What if spells don't need to be prepared but take 1 minute to cast?

[LibraryOgre]

In 2e it is getting hit (not necessarily damage though most times you are hit you take damage) or failing a saving throw

Ah, but what about Stoneskin? Does getting hit while under a stoneskin cause you to lose your spell?

[MeeposFire]

Ah, but what about Stoneskin? Does getting hit while under a stoneskin cause you to lose your spell?

I am totally down with that. Getting hurt is not the only thing that will not you out of concentrating on a task.

In this case I could see how even if the axe to your face may not hurt with your stone skin but chances are you still flinch and will be knocked off balance enough to disrupt a carefully done spell.

[Mutazoia]

Ah, but what about Stoneskin? Does getting hit while under a stoneskin cause you to lose your spell?

We always played that as "taking damage" disrupted casting. Otherwise you could just chuck a handful of gravel at the mage. Thus "Stoneskin" was read as preventing a mage from losing his spell when struck in combat (as it prevented damage).

[Grac]

Sounds similar to the sorcerer in Carcosa.
Given your aims, I'd suggest merging all spellcasters into one class, take out all the direct combat spells, make spells take 1 minute per level to cast, and after casting require a turn of rest, the same as 5 turns of exploring.

Don't limit spells per day. Let the magic user cast at will, within those restraints. See how it goes.

[awa]

personally i would suggest giving a limit on certain higher level buffs with long duration, if i recall correctly some of those could be overwhelming if you got to stack them on the whole party before every combat. likewise summoning spells could get out of hand if they have a decent duration. I would not remove the combat spells their just for ambushes and battle fields now.

[Pronounceable]

You know, if you wanna get seriously nitpicky, ADnD (and possibly 3e) magic is already %100 ritualistic. The wizard gets up in the morning and actually casts all those spells that are entirely wrongly called "memorized". The completed spells hang around the wizard and last few words and gestures during combat is the trigger to unleash the waiting effect. That's why "preparation" takes hours and the spells are "forgotten" once cast (despite the fact that there might still be 3 more magic missiles primed to go).

I'm pretty sure I'm not making this up because it makes the idiotic gamey DnD mechanics actually make sense and I hate gamey DnD mechanics as a rule.

[LibraryOgre]

You know, if you wanna get seriously nitpicky, ADnD (and possibly 3e) magic is already %100 ritualistic. The wizard gets up in the morning and actually casts all those spells that are entirely wrongly called "memorized". The completed spells hang around the wizard and last few words and gestures during combat is the trigger to unleash the waiting effect. That's why "preparation" takes hours and the spells are "forgotten" once cast (despite the fact that there might still be 3 more magic missiles primed to go).

I'm pretty sure I'm not making this up because it makes the idiotic gamey DnD mechanics actually make sense and I hate gamey DnD mechanics as a rule.

You're wrong, at least in the case of AD&D. AD&D, they're memorized... impressed into memory, released like a living thing by speaking the words and making the gestures. In 3.x, magic is "prepared", without explicit memorization.

[cucchulainnn]

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet but I have always liked, pic spells like normal and prep them as normal. In addition any spell can be cast from your spell book but the casting time is one full turn for every level of the spell plus the listed casting time and like normal if interpreted it is miss cast. Keeps it simple and versatile.

[Anonymouswizard]

My fantasy setting uses the Path/Book Magic system from GURPS Thaumatology, specifically the Paths version. This means that a spell requires a ritual space to be prepared, material components and foci, and time to cast (generally ten minutes to an hour). I'm allowing PCs to freely take the advantages that remove the need for ritual space (which I'm considering removing and saying 'setting up the ritual space is part of the casting time') and material components, but I'm being incredibly restrictive on the ability to reduce the casting time as it's the main balancing feature of the system (as magic doesn't cost FP under this system). It's also a lot more utility focused, a mage is far more likely to learn to summon fog or cute a disease than call down lightning bolts because the lightning bolt ritual is hard and not very versatile (although you can theoretically take a single 'shot' of lightning into a battle, as long as you cast the ritual beforehand and fought outdoors). It all works together to get my image of a mage having to prepare his pentagram and chant for several minutes in order to turn earth into a road or curse every firstborn child in a kingdom with a deadly plague.

Now such a system could be put into D&D, simply put spells into thematic paths, and make wizards invest in paths. Each spell takes a ritual of 1+ minutes and requires a successful roll based on the paths rating. Powerful spells are of course more difficult to pull off.

[Mutazoia]

3.x, magic is "prepared", without explicit memorization.

And cast at the stap of a finger. Not even that if you have the right "meta magic" feat

[Storm_Of_Snow]

IIRC, 1st edition also had the chance of casting interruption if hit.

To be honest, the only thing I'd do is reduce the memorising time at very high experience levels (especially for the low level spells), through little memory tricks, minor magical items (say an enchanted bedroll which contains a pocket for the mages travel spell book under the mages head, and allows them to learn their spells while they sleep but still wake up refreshed) and all sorts of other things a half-way intelligent mage would have sorted out for themselves as they went along.

The 1 minute casting time would mean people would go for things like wands and the use magical device skill rather than mages.

[D+1]

Tag on the thread is "Old School". In pre-3E editions - which is what I would call "Old School" (and not 3E or later) - the round is 1 minute long. What you're asking then is what happens if spells all take 1 round to cast. In that case the answer is, "not all that much". It's ultimately not much harder to actually get spells cast successfully - but where things are when the spell actually goes off is going to have changed between the start of the round and the end of the round. Being able to dispense with "preparation"/memorization is a significant advantage, but probably about cancelled out by the "everything takes a round to cast" change.

For 3E (and again - 3E is NOT Old School), it means all spells would take 10 rounds to cast. Under those conditions you're practically playing a completely different game and NOT one that is much like D&D at all. Half the spells in the book become useless - unless you actually re-write all those spells to make ANY kind of sense in the altered rules. Spellcasters of just about any kind can't do diddley in combat. Even spells with longer durations go UNCAST because NOBODY has 10 rounds of time to prepare before entering combat. It would also be foolish to even TRY to cast in combat because of the number of attacks you'd have to completely avoid or at least be utterly unaffected by in order to complete any spell once started.

Out of combat magic would still also be kicked in the teeth. Yeah, without needing "preparation" you get an advantage in always being able to cast the spell you want when you actually need it, but NONE of the spells you cast are really going to apply to immediate actions. A great many out of combat spells would ALSO still need to be rewritten to make any kind of sense or actually have any value.

Other editions, I wouldn't know and don't care and are most decidedly non-old-school anyway.

It's a curious idea, worthy of perhaps experimenting with for a single campaign in which magic is OUTRAGEOUSLY nerfed, but otherwise I don't personally see any merit or attraction to the notion.

[Lord Torath]

Yora generally prefers B/X or BECM or ACK, which all have 6-10 second rounds.

[LibraryOgre]

So, let's bust out Player's Option: Spells and Magic, and make these spellcasters. For wizards, we'll start from a base of "Wizard"... assume they have the same d4 HP, access to all spells, crappy weapons, no armor, and not much else.

To that, we're going to add two disadvantages: Awkward Casting Method (5) and Slower casting time (5). Awkward Casting Method means that you can't hide your spellcasting. You've got to stand up and be noticeable. Slower Casting Time means all casting times increase by one type, but we're going to redefine it: All casting times less than 1 minute become one minute, assuming a 6-10 second round; if we go with 1 minute rounds, it becomes 1 turn (10 minutes). We'll also say that all casting times 1 minute or longer are doubled. It's a little less harsh than the Wizard version, but more in line with the priest version.
This gives us 10 points to play with. What do we do with those 10 points? There's a lot of options... I kind of like the automagic "Read magic" a few times per day, but we might also go with Thief Ability: Read Languages... or, stretching a bit, we might go with Bard Ability: Magic Item identification, which seems like its the sort of thing a Wizard should know.

Now, we look at priests. Again, we're going with Awkward casting Method (5) and Slower Casting Time (5). Priests are a variable lot, but a few things you might choose:

Granted power: A given 1st level spell that can be cast 5 times per day (1 point for a 1st level cleric spell, 5 points to make it daily, 4 more to make it 5 times per day, total... EAT THAT, Expert Healer!)
You might make them Immune to Disease, or give them the ability to Exhort their followers into a Rage (+2 to attack and saves once the priest has chanted for 3 rounds, as long as he chants, and for 1d3 rounds thereafter)