Spell Failure...

[TheOneWhoWalks]

Ok, so I've read many arguments on various forums against removing ASF from the game, mostly siting valid balance issues. These arguments seem sound. In a Campaign I'm wanting to build, however, I want to change where magic comes from, with all magic being drawn form the same source. And so I'm finding it hard to justify that Arcane magic suffers from ASF while Divine does not. So, as an alternative to removing ASF, has anyone ever given thought to imposing it on Divine magic as well? Would that weaken diving spellcasters too much to make them valid? Would some spell-list reworking solve the problem? It's also worth noting that the Divine classes that will be available will be Favored Soul and Archivist, to counterbalance Sorcerer and Wizard. I'm not sure if I'm removing Clerics all together, or changing the way their power works, but either way, they will not be part of the equation here. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback!

[King Atticus]

What I'd probably do is alter Still Spell so that it's a +0 instead of +1. That way it still costs the Arcane Caster a feat (limiting them slightly) but they can apply it to everything they cast and not have to worry about ASF. Just a thought.

[Silva Stormrage]

What I'd probably do is alter Still Spell so that it's a +0 instead of +1. That way it still costs the Arcane Caster a feat (limiting them slightly) but they can apply it to everything they cast and not have to worry about ASF. Just a thought.

Hmmm I think 1 feat is a bit strong for full casting in armor. I would suggest splitting still spell up into two feats. One a metamagic that allows you to cast in medium or lower armor and another that allows heavy.

[Gamer Girl]

Back in the good old days before 3E, everyone used the 'same' magic. Yet wizards and such always had the armor drawback for magic. So it's not such a big deal to just say that each class uses or accesses the magic differently.


Or even just say the 'gods' alter the magic a bit for clerics so they can use them in armor. A good example here is a wizard needs to say words, move their hands and use material components. All quite complex. A cleric mostly avoids material components and can have a much shorter somatic one, as their verbal one, a prayer, is quite long.

Take: Magic Circle vs Evil as an example. A wizard needs to speak some words, make gestures and draw a circle of powered silver around the creature to be protected. A cleric needs to pray out loud and hold their holy symbol.

OR

Take: Wind Wall. A wizard needs to hold both a tiny fan and an exotic feather in his hands and wave them around while speaking. The cleric needs to pray out loud and touch their holy symbol.

You will notice the wizard needs to move a lot. The cleric, not so much.

[Absol197]

Most of the divine spellcasting classes (druid and cleric especially) are considered to be broken in half. I don't think adding a detriment like ASF would really be a bad thing, all things considered. Besides, like people above have been saying, you can shift some feats around to help mitigate it.

For Rangers and Paladins, you can give them what bards get -- with certain classes of armor (maybe medium?), they can wear that armor with no spell failure chance, but heavier armor still can cause spells to fail.

Food for thought.