intentional.

Ah! The origins of that feat are kind of interesting.

Rarely-mentioned fact: The feat is built into the psionic "scrying" power.

I consider myself to have nerfed the option and made it less available, by making it cost a feat.

EDIT: Rules Queries
1) Can you expend your magical focus for multiple things at once, if they affect the same spell? For example, can you cast an Empowered Maximized Fireball (the metamagic average damage table implies you can)? How about a Careful Pushed Empowered Maximized Fireball?
2) Does applying a metamagic feat to a spell lower its save DC by sucking away spell points? That table from before implies it does, but the rules as written are sort of vague on the matter (to me it seems like it shouldn't, since the points are still spent on the spell).

1. Expending your Focus gives you only one benefit. To cast something like and Empowered Maximized Fireball, you'd need to obtain two focuses, which you can do via the Spellstaff Containment feat.
2. SP spent on metamagic do not count towards the spell's save DC.

Both of these are actually inheritance from the psionic system.

In fact, mitigating the second factor was my biggest systematic change. In psionics, augments don't count towards the spell save DC either, by default.

[Ernir]

Happy holidays!

News: I'm making a website.





Soon^TM

[NineThePuma]

This is the best christmas present yet! :D

[Zireael]

This is the best christmas present yet! :D

Agreed completely!

Mind if I borrow this idea for my OGL roguelike?

[Ernir]

Thanks, people. :)

Mind if I borrow this idea for my OGL roguelike?

Go ahead!

[Kamai]

I'm starting to look through some of the spells, starting with Faerie Fire. Here's my thoughts:
Faerie Fire: The fact that you used linear scaling here doesn't seem right to me. While at early levels, it's fine, it probably should scale up faster than +2 5ft blasts/spell level. Maybe a 2pp augment that increases the radius of all bursts by 5 feet? Still not amazing fully scaled, but should still have a use.

False Life: With the existence of Vigor for Psions, I don't see why you needed to nerf this spell (a 3rd level Wizard was getting 1d10 + 3) to add scaling on the level of a cure spell.

Fireball: The 1 for 1 scaling for PP was a notable accident/errata on energy stun. Do you think it's fair to do here just because Fireball does nothing but damage?

Fire Seeds: Was it intended for it to start higher than 1d6/caster level (13d6 at 11th)? If so, it probably should slightly faster than 1 to 1 (i.e. For every 3 points spent augmenting this, add an additional d6 damage).

Flame Blade: I'm surprised that there's not a 1 hour/level augment.

I'll definitely keep going on this later.

[Ernir]

Faerie Fire: The fact that you used linear scaling here doesn't seem right to me. While at early levels, it's fine, it probably should scale up faster than +2 5ft blasts/spell level. Maybe a 2pp augment that increases the radius of all bursts by 5 feet? Still not amazing fully scaled, but should still have a use.

Hmm.

It scales a lot better than normal Faerie Fire (that is to say, it scales), but the eventual "problem" is that the core FF effect just isn't very... spectacular. I don't think increasing the area more is the way to go.

Are there any other side effects that could be appropriate for the spell?

False Life: With the existence of Vigor for Psions, I don't see why you needed to nerf this spell (a 3rd level Wizard was getting 1d10 + 3) to add scaling on the level of a cure spell.

I must have thought I was buffing it by giving it the augment.

It should be weaker than Vigor due to the duration factor. Hours/level makes it much more useful as a pre-buff. I expect most casters who know False Life to have it up most of the time.

That being said, it probably is a bit lame. Let's put the +1/level back!

Fireball: The 1 for 1 scaling for PP was a notable accident/errata on energy stun. Do you think it's fair to do here just because Fireball does nothing but damage?

Pretty much, yes. Finding a niche for good old Fireball is a bit difficult. I thought this was an interesting way to make it a more reliable source of damage.

That being said, I intend to change it a bit in the next version. I'm making a more generally accessible "Energy Ball" spell (which gets the flexible damage types), and an Evoker-specific "Fireball" spell (which gets the crazy save scaling). I did this in response to the discussions on Cleric blasting earlier this year.

Fire Seeds: Was it intended for it to start higher than 1d6/caster level (13d6 at 11th)? If so, it probably should slightly faster than 1 to 1 (i.e. For every 3 points spent augmenting this, add an additional d6 damage).

Nope, that's just a bug. Should be 11d6 to start with.

Flame Blade: I'm surprised that there's not a 1 hour/level augment.

I guess I just didn't think of it at the time. But a good idea!

Sounds like it'd be awkward to keep around, though (who has an asbestos sheath?). I should couple it with an ability to turn the thing off.

I'll definitely keep going on this later.

Thanks! Critical reading is always highly appreciated. It's the only way this gets better.

[Kamai]

Flame Strike: It was half divine half fire in 3.5. Was this a miscopy, or did you just decide to go with the knockdown effect to have less cleric blasting?

Dispel Magic: This scales a lot faster than standard dispel magic, being based both on caster level and +2/3 pp. I'm not sure off hand what would make it more appropriate, but I understand why you might not be a fan of Dispel Psionics' pattern (d20 + pp spent), but I don't think busting higher level caster's spells is the right way to go. Maybe +4pp for an area dispel being able to dispel 1 more spell on each creature or object in area?

Fortune of the Gods: At 1 round/level, and personal, I have my doubts it's a 9th level spell, but I can't quite put a finger on where I think it should go. Maybe after sleeping on it.

Freezing Sphere: Maybe not necessary, but a 1 point augment for +10ft radius of frozen water?

Gentle Repose: There's no reason that a generic cleric should not be able to use this spell to keep a body safe for resurrection.

Giant Vermin: While I understand that you're borrowing the scaling from the original spell, I'm not convinced that Garganutan vermin are a high 7th level spell, and that Colossal ones are high "10th" level spells. +2 for Large, +4 for Huge, +6 for Gargantuan, +8 for Colossal makes more sense to me, especially since this is a specialist spell in the first place. Remember they still don't get languages or complicated commands, or even spell-likes like Summon Monsters. They are just big moving walls that can attack.

Faerie Fire/Glitterdust: Just an odd thought, how about combining these 2 spells. If you keep the extra burst/CL, then you have a spell at 11PP (True Seeing) that is limited by area, but doesn't rely on multiple castings or having 1 person be a spotter to point out invisible creatures and similar, but has very limited, very clearly marked areas to show, and doesn't do anything about polymorph. Still wouldn't scale up perfectly, but I think there'd be some element of choice.

Horrid Wilting: Don't forget to specify the +d8 instead of +d6 for plant creatures on the augment.

Imbue with Spell Ability: The wording that you lose the spells you taught nerfs this spell a lot, and I'm not sure if that's what you intended, especially with psion-like amounts of known spells. Just locking out the 14 points is enough (and is more than what 3.5's Imbue with Spell Ability required).

[Ernir]

Flame Strike: It was half divine half fire in 3.5. Was this a miscopy, or did you just decide to go with the knockdown effect to have less cleric blasting?

Ah, that. The half divine part got merged into the Fire domain itself as a granted power. Thought more spells could benefit from that.

Also, it's elective, so Frost Worms can now be blasted for increased effect.

Dispel Magic: This scales a lot faster than standard dispel magic, being based both on caster level and +2/3 pp. I'm not sure off hand what would make it more appropriate, but I understand why you might not be a fan of Dispel Psionics' pattern (d20 + pp spent), but I don't think busting higher level caster's spells is the right way to go. Maybe +4pp for an area dispel being able to dispel 1 more spell on each creature or object in area?

The way Dispel Psionics is handled bugs me.

The way it's currently in the document bugs me too, to be honest. I've gone a bit back and forward on that spell - I still haven't found a way to implement this really important core spell in a way that makes it scale sanely.

I think you may expect a whole re-implementation (again) at some point in the future. =/

Fortune of the Gods: At 1 round/level, and personal, I have my doubts it's a 9th level spell, but I can't quite put a finger on where I think it should go. Maybe after sleeping on it.

Well, it's mostly there because I stole Miracle away from the Luck domain. Hardly my proudest moment of game design, but I wanted it to have a 9th level spell.

As for balance, the canny reader may see that it's comparable in power to the non-OGL 9th level Destiny domain spell. Ahem.

Freezing Sphere: Maybe not necessary, but a 1 point augment for +10ft radius of frozen water?

Hmm. No, I think I'm content with letting Widen Spell cover that one.

Gentle Repose: There's no reason that a generic cleric should not be able to use this spell to keep a body safe for resurrection.

Hmm, the reason it's there is that I merged it with the Clone spell... mostly on the basis that neither really gets selected enough.

As is, the Clone augment is probably the translation's most verbose one.

I'll revisit it.

Giant Vermin: While I understand that you're borrowing the scaling from the original spell, I'm not convinced that Garganutan vermin are a high 7th level spell, and that Colossal ones are high "10th" level spells. +2 for Large, +4 for Huge, +6 for Gargantuan, +8 for Colossal makes more sense to me, especially since this is a specialist spell in the first place. Remember they still don't get languages or complicated commands, or even spell-likes like Summon Monsters. They are just big moving walls that can attack.

Hmm, I always thought the standard spell was rather good, so I didn't mess with it - but CLs scaled differently in normal 3.5.

I'll do some comparisons with other spells.

Faerie Fire/Glitterdust: Just an odd thought, how about combining these 2 spells. If you keep the extra burst/CL, then you have a spell at 11PP (True Seeing) that is limited by area, but doesn't rely on multiple castings or having 1 person be a spotter to point out invisible creatures and similar, but has very limited, very clearly marked areas to show, and doesn't do anything about polymorph. Still wouldn't scale up perfectly, but I think there'd be some element of choice.

Interesting!

I could also just make "blinding" as an augment on Faerie Fire. Probably easier, and more fluff-consistent.

Horrid Wilting: Don't forget to specify the +d8 instead of +d6 for plant creatures on the augment.

Nice catch! Thanks.

Imbue with Spell Ability: The wording that you lose the spells you taught nerfs this spell a lot, and I'm not sure if that's what you intended, especially with psion-like amounts of known spells. Just locking out the 14 points is enough (and is more than what 3.5's Imbue with Spell Ability required).

Hmm, good point. I don't think it has been brought up before, but yes, I may have been too restrictive there.

[peterpaulrubens]

The way Dispel Psionics is handled bugs me.

The way it's currently in the document bugs me too, to be honest. I've gone a bit back and forward on that spell - I still haven't found a way to implement this really important core spell in a way that makes it scale sanely.

I think you may expect a whole re-implementation (again) at some point in the future. =/

I'd be in favor of something like 2pp spent for a +1 boost. That scales slightly slower (1/2 vs. 2/3) but still allows a puncher's chance of popping spells cast by really high level enemies, which is a feature I've always really liked about Dispel Magic.

[Ernir]

My latest thought is to just revert to the original psionic version.

It's not perfect, but at least that way it's familiar...

Another thought was to make it the same, but add another, less efficient, but uncapped augment to it. So you can get fast scaling to +20, then you're bleeding lots of PP to further increase the bonus. Or just make related feats and/or class features.

[Vermithrax]

This is amazing and I love it! There is just one thing that bothers me.

I notice that few of your item creation and usage rules explicitly mention using spell points. I notice the rules on using spell points to recharge wands and other spell storing magic items, and I would assume that casting a spell from a scroll incurs the normal spell point cost of the spell each time you cast it from the description. However, am I correct that any other magic item usages do not require the user to spend spell points and that the days spent crafting these items are assumed not to be adventuring days during which the caster's spell point reserve could be used (they are instead all invested in the item being crafted)?

I ask because I think requiring spell point expenditures could be a way to make metamagic rods function properly without being free. Think of it like a resistor in the magical "circuit" of casting the spell; you have to add more power to overcome it, but in doing so you change the spell's effects. Thus in the same way buying a scroll is like buying an "Expanded Knowledge" feat, buying such a metamagic rod would be like buying a metamagic feat (especially if they are similarly fragile).

You could even go a step further and add metamagic matrices that give a one-time use of the feat when you spend the additional required spell points on the spell you use it with, before being destroyed.

Both types of metamagic items would automatically be incompatible with other spell storing magic items, due to your "one source of spell points" rule, but would need an additional rule to make sure they do not allow you to bypass the caster level restriction on how many spell points can be spent on a given spell.

[Xzoltar]

I have comment a Long Long time ago, but here's another shot of commentary :

I know that you have made lot of spell restricted to Domains or Wizard School Specialisation and I like that, I think however that some of thoses spells should be able to be use by Priest/Wizard as a spell of +2 spell level that way you still have an advantage if you have the right specialisation/domain.

Adapt Body : For every additional spell point you spend, this spell can affect an additional target within range.

Aligned Protection : Should only affect Ally

Aligned Sword : Should only affect Ally

Align Water : For 2 spell point you spend, this spell can affect an additional flask of water

Animal Shapes : Seem like a strange metamagic spell, could maybe add a Augment to affect more target to the other spells instead

Animate Dead : Augmentation to allow to Animate Greater Skeletons and Zombies

Antimagic Field : If you spend 6 additional spell points, the antimagic field is centered on a target within Short Range, rather than moving with you. That target is allowed a Saving Throw to Negate the soell.

Arrow of Death : If you spend 4 additional spell points, this spell’s duration increases to 24 hours or until the arrow hit a target.

Assault of the Sevenfold Heaven : Think it fit more as a Wizard spell and be Called Prismatic Weapon

Awaken Nature's Wrath : Seem Way Overpowered it deal lot of damage and the Area of Effect is Massive, this should probably be Epic compare to Earthquake from lvl 7 to 9 for the duration seem good without the Massive AoE

Burn : Too Powerful, deal 35 dmg with Fireball and the target suffer 17 dmg for the next 5 turn ? For a level 1 spell ?

Burning Hands : The Spell dont exist but you got a picture of it on page 154 ?

Clairvoyance : If you spend 6 additional spell points, the scrying allow you to use magically or supernaturally enhanced senses

Consecrate/Desecrate : Should have a way to make this permanent. Not sure it should be restriced to Good Domain, maybe also Cleric 4-5 because a priest dedicated to a Deity fighting Undead should be able to cast this without having to get the Good domain

Detect Poison : For each 1 additional spell points you spend you can affect 1 more target

Dweomer Blockade : Sound like a good Abjurer spell too, I would add Abjurer 6

Dweomer Rip : Could also make a very Good Abjurer Spell, I would add Abjurer 3

Floating Disk : For every 2 spell point you spend, te Disk increase in size by 1ft. For every 4 spell point you spend, te Disk can hold 25% more pounds.

Form of the Celestial/Elemental/Fiend : Why no augment like the other Form Spells ?

Genesis : For every additional spell point you spend, this spell maximum radius increase by 10ft

Gust of Wind : For every additional spell point you spend, the Strength Check DC increase by +1 and the wind speed by 5 mph

Hall of Mirrors : For every additional spell point you spend, you may affect an additional target

Halt Undead : I see no reason this spell should have an augmentation to affect non-undead unit, you have Hold person for that

Hand of Force : Look like a stronger version but think level 4 is a little high for a spell that dont do much and with a duration very low. If you spend 2 additional spell points, the duration increase to 1 min / caster level

Hardening : With no Component or xp cost this spell should have something like : No object can be affected by a Hardening spell more than once, the stronger of the two casting remain

Helping Hand : For every additional 3 spell point you spent you can materialize 1 additionnal hand

Ice Storm : For every 2 additional spell point you spend, the Bludgeoning and Cold damage increase by +1d6

Immortal Army : Way too strong this is Epic with no cost to make an invincible army ? At least reduce it to something like Resist All 1 / Caster level, this will make the Army still out of reach from most threat except very strong opponent, the other Army can't do nothing against yours

Implosion : Should add You can target a particular creature only once with each casting of the spell.

Interposing Hand : For every 1 additional spell point you spend, the hand can affect target of +200 pounds

Invisibility Purge : minor correction : the duration of this spell becomes Permanent rather than 1 min/level

Magic Missile : I think the spell dont do enough damage with augmentation. Would change it to : For every 1 additional spell points you spend, you gain an additional missile. I would prefer that the spell still scale with level of to 5 Missile for free and then you could maybe pay 2 Spell Point for each other missile

Maze : If you spend 4 additional spell points, the creature cannot use any Plane Shifting of Teleporting spell to escape the Maze.target. For every 4 spell point you spend, you may affect an additional target

Meteor : The damage is only "raw" damage ? Should Damage Reduction apply ? Maybe Half-Fire and Half-Bludgeoning ?

Power Word : should read 200> instead of 200<

Remove Blindness/Deafness / Remove Curse / Remove Disease / Remove Fear / Remove Paralysis : For every two additional spell points you spend, this spell can affect an additional creature. No two recipients of the spell may be more than 30’ apart

Repelling Light : Low duration and low damage. For every 2 additional spell point you spend, the damage to creature crossing the barrier increase by +1d6

Slay Living : For every 2 spell point you spend, this spell deal an extra +1d6 damage on a succesful save

Spectral Hand : Can this spell let you use the hand at range as if it was your true hand ? Can you open a book ? cook ? write ?

Spell Turning : Unlimited Spell Turning seem very powerful considering also a medium duration. I would limit it to 1 Spell level / Caster level with the following augmentation : For every 1 additional spell point you spend, you can turn an additional 1 Spell level

Time Stop : So now you can stop time and you can use that extra action to attack ?

Touch of Idiocy : For every 3 additional spell points you spend, the intelligence, wisdom and charisma penalty inflicted by the touch increases by 1

That's all for now

[Ernir]

Hi, everyone. Sorry about not replying earlier - I was in a rush when I first saw the posts, and didn't reply right away. Then it kind of got pushed off the priority queue. Lame, I know.

But, I do have the good news of a new version, the first one for quite a while! A lot of the latest comments have made it in.

As for the webpage, it has been going well enough (meaning, I haven't yet found out that parsing the document is impossible), although I've been doing content again rather than focusing on that one lately.

This is amazing and I love it! There is just one thing that bothers me.

I notice that few of your item creation and usage rules explicitly mention using spell points. I notice the rules on using spell points to recharge wands and other spell storing magic items, and I would assume that casting a spell from a scroll incurs the normal spell point cost of the spell each time you cast it from the description. However, am I correct that any other magic item usages do not require the user to spend spell points and that the days spent crafting these items are assumed not to be adventuring days during which the caster's spell point reserve could be used (they are instead all invested in the item being crafted)?

I ask because I think requiring spell point expenditures could be a way to make metamagic rods function properly without being free. Think of it like a resistor in the magical "circuit" of casting the spell; you have to add more power to overcome it, but in doing so you change the spell's effects. Thus in the same way buying a scroll is like buying an "Expanded Knowledge" feat, buying such a metamagic rod would be like buying a metamagic feat (especially if they are similarly fragile).

You could even go a step further and add metamagic matrices that give a one-time use of the feat when you spend the additional required spell points on the spell you use it with, before being destroyed.

Both types of metamagic items would automatically be incompatible with other spell storing magic items, due to your "one source of spell points" rule, but would need an additional rule to make sure they do not allow you to bypass the caster level restriction on how many spell points can be spent on a given spell.

I made a rule to recharge wands? I can't find it now.

Yes, using a scroll depletes the caster's own SP reserve. Others don't. And yeah, crafting in 3.5 usually assumes downtime.

And congratulations, I don't think I've heard a better idea/rationale for metamagic rods yet. They might make it in after all!

I didn't add it in in this release (this requires more mulling over), but the idea has merit.

I have comment a Long Long time ago, but here's another shot of commentary :

Oh, yeah, you were the first to comment on this in depth, actually. Late 2010 or early 2011, I believe.

Forever appreciated.

I know that you have made lot of spell restricted to Domains or Wizard School Specialisation and I like that, I think however that some of thoses spells should be able to be use by Priest/Wizard as a spell of +2 spell level that way you still have an advantage if you have the right specialisation/domain.

Right now, that's kind of the Sorcerer's "thing". Not sure how much I should mix it up.

I do think there's something that should be done to make, say, specialist evoker spells more accessible to necromancers than Paladin spells are (which is all Expanded Knowledge does). Not quite sure how exactly, though, this might be one of the better suggestions.

(Lots of spell modification suggestions)

Woha! I like.

What I did with the suggestions is compiled below (spoilered for length):

Spoiler

Show

Where I did stuff:
Adapt Body: Sure, why not? Changed to touch, and party friendly augment added.
Align Water: Cool, done!
Burn: Hmm, maybe it's too powerful. Shortened the duration and made it explicit that the fires can be put out.
Dweomer Blockade/Rip: Now available for Abjurers!
Floating Disk: I made one more augment. It's not like a few extra tons of carrying capacity will break it.
Gust of Wind: Added an augment for wind speed, which by my modified augmentation rule, also increases the DC.
Hall of Mirrors: Added a mass augment, not quite so cheap as you suggested, though.
Halt Undead: Yeah, that's kind of a stupid augment, isn't it? Removed.
Hand of Force: I increased the base duration.
Ice Storm: I've always seen it more as a BFC spell than a blast, but I added an inefficient damage augment.
Implosion: I took the "You can target a particular creature only once with each casting of the spell" clause out because I don't think it's necessary for a spell of that level. Still, I took a second look, and ended up shortening the duration back down to the original, and added a duration augment instead.
Interposing Hand: Weight augment added!
Invisibility Purge: Duration fixed.
Magic Missile: Excellent idea. I've been struggling with that one.
Meteor: Could probably use a fire component. Damage reduction still doesn't apply, because it's a spell, though.
Power Word: Changed the table to use word descriptions, more clear at the cost of very little real estate in the table.
Remove Blindness/Deafness / Remove Curse / Remove Disease: Mass augments added!
Repelling Light: Damage augment added.
Slay Living: A damage-on-successful-save augment is more interesting than the null augment. Sure!
Touch of Idiocy: More damage, coming up.

Where I didn't:
Aligned Protection/Sword: I could restrict it to allies, but I don't really see a reason.
Animal Shapes: Yeah, I know it's weird. TBH, this could have been done with Augments (and perhaps more elegantly), but I wanted spells named Animal Shapes and Shapechange...
Animate Dead: What's a greater skeleton/zombie?
Antimagic Field: I kind of want a dedicated spell for that effect. See: Dweomer Blockade...
Arrow of Death: I don't think 24 hour duration is needed, more interesting as a swift action spell IMO.
Assault of the Sevenfold Heaven: Well, I made it to be a nuke for Paladins. Might be a bad thematic fit, but I think I'm keeping it.
Burning Hands: Ah, that's an alias for "Energized Touch" now. I mention it in the text, but yeah, a bit awkward...
Clairvoyance: I think allowing supernatural senses would make it rather too difficult to defend against.
Consecrate/Desecrate: The spells are still super alignment-specific. I think this really is cause to re-evaluate the whole Cleric spell selection... but I'm keeping it this way for now.
Form of the Celestial/Elemental/Fiend: They don't have augments because they don't give a particular form, just fairly generic traits associated with the theme. Although, maybe that is a better way to do it...
Maze: I don't want to remove the plane-shifting limitation from the spell. It's plenty powerful already, I believe.
Spectral Hand: I made it specific to touch spells. Inferring something else from it isn't impossible, but I'm content with leaving that question to GMs.
Spell Turning: It's just like Reddopsi, I think it's fine. It's a bit more dangerous thanks to the rebounding effects, even.
Time Stop: Right now, yes, you can attack during a Time Stop. I still haven't gotten a real-live playtest involving this spell to tell me whether that's more or less broken than the original (it grants fewer actions), but the reason I went this way was mostly to make it better defined. I could still make it more similar to good-old Temporal Acceleration.

On Awaken Nature's Wrath, Immortal Army: Mostly, I think the effects are kind of too large for most 9th-levels. Genesis kind of should be here too...

Epic would be a good fit, only I still haven't done those. But yes, they are candidates for an upgrade... some day.

[Ernir]

A friend wanted to play a Trapsmith (Dungeonscape) in a RL game. So here's a quick and dirty conversion of the spellcasting. I do not think this requires any rewriting of other class features.

Trapsmith Spellcasting

Key Ability Modifier
Trapsmith spellcasting is Intelligence-based (you know the drill).

Special rule:
A Trapsmith's base caster level is equal to their class level +4.

Trapsmith spell Points per day, spells known and maximum spell Level:

SP/Day	Spells Known	Max level
1	2	3rd
2	3	3rd
4	4	4th
8	5	4th
16	7	5th

Trapsmith spell list

1st level spells:

• Detect Magic
  
• Open and Close

2nd level spells:

• Resist Energy
  
• Wombat's Boost

3rd level spells:

• Clairvoyance
  
• Dispel Magic
  
• Gaseous Form
  
• Haste
  
• Remove Curse

4th level spells:

• Arcane Eye
  
• Dimension Door
  
• Globe of Invulnerability
  
• Mold Material
  
• Resilient Sphere
  
• Stoneskin

5th level spells:

• Interposing Hand
  
• Wall of Stone

Notes: I do not have a particular vision for the spell list, so it is a naive conversion of the normal list. I did away with the high-level-spells-at-low-levels feature, and instead just gave immediate access to 3rd level spells. This allows the class to get more use out of Expanded Knowledge, which I think is better than beefing up Expanded Knowledge for everyone else. Also, this means the spells won't be cast at wonky caster levels.

[Ernir]

Hey. I just released a very small update, bringing us up to beta 1.12b. You can read the release notes here.

But what I think people might find more interesting than the update itself is that I recently found an excuse to work on translating this to HTML.
Which means, here's a website. It's raw and undoubtedly has quite a few parsing errors, but it's there, and I think it's ready enough to receive bug reports and criticism. Please let me know when you find something that's wrong or could be done better!