One thing that always bugged me about the magic system in D&D and it’s d20 offspring is the reliance on the same old “spell slots†magic system. Via this system magicians get a certain number of spells per day. The magician fills up the memory slots in his head with spells at the beginning of the day and then casts the spells throughout the day, thus emptying slots which may be filled again after 8 hours of sleep. â€
This was a magic system unlike any I had ever read in story or myth at the time††and the fact that it neither inspired me nor modeled any aspect of the worlds I’d imagined or read about annoyed me to no end.
“Well, why not throw the whole game out the window?†you ask, “There are other RPGs out there with more cohesive magic systems… take Mutants and Masterminds for example, you could use that system to model any sort of power you’d ever want and it’s powers seem intuitively balanced and consistent.â€
To this I can only say:
True.
But the nostalgia man. The nostalgia!
The d20 system may be stuck in it’s same old mould as far as the casting of magic goes, and maybe I don’t like that mould, but I love the plethora of spells already existing for it. It’s like a huge arcane wish list of random crap. And I could re-create that in some other game, but it’s already available here.
Now there’s another thing about d20 spellcasting that’s bothered me a little over the years as well: Ziggurat-like chart showing the number of spells of different power levels that a given magician could cast in any given day depending on their character’s advancement in a given class. And my hate of this aspect of the system is sort of two pronged:
- Power creep – The existing system provides few spells (per day) at low level, leaving the caster with nothing much to do after they’re used up. Also, since some of these spell-casters don’t really have many other skills they have nothing to fall back on when the spells are used up. Casters end up hoarding spells and worrying a lot if they’ve memorized the right one.
- Exotic spells I never get to use. – Some of the higher level spells just seem so cool. But only once in the four or five games of D&D I’ve played have I ever gotten to a level where I had access to them. And at that point the novelty and mystique of those exotic high level spells was minimized by the fact that I was already so powerful they barely mattered. Rather than being something really cool they were just a couple extra tools among my already powerful arsenal.
So what I was looking to make was a system that gave spellcasters at least a chance to cast some of those higher level spells at lower character levels, and one that allowed characters to cast more than a meager allotment of spells in a given day. But it also had to be a system that didn’t make spellcasters so powerful at low levels that there would be no point in playing a non-magic-user.
I got some inspiration in this pursuit from the “Incantations†system in the recent edition of Unearthed Arcana. Unfortunately the scope of the Incantations system is relatively narrow and a bit vague, dealing only with higher level spells and providing very general guidelines for how to employ them in a unique manner. By contrast I was hoping for a bit more unified system covering the whole range of spells in some relatively predictable way.
What I eventually came up with is the “Ritual Spellcasting†system below.
†– The new systems for spell-casting are essentially the same as the old in this regard but substitute the word “prepare†for the word “memorize†when discussing the acquisition of your daily spell quota each morning. This alteration of terminology without a corresponding change in mechanics was apparently meant to appease those who didn’t understand why you forgot the spells you’d learned every time you cast them. Sadly the change didn’t do much for those few of us who now wondered why one could only prepare a given number of spells in a day.
††– I’ve since read a few non-D&D stories that employ a vaguely similar magic system which I’ll try and get to in a later post.
Nature is the norm, the “ground state†of existence if you will. But the universe can be coaxed into producing more exotic phenomena, arraying forces in unusual ways and juxtaposing substances normally kept separate. This is magic.
The making of magic is no simple thing. Complex processes or “rituals†are often necessary to bring a spell’s effects into being. In some cases a ritual creates a sort of model of an event to act as a kind of focus for the mystical energies involved. In other cases the ritual is used to gain the attention of specific beings inclined to donate their powers to the event. In yet others the ritual sets up a set of minor precursor conditions which will trigger a larger scale phenomena (like using a few carefully placed fire-crackers to trigger an avalanche.
Generally the more outside the norm a magical phenomena is, the more setup it needs. Most spells are cast in one or more stages. The number of stages a spell takes to cast is equal to it’s spell level (excluding 0-level spells which have special rules). Each stage of casting takes a different length of time and some chance of failure.
The difficulty of the roll at each stage when casting a spell is:
Spellcasting DC = 2x Spell level
To successfully make this check the magician must make have an effective caster level that meets or exceeds this DC. However magician’s effective casting ability (ECA) is variable and may not necessarily be the same as actual caster level.
Effective Casting Ability = 1d20 + Caster Level + Class modifier -10
At each stage of the spell the caster rolls to determine how effectively they were at maintaining their magical skills. As long as the effective casting ability equals or exceeds the spellcasting DC then the magician meets with some degree of success. But since the magnitudes of various aspects of the spell (range, area of effect, duration, etc.) are also determined by the lowest successful effective casting ability rolled at any stage of the process, it never hurts to have a higher effective casting ability. The effective caster level at which the spell is cast is equal to the lowest effective casting ability rolled at any stage of the process, though each roll of natural 20 adds a +2 to the effective caster level of the spell overall.
Every time a magician fails to attain a desired a necessary or desired effective casting ability on their roll for a given stage of a spell they may opt to take the same amount of time again and repeat the roll in an attempt to gain greater success. The magician may stop at any time with these rolls and keeps the highest success attained for that stage of the process.
The casting time for each attempted roll at each stage of this process is summarized in the following chart:
Table: Time per stage of ritual
| Stage | Time taken |
| 1 | 1 attempt as a partial action or 2 attempts as a full round action. |
| 2 | 1 full round action |
| 3 | 3 full round actions |
| 4 | 1 minute |
| 5 | 5 minutes |
| 6 | 20 minutes |
| 7 | 1 hour |
| 8 | 2 hours |
| 9 | 5 hours |
Generally a caster must start with working on the highest stage of a spell first and work and work their way down to the lowest stage of the spell.
In many cases a magician may wish to leave off stage 1 of a spell, thus leaving the spell “hangingâ€. They may then complete the last stage of this “hanging†spell at a later time, bring it’s effects into being in the space of an instant rather than in minutes or hours. The magician may in fact “carry†many of these hanging spells about them.
There is however one problem with such hanging spells: Since they are still in the process of being cast they are, in a sense, “fragileâ€. A caster who is knocked out, takes a blow to the head, or suffers similar impairment may need to make a successful concentration check to regain the facilities necessary to finish their spell. A caster whose pocket has been picked or whose belongings have been extensively damaged may find they make the last roll may be set back a stage because various components for the spell are no longer properly prepared.
Because of these difficulties many magicians still opt to bind their spells into scrolls for later casting rather than leaving them hanging.
Taking 10 – Magicians may “take 10” when making effective casting ability checks, as long as they are in a non-stressful situation and have time to study their notes or meditate (depending on their form of magic) . This does not increase the casting time.
Taking 20 – Magicians may “take 20”. This actually does increase the casting time by a factor of 20, making a long process indeed to accomplish spell spells in this manner.
Cantrips
Zero-level spells (or “cantripsâ€) are a special case. These spells are so simple they may generally be brought into effect with a simple gesture and act of will. Normally this is so brief that it doesn’t even count as a “stage†of casting. The first cantrip a magician uses in a round counts as a free action. Any additional cantrips used in the same round require a partial action to work.
Although there are technically no stages to a cantrip an effective casting ability roll must still be made. However when casting a cantrip a magician may “Take 10†even in stressful situations if they so choose.
Class Specifics
In general a magician may attempt to cast any spell of any level in their repitoire while they are any character level. For Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers this means any spell on their entire class list.
Bards and Sorcerers must narrow down their lists by choosing a number of spells known equal to the maximum number they could know at 20th level. At each level they may switch out one spell on their list of each level for a different one available to them.
Wizards can cast the spells in their spellbook. They start out with all 0-level spells, 3 first level spells (plus one additional 1st-level spell for each point of intelligence bonus. In addition the wizard has access to two spells of each other spell level.
Class Modifiers
Each class has a modifier to their effective casting ability as indicated in the table below:
Table: Spellcasting class modifier
| Class | Modifier |
| Bard | Charisma mod. -1 |
| Cleric | Wisdom mod. +0 (+2 on rolls for domain spells only). |
| Sorcerer | Charisma +3 |
| Wizard | Intelligence mod. +0 |
| Druid | Wisdom mod. +0 |
| Paladin | Charisma mod. -5 |
| Ranger | Wisdom mod. -5 |
Cooperative Magic
When multiple magicians work together to cast a spell they can often speed up the process or produce stronger effects. There are two way to do this:
- Parallel – The magicians work on each stage of the spell together. Take the best roll of any magician during each stage. With this method each stage of the spell takes the same length but the results are generally better and with the necessity to repeat fewer stages.
- Series – The magicians work on separate stages of the same spell and combine their efforts to finish the spell. The spell’s effectiveness is equal to the worst roll of any magician during any stage of the spell. This method may speed up the process greatly so long as all the magicians roll well, however the chances of having to repeat stages are dictated by skills the lowest ability magician. Best to stick them on the lower stages.
Ultimately, though many magicians contribute to the spell, there will only be one of them who actually wields the spell when it is complete. This head magician must be chosen before the spell is cast.
It’s also important to note that certain sorts of spellcasting aren’t compatible with other types even when the spell is the same.
Bards – Bards can theoretically cooperate with anyone who is willing and whose power doesn’t exclude them by it’s nature.
Clerics – The beings that clerics serve are rather finicky about sharing their power. A cleric may cooperate on divine spells with other clerics or paladins drawing their power from the same being, or possibly with other clerics who worship allied beings (ie. gods in the same pantheon). Clerics might also be able to cooperate with other spellcasting classes but only if those other classes show a devotion to the cleric’s god or if they are supporting the god’s goals (ie. Druids an Nature-god clerics are tight).
Druids – Druids can cooperate on any of their spells, however they may take a -5 penalty when trying to cooperate with beings who habitually desecrate nature or overturn it’s balance.
Paladins – Paladins are similar to clerics in how they can and can’t cooperate with others when casting spells.
Rangers – Rangers are similar to druids in how they can and can’t cooperate with others when casting spells.
Sorcerers – Sorcerers can basically cooperate with anyone who will let them.
Wizards – Wizards can cooperate with anyone who will let them. However they are better at patching spells cast through other means of magic rather than directing them. As a result wizards can only be the lead caster on spells cast by sorcerers of other wizards.
Metamagic Feats
Metamagic feats must be worked into a spell at every stage of casting in order to be effective. These feats effectively increase the spell level and thus also the spellcasting DC. This should be relatively straightforward although there is one special case:
Quicken Spell – This feat applies only to the last stage of the spell. It also allows the last stage of a spell to be cast automatically without the need for a roll.
New Feats
Expedite Ritual – Pre-requisites: Caster level 5
It is possible with great practice to speed up some of the longer stages of a ritual. By taking this feat the caster can lower the time it takes each stage by one category to a minimum length of 1 partial action. This increases the effective level of the spell by +1.
This feat may be taken multiple times. Each time it applies to the spells of a different class.
Greatly Expedite Ritual – Pre-requisites: Caster level 10 and Expedite Ritual feat.
This feat is similar to the Expedite Ritual feat but may be used to lower the casting time by two categories with a corresponding increase in effective spell level of the spell by +2.
This feat may be taken multiple times. Each time it applies to the spells of a different class.
Most Expedient Ritual – Pre-requisites: Caster level 15 and Greatly Expedite Ritual feat.
This feat is similar to the Expedite Ritual feat but may be used to lower the casting time by three categories with a corresponding increase in effective spell level of the spell by +3.
This feat may be taken multiple times. Each time it applies to the spells of a different class.
I always thought the whole D&D spell system was pretty poorly designed. As you say – no other system has as many cool spells… but the system itself leaves a lot to be desired. My understanding was that if you were a wizard/mage that you could only cast spells that were in your spell book. The clerical spell system was a little more interesting as you could pray for any spell of the level you could cast. That way at least you could get different spells (though – I can’t recall if this was an actual real rule or a house rule we came up with). The magic system for memorization of spells also discouraged getting random weird spells. One thing we used to do (and I don’t remember if this was an actual real rule or not either) was to allow mages to memorize and add to their repertoire spells on scrolls and in spell books they found. This way, the DM (at his or her discretion) could give more obscure and weird spells to mages. I don’t know however if either of these two points get at your criticisms of the D&D spell system…
Your system is designed to allow mages to cast spells beyond their level if they make the appropriate save/dice roll. Is this correct? Additionally, my understanding of your system is that mages still have to memorize specific spells at each level, and they cannot make a save to cast any spell. Is this correct?
And complete aside – my favorite spell of all time is still the cantrip.
You’re essentially correct on all points:
I like the cantrip alot as well. The reason I made it so easy under this system is that they’re pretty trivial spells but add interesting atmosphere and IMO magicians should have some cool but minor effects they can throw around whenever they want.
I also had gripes with D&D magic. I think your system is one that would have been fun to play under since it’s flexible. I especially like the co-op idea. It makes sense since rituals are acted out and somewhat “built,” so wouldn’t it be useful to have more than one person doing it?
I also like how Bards and Paladins use Charisma for spells. Not sure if that’s a new D&D rule (I stopped at 2nd Ed.), but I always thought that it would be neat to have different means to a magical end, means such as speech, hand gestures, drawings, music, noises, dancing, alchemy, simple conentration or any others.
Time delay is a good idea. The only critique I have is for the higher level spells that have some permenance. Spells like enchant weapon, limited wish, wish, etc. would seem to be too easily accessable, if I understand your system correctly. Even if a spell takes a week to cast with multiple casters, I could see a party enchanting and wishing their way to uberness before even going into the dark, dank cave. Perhaps I missed something though.
Other magic systems I like are the Shadowrun system, which has a Mental “Health” bar that parallels with your real Health bar. When a spellcaster casts a spell, it’s as if he is being attacked by that spell. In Shadowrun, whenever you are attacked and hit, you have to roll successes with your Body and armor values to see if you can absorb the damage. Whatever damage you do not absorb is how much you are hurt. The spells work similarly. A spell’s difficulty is pitted against your attributes and spellcasting skill. If you can’t absorb the blow caused by the spell, then you take Mental damage, which adversly effects all of your actions plus can knock you out (or maybe even kill you) if it gets too great.
The end result is that a skilled spellcaster can cast low level spells all day without being phazed while a low level spellcaster can possibly cast a high level spell, but the chances of said spellcaster comming out unscathed are slim.
I said magic systems, I was going to include Mage: The Ascension but then my description for Shadowrun took too much time.
***Not related to this post. I love how Dick is posting comments. It makes it seem as if he’s home on his computer just down the road… when in fact he’s in China! Hope all is going well for you.
I am looking forward to reading a few post from your adventures abroad.
Pete – You should submit this to Dragon Magazine as a featured article. Its innovative and well written — I think they’d eat it up! Seriously. Do it!
That is actually a really good idea. Pete had you ever thought of doing that?
Dragon magazine has become all slick and mainstream-D&D in recent years and strikes me as not so much the kind of place that would likely accept such an unorthodox magic system. Though I could be wrong.
But I had considered something like that. More along the lines of putting it here for sale though.
Ultimately though it seems kind of odd to make folks pay for something that I’ve already posted up here for free anyway. Maybe if I compiled all the systems I put up on protozoic into one nicely formatted PDF it’d make some sense.
I also like how Bards and Paladins use Charisma for spells. Not sure if that’s a new D&D rule (I stopped at 2nd Ed.), but I always thought that it would be neat to have different means to a magical end, means such as speech, hand gestures, drawings, music, noises, dancing, alchemy, simple conentration or any others.
Charisma for Bards and Paladins is a standard rule now. In 2nd Ed. the Bard was kind of part fighter, part wizard (learning and casting spells). But in 3rd Ed. the Bard is more of a face man and assistance provider (ie. casting “buff” spells, etc.) and as such has a narrower range of possible spells than before. In fact IIRC the 3rd Ed. Bard has to play an instrument to make their spells work.
And I strongly agree with you: I do like the idea of folks working magic with different techniques.
Time delay is a good idea. The only critique I have is for the higher level spells that have some permenance. Spells like enchant weapon, limited wish, wish, etc. would seem to be too easily accessable, if I understand your system correctly. Even if a spell takes a week to cast with multiple casters, I could see a party enchanting and wishing their way to uberness before even going into the dark, dank cave. Perhaps I missed something though.
I thought there was probably a flaw in my grand magic system and you have cleverly found it.
But there is sort of a mitigating factor: In Ed. 3.x most spells which create permanent magical effects (including the “Permanency” spell) now cost XP to cast. The “Wish” spell (found somewhere in here) now costs at least 5000XP per use and can cost more depending on what the caster uses it for.
So it’s not necessarily that easy to just cast lots of permanent spells unless you’re willing to spend the XP. And if you’re willing to do that then why not just advance some levels?
– long but interesting Shadowrun bit snipped –
The end result is that a skilled spellcaster can cast low level spells all day without being phazed while a low level spellcaster can possibly cast a high level spell, but the chances of said spellcaster comming out unscathed are slim.
That’s an interesting system.
I purchased an old used copy of Shadowrun recently (it was one of those books I always wanted as a kid but didn’t have the money for). I haven’t really dug into my copy yet and I don’t remember much about the spell system. The only thing that I vaguely recall from reading it a long time ago was that something about the general dice mechanics for the game bugged me.
But the spell-damage thing you discuss sounds like a clever idea.
I thought of using a “mental damage†track as a measure of mental instability (like Call of Cthulhu’s “insanity†stat) or for psychic warfare, but I don’t think I’d ever considered it as a spell-casting thing before.
Your mention of armor to soak physical damage also gives me a thought: What if the mental equivalent of armor was your casting tools (wand, staff, costly materials, etc.)? So the more props you used the less damage you were likely to take.
I said magic systems, I was going to include Mage: The Ascension but then my description for Shadowrun took too much time.
There are a lot of things about Mage that I like quite a bit. I really like how the broke it down into these highly inclusive spheres. Again, whenever I look at a game I always try to think what I would have done differently, and I would have divided up spheres down a little differently than they did. But their division was not bad. This is another game where the dice mechanics really bug me a bit though.
As freeform magic systems go Mage is one of the best (also right up there is Ars Magica, though Ars is pretty entrenched in the Middle Ages). But I find sometimes I like a freeform magic system (ie. one where characters can design your own effects on the fly), and sometimes I like a task specific magic system (ie. one where magicians may only choose specific magical effects such as “spellsâ€).
Mage is good at the freeform thing but sort of precludes a reliance on specific spells. I know there are “Rotes†which are kind of distinct spells but this is really sort of a technicality. Knowing a Rote makes the effect a little easier to create but not much. You don’t need to know a Rote to create the effect and you can’t use a Rote if you don’t have the right Sphere levels anyway.