Casting a spell during the same turn is limited to cantrips with a casting time of 1 action. Cantrips don’t cost spell slots and can be cast repeatedly without fixed cost. However, players can abuse cantrips in unusual ways, such as casting firebolt repeatedly to break through a stone wall or melting.
Create Bonfire can be cast as an action each turn, but the effect of the previous casting will end. If a spell targets a creature of your choice, you can choose yourself, unless the creature must be hostile or specifically a creature other than you. If you are in the area of effect of a spell you cast, you can target yourself.
For fighters with action surge, you can cast two one-action spells with no restrictions. RAW, you can spam any cantrip provided you have the components. It’s just a matter of declaring you are spamming it. When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot that is of a higher level than the spell, the spell takes on the higher level for that casting.
There is no limitation to how often a cantrip can be cast or against re-targeting the same area. The only limitation is that you must be the expert and teach them about bonus actions, spitting movement, reactions, gaining advantage, attacks of opportunity, and how to avoid them.
In D and D 5e, spell slots are extremely restrictive on classes that use spell slots. Mages have the means to do 10 times more damage/utility, which can take some time to get used to. To prevent players from bypassing puzzles with spells like Knock, you can either add the spell to your spell list or let them use it for a long rest without spending a spell slot.
📹 Removing Spell Slots From D&D
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Can you spam spells in D&D?
It is important to note that while Detect Magic can be used excessively, some objects are capable of radiating magic, which is not a form of magic and can therefore be considered junk. The invocations exhibit disparate usage mechanics, including those pertaining to short and long rest, as well as those associated with the “at will” state.
Are cantrips unlimited?
Cantrips are spells that can be cast infinitely without depleting resources, making them less powerful than other spells. They are useful in combat and out, and D and D players have endless options for class features, equipment, and spells when designing and leveling up their characters. All but four classes can use magic, making it crucial to choose the right spells to create a flexible and impactful magic caster. Spell slots are limited, so players should use modest but intriguing spells whenever possible. Acid Splash is available for artificers, sorcerers, wizards, and College of Lore Bards.
Can you cantrip twice?
The casting of a bonus action spell, irrespective of its level, precludes the player from casting another spell on their turn, with the exception of a cantrip. This signifies that neither action nor reaction spells can be cast during a player’s turn, and that only one reaction can be obtained within a round.
How do you counter CC troops?
This strategy guide outlines various ways to deal with clan castle troops, which can be a significant resistance and control the game’s outcome. Clan castle troops can protect enemy bases, slow down attacks, and change the raid from a possible 100 attack to a 50 attack. They can also do a lot of damage, especially area-splash damage. To deal with them, use archers or barbarians to lure them to a place where the enemy’s defenses cannot attack them.
Deploy fighting troops to defeat them easily. Strong troops like Golems, Giants, or P. E. K. K. A. s can distract your troops while the enemy defenses can take them out. However, these troops have low dps, so it’s essential to have specific troop compositions to effectively deal with them.
Can wizards in Harry Potter spam spells?
The efficacy of Harry Potter spells as a means of communication is contingent upon the abilities of the individual wizard and the complexity of the spell in question. In the film Goblet of Fire, Molly Weasley employs the spell Accio, which is regarded as spamming, to retrieve Fred and George’s trick candies.
How many endless spells can I take?
Endless Spells are now a part of the Hero Phase, moving and banging at the end. Wizards can control the spell they cast as long as they remain within 30 inches. They are dispelled at the start of the Hero phase, allowing spells already on the table to be banished before they can move and pop again. The dispell range is 30 inches, and the Casting Value must be beat to get rid of them. The Core Rules allow one Endless Spell per Wizard, but the Battlepack imposes a hard cap of three per army.
Using Endless Spells as movement blockers was a legit strategy in 2nd Ed, but a refreshed roster of Spells that are fit for purpose is welcome. The new spells switch off Inspiring Presence and add D3 to Battleshock rolls.
Can you destroy CC with spells?
The Lightning Spell, the first Elixir spell unlocked in the Spell Factory, no longer damages Clan Castles. It stuns buildings and units within a small area, except for resource storages, the Town Hall, and the Clan Castle. If a Defensive Building or troop is struck by the bolt, it is briefly stunned and retargeted. When combined with the Earthquake Spell, Lightning Spells can be used to destroy high hitpoint buildings like Eagle Artillery or Scattershot. However, this is often not worth the cost unless at least two buildings are destroyed or other value is gained, such as defeating the enemy Archer Queen simultaneously.
How many spell slots can you use in DND?
The number of spell slots available to characters is contingent upon their class. Full casters, such as wizards or bards, possess a greater number of slots than half casters, including paladins. Each class has a distinct rule for determining spell casting. The act of resting allows energy to return, a process that is identical for spell casters and martial fighters. Subsequent posts will address the class-specific rules governing spell casting.
Can you destroy a town hall with spells?
Earthquake Spells can damage Town Halls and Clan Castles, unlike the Lightning Spell, and can be a good target for removing a large chunk of their health. These structures are damaged based on their maximum hitpoints, and repeated Earthquakes deal decreasing damage to the same buildings but increasing damage to the same walls. Earthquake Spells cannot damage resource storages but can damage resource collectors. However, they can damage Town Halls and Clan Castles, as they do not leak resources when damaged, and Earthquakes deal diminishing damage with repeated usage.
This pattern continues regardless of the level of Earthquake Spells, so to maximize damage, one should drop their highest-level Earthquake Spells first. This strategy is useful for defending against multiple Earthquake Spells with different levels, which can be achieved through Clan Castle reinforcements.
Why didn’t Harry use Avada Kedavra?
Harry Potter never cast the Unforgivable Curses, such as Avada Kedavra, due to his belief in the immoral practice of the Dark Arts. He viewed Voldemort as the epitome of evil and refused to use the Curse that killed his parents. Avada Kedavra requires the caster to commit murder for the spell to work, and Harry might not have had the ability or desire to use it since he is not a murderer.
In their final duel, both Harry and Voldemort could have used the Curse, but Harry entered the fight with a clear mind, while Voldemort was motivated by rage and desperation. When the Dark Lord used Avada Kedavra for the final time in the Harry Potter series, the spell deflected due to Harry’s ownership of the Elder wand, killing Voldemort with his own signature spell.
The Unforgivable Curses were strictly deemed illegal by the Ministry of Magic after Voldemort’s death. Harry Potter’s use of Unforgivable Curses and their effects on his psyche is more extensively explored in the books, as he is capable of great remorse.
Why doesn’t Voldemort just spam Avada Kedavra?
The curse necessitates a considerable degree of power, thereby limiting its deployment to those with considerable magical abilities. Furthermore, there is a significant probability of either failing to strike the intended target or inflicting damage upon an unintended one.
📹 Overpowered Spells
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I homebrewed this a little for my games, you get an MP dice that is the inverse of your HP dice and you add CHA as the modifier as I link ones mana pool to their spirit/ force of personality. A barbarian with a D12 Hit dice will have a D4 mana dice and inversely a wizard with a D6 hit dice will have a D10 mana dice. It gives the non casters a resource to spend helping the party recharge magic items or powering up the main cannon of their spelljammer like they were power rangers.
My group is playing in the Iron Kingdoms setting currently, which uses a variant on Spell Points. You count up to your level-determined limit instead of down, and once a day can “push” to generate more exhaustion points than your limit allows. The check is more difficult if you need more points. Failure knocks you on your ass badly, inflicting multiple levels of exhaustion, and even success has drawbacks. Really gives magic a nice, riskier flavor especially at low levels.
In one game I am in we don’t have spell slots but roll to see if the spell goes off. we do 12+spell level and you roll a d20+your modifier like a spell attack to see if the spell gets cast. The DM does the same thing as well for NPCs and enemies. We do this since our encounters are all really strong and no one likes spell slots limits. I play a Warlock and this is really nice to do.
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I actually did a campaign using this system playing as a Cleric and it was great, it really allows you to get creative with your spells. That said, it’s not a flawless system. The whole back-to-back fireball thing can get a little crazy, but regardless I still think it adds a lot more fun and potentially allows the DM to get more creative with their monsters and resistances, considering the party doesn’t have to worry as much about locking out a tier of spells because of slots.
We can go on a bit of theory crafting to use it for warlock we need to figure out the spell slots cost at first level and at 17th level (which is the level where he will get 4 5th level spell slots), this will help you later on set a table of point progression for warlocks from level 1 to 20, so at 1st level warlock’s have one spell slot of 1st level meaning they will have 2 spell points, at level 17 they have 4 5th level spell slots that would be 28 points since a 5th level spell cost 7 points now this will allow us to create a slightly tweaked table which can be as follows: – 1st lvl = 2 points – 2nd lvl = 4 points – 3rd lvl = 6 points – 4th lvl = 8 points – 5th lvl = 10 points – 6th lvl = 11 points – 7th lvl = 12 points – 8th lvl = 13 points – 9th lvl = 14 points – 10th lvl = 16 points – 11th lvl = 18 points – 12th lvl = 20 points – 13th lvl = 22 points – 14th lvl = 24 points – 15th lvl = 25 points – 16th lvl = 26 points – 17th lvl = 27 points – 18th lvl = 28 points – 19th lvl = 29 points – 20th lvl = 30 points I dunno I just came us with this table right now see if you like it.
I would say that it takes away from the versatility of sorcerers’ font of magic system, and would also request a boon to match. Either adding sorcery points to the spell points pool to avoid the conversion rate/bonus action or making it so long rests only replenish missing spell points to fill the tank size (spell points + sorcery points) and not clearing or adding anything if there are extra spell points.
I’ve been doing this for years. I also give players a number of bonus points matching their appropriate ablity score bonus as well. It doesn’t make much of a difference later on in the game (at higher levels), but early on it can be near umballancing (as the DM, I think it’s worth it… My players certainly haven’t complained.) Also, on a short rest I allowed 1/4 point recovery.
I have a specific character who this would be great for. He’s a C.L. born with a horn of crystallized weave/magic. I was toying with lore to claim that he has an “infinite fount of magic, but needs to learn to control it” (Wild Magic), and the spell pool just flavours that nicely. I.e. at level 1, he’d have a spell pool of 133, but would suffer Wild Magic Surges and Short-Term Madness if he uses more than 4 spell points per long rest.
So, I’ve been playing SW5e for a few years now. They used a variation on the spell point system for force/tech powers, and we handwaved the restriction on 6-9th level spells. Honestly, it hasn’t really broken anything, though we generally play high power games. It’s definitely something you have to prep for, especially if you have power gamers in your group, but it’s not unmanageable and I personally like the concept of being able to just slam the entire battlefield with 9th level spells. For my consular (comparable to sorcerer + wizard) it has been interesting to manage my force points, especially since we’re at tier 4. If I go all out early, I’m helpless later on, and our DM has exploited that more than once.
Looking at the rules, you could spam higher level spells, just have to create them after a long rest. “You can use spell points to create one slot of each level of 6th or higher. You can’t create another slot of the same level until you finish a long rest.” the rules don’t say you lose the created slots anywhere. The spells themselves aren’t prepared, you just have the resources to use them. Spell Casting time and requirements still take effect in order to balance it.
It’s funny that every edition of D&D eventually does this as an alternate rule. I remember when second edition did it. 3/3.5 definitely did it. 4th didn’t exist long enough to get to it but spells were weird like everything else in that edition. It’s strange for me to think that 5e is almost ten years old.
I’ve been planning to implementing this for forever but it seems so daunting. I also feel like spell points is kicking the problems I have down the line, making it less of a problrm, but it’s still there. However my major issue is I don’t like number games in terms of immersion but there’s not way to make it intuitive like it would be if the players actually could feel the magic draining from them, which is like impossible so oh well.
I got rid of spell slots, cause they are dumb and bored a lot of my friends. I also added a ton of martial skills that are essentially on par with magic skills because it’s a fantasy world. Though, I wrote an entire guide and removed the class system and instead put an archetype system where you can pretty much make any character you actually want.
I tried this and it was just warlocks but better. The entire point of spell slots is to force variety and thought. When you can cast whatever you want in a game with hp and direct damage ill show you what happens. “The horde of orcs enters the armory unaware of you up in the tower” Wizard:”Fireball fireball fireball fireball fireball” “Oh” Or “The dragon enters prepared to do battle” Wizard “Polymorph polymorph polymorph Disintegrate Disintegrate Disintegrate finger of death” “Oh” They just spam the best thing they have and dont plan at all anymore. Preparation is what makes variety.
I spent several hours designing a custom class that uses spell/mana points instead of spell slots for my girlfriend who really insisted on having that instead of spell slots…only to find this article. I still think we’re gonna use the class I designed because there’s more to it than just the mana point system (though that is its main gimmick), but this is still certainly an interesting surprise to find.
Would a mixed system work? I kinda really like the idea of my wizard meticulously preparing rituals, triggers, gathering her materials and imbuing her wands at a long rest, so the spell slots fit mechanically to how I picture my character. But our parties druid might like to feel more primal, to have spell points that represent her innate connection to the nature and how she draws in the power of the wilds around her at whim.
Having played with spell points before, I can say that it’s way stronger than ordinary spell slots. The issue is that if everything has a set cost, there is no reason not to use all of it for your best spells. Dark souls actually had a similar issue when going from 1/2 to 3… in one and two, you had to save your spells and decide when you wanted to use your big ones otherwise you would run out before a boss. In dark souls 3, they introduced mana and all lesser spells were thrown out the window. Only the most effective spell for the cost was chosen, which made having several spells kind of redundant… dnd spells are more versatile, but if I can cast like 5 fireballs in a day compared to 2 and some magic missiles… I am taking 5 fireballs every time.
We tried this back in 3.0, and hated it. Cleric would prepare any utility spells needed and swap any out for their healing domain perk for healing spells as needed. The wizard took fireball and whatever misc utility spells they randomly decided on. The rest of the party was melee classes + 1 ranger and didn’t care. For any class other than cleric (or for a one trick pony wizard in a love triangle with fireball), there was no point to such an elaborate system.
Having played with this up to middling levels this makes a bad problem worse – Casters will have the ability to burn through say more resources all at once, throwing out more big, impactful 5th level spells when they normally would have to slowly scale down and let martials pick up the slack. The one class that this actually worked well with, ironically, was Warlock. They’re already meant to just go nova each short rest, so giving them a little flexibility on it made usually bad spells like Counterspell playable.
The spell slot thing is an artifact of original D&D before MP and article games were a thing. You couldn’t have casters just spam casting their most powerful spells because it would have completely thrown off the balance of the game. If the spells were too weak, you’d just bring all melee characters. If they were too strong, there’d be no reason to bring anything else. So this was the way they solved it.
Everyone likes the resource pool idea because they imagine active games where your spamming cooldowns. Thats not what dnd is. Resource pools just become “Whats my highest damage spell ok ill just use that because if i dont ill just be purposely doing less damage” Its horrible and forces the player to nerf themselves to not have to spam fireball and finger of death over and over and over.
I would change the spell cost and the amount of points available. Being able to cast 56 level 2 spells is a bit outrageous. Make each spell cost an amount of spell points equal to the level. And give each player a spell point per level in that class – or 1 every other level for half casters. Simple. Then allow them to cast multiple 6+ level spells per long rest, as they wouldn’t be able to cast them that often anyway.
Tbh if warlocks could use spell points they lose the one thing that keeps them balanced Imagine rolling around casting max level spells for the cost of a level one spell 133 max points / 4 points (assuming they still cast spells at the highest level available to them) means you can dunk out 33 9th level spells every short rest
The thing I like about spell slots is that it lets you cast low-level spells without remorse. You can’t “save up” 3 magic missile casts to get one fireball cast. To that end, I think the spell point cost curve in the DMG is WAY too shallow for my tastes. If I were to attempt something like spell slots, I would have the cost curve be quadratic.
Might as well play another game if you remove the Vancian system of magic. Spell slots (intentionally or not) provided some balance for the spell casters. In the modern game, EVERYONE casts spells, so maybe it’s not a long stretch to ask for them to be removed. However, back when the average hp of a 20th level Fighter was 83, and some spell caster able to throw a handful of 23 points of damage (average) from magic missile and about 30 damage (assuming a successful save, which was 75% chance at the highest levels), you needed something to stop them from just piling damage over and over.
Oh so it’s like Casting Points in Age of Wonders! In that game wizards (and some heroes) have access to varying amounts of Casting Points (Wizards start with 20 and can get them increased by increments of 10 with Casting Specialist upgrades, a Casting Specialist enchanted hat and a Casting Chamber upgrade in a town for a total of 90 (in the second game and Shadow Magic) up to a total of 90, while Heroes start with 5 and get them in increments of 5 +Specialist hat, up to 50) and every spell has a set number of casting points and mana cost (like a basic fireball costs 9 mana 9 points to cast, UNLESS you have researched websiteler, which reduces all spell point and mana costs by 10%) It’s a really neat, simple and intuitive system.
I think that the only risk playing this way is that players will always come back to the same more powerful spells, instead the spell slot system force the players and encourage them to take advantage of all levels of spells, from 1st to 9th. Edit: i think that this system sounds beautiful but is even more chaotic and difficult to manage in my opinion.
My dm dose something similar by giving all casters 20 charges (one charge per level) as he added duels to the campaign which made casters pretty bad so a 1st level spell takes a fifth of a charge but they can get temporary increase in charge by events, items,etc Making them valuable in both normal combat and duels as a lvl 5 monk killed two lvl 7 casters in a duel he killed my war cleric and the wizard in less than 30min which made the monk lvl up the lvl 8 which went after our barbarian and three shot him
If my party was up for a little more complexity I’d go a step further with spell points by: adding a casting DC, drop spell level requirements altogether, and make spells above L5 permanently bound to those spell points. Casting DC would be 6+spell point cost. Rolls are a D20 + (level + proficiency + spellcasting modifier). Level 3 wizard with 16 Intelligence: Feather fall? DC=8 Rolls a D20+8.Never fails. Fireball? DC=11 so < 3 fails. One shot wonder daily Wish? DC=19 so <11 fails and unless duplicating spells there is a 33% chance they permanently lose their only spell points As a DM you could also have a lot of fun with the high-risk high reward. Maybe their wish spell for a block of gold fails and its uranium dealing necrotic damage to them. Maybe the resistance fails and actually doubles damage from that source. Maybe that failed attempt to manipulae that past allows the GM to take something that helped you and force a re-roll at disadvantage.
You might be asking, why did WotC exclude warlocks? Short answer: it would be completely broken Long answer: Well, it’s because they function very differently than every other class in the game. Full casters primarily focus on casting spells. Thus, their class features are… Not super great. Oh you can cast a low level spell for free? You get access to a spell from another class? That’s cool, but not super powerful. Half casters like rangers and paladins get access to better class abilities, like the ability to buff your allies just by them being around you, getting to smite your enemies, or dealing extra damage to certain enemy types. Subclass casters like Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters get access to extremely powerful class abiliries, like the ability to rake another action or deal a ton of damage through sneak attack, but their ability to cast spells is fairly limited in return. And warlocks are tje most exteme of this. At level, 20, they only get 4 5th level spell slots, but they get access to some of the most broken abilities in the game. Do you want to smite like a Paladin? There’s an invocation for that. Do you want to cast Hold Monster at will? There’s an invocation for that. Do you want to flip the bird at death? There’s an invocation for that. Keep in mind, at level 20, you get 8 of these. Additionally, warlock subclass abilities are probably the most OP subclass abilities in all of D&D, such as Hurl Through Hell (level 14, Fiend), Hex Warrior (level 1, Hexblade), Armor of Hexes (level 10, Hexblade), Limited Wish (level 14, Genie), Misty Escape (level 6, Archfey), Searing Vengeance (level 14, Celestial), and more.
I like it, but if it doesn’t work for warlocks… why you really can’t think of changing it so warlocks work? Give them spell points (lol mana) and let them upcast… somehow? (number of times equal to warlock level?) idk I’m a druid, not a warlock – and I’m all for spamming my lv1 spells to heal the entire party 7 times over, totally balanced (no.)
I got PTSD when you said you’re removing spell slots. My first ever DnD campaign went somewhat like this: Dm: we’re not doing spell slots Me, with 0 dnd experience: ? Then what? Infinite spells? Then the mage becomes OP? Dm: just… use spells when you want to just dont make it too broken The wizard: becomes OP Dm: we’re bringing back spell slots The guy who had restrained himself like he “should” do.. aka. me, opted for a warlock instead, cuz eldritch blast IS supposed to go brr and i’ll have some utility magic to use! Yeah the fights were hella weird as in either the wizard one taps them or they have 10 billion hp so he wizard doesnt one tap them but now none of my shit hits or does damage. The horror of the campaign wasn’t necessarily due to this but it played a part in snowballing the issue.
If you’re not using spell points you’re just being mean to your full casters. Granted, my table ignores the once a day of the high level spells, because that’s more fun. Wish isn’t a spell you’ll see much of, because the 1/3 chance you just can’t ever use it again is scary. But our 18 Sorc/2 Fighter REALLY likes to triple down on 9th level fireballs. Not on enemies, but mountains.
“Also, warlocks can’t use this” I mean… Why? I get that officially they can’t but like, just let them. Give them the spell point equivalent of their two X level spell slots and let them use them how they want. Now they can use Charm Person without absolutely gimping themselves if combat occurs! Huzzah!
This is part of what made the playtest Mystic so good. The spell point systemis baked into how their powers work and it gives them absolutely incredible versatility and staying power. I played a mystic in a 1-20 (17 Wu Jen Mystic/ 3 War Magic Wizard) and loved him. Levels 5-10 were the sweet spot where it felt straight up OP. But after other full casters got level 6+ spells, it evened out or the mystic even fell behind, because nothing a mystic does is more powerful than a 5th level spell.
I’m playing a similar but different RP game and it’s fun to see that DnD adopted this magic system as well. In that game, we call them Mana-points and they work with an entirely different logic than spell slots. You don’t have to learn spells, there’s a list of spells for every class that can use magic, and your character basically knows all of them. But you can’t use them until you have enough Mana-points. So you can’t use a spell that costs 45 points if your max Mana is 20. Also, the amount of Mana points you get and the way you regain them completely depends on your class. For example bards get Mana points based on their Intelligence. If your bard has 17 for Intelligence then you’ll get 7 points on first level. But if it’s only 13, then you’ll get 3. And on each level, you’ll get 4 more, it doesn’t depend on your stats. A wizard however gets 10 points on first level, and 10 more on each next level. So on second, you’ll have 20 points, on third you’ll have 30, and the game carries on with this logic. And here are how classes regain Mana: Bards: they have to sing and play their instrument under the night sky. If they don’t see the stars and the moons (for example because it’stoo cloudy), it’s not working because they get Mana from them and they need direct contact. Wizard: meditation Cleric and paladin: praying to their god Fire wizard (not a subclass to wizard, but a totally different one): literally eats fire Witch (a unique class based on Intelligence and Charisma) and warlock: they drink a special potion they can brew, but it damages their health (kinda like energy drinks) Sadly, this game doesn’t have sorcerers, rangers, and what I will never forgive for, absolutely nothing that even reminds you of a druid.
Wow. I’ve been using Spell Points for years, and this is the first time I’ve seen one of the bigger D&D YouTubers bring it up. Spell Points are just better than Spell Slots in every way. It gives my player casters way more flexibility, as Shorts says, and lets them do more than they ever could before. As a veteran DM for D&D, I highly recommend it.
Between friends we use an easier way: -Mana: 1 per level + INT/WIS/CHA, halved for spellcasters. -Spells cost as their Lv, so like Wish costs 9. -Short rests let recover half the Mana points. Easy to calculate, with even more freedom. And it boosts casters in early levels where they are too weak compared to other classes, and nerf them in higher levels where they are op Hope it’s useful
OMG, been saying this for a few years now. A Forever DM checking in, about once a year I get to play. When I do it’s typically a wizard and with the spell point variant. Casting Shield as a 1st level after casting quite a few other 1st level spells is hands down superior to wasting a 2nd level+ spell slot because I’m out of 1st level spell slots. I don’t use Shield often but I’m not going to hold onto a spell slot ‘just incase,’ especially if there’s better uses. Bottom line: everyone, including players, should at least read chapter 9 of the DMG. Other good finds in there include the combat options, and for those that love utter chaos and randomness like myself, check out the rule variant: Proficiency Dice 🥰
I’ve used that rule, as well. It’s good. I also made something quite different, too. Arcane casters (to give some differentiation from divine casters) could cast an unlimited number of times per day. To do so, they need to roll + their spellcasting modifier & proficiency against a target number of 10+ (spell level x2). If they succeed, they cast the spell. If they fail, the spell doesn’t work. It is usually enough to waste an action to prevent people from going hog. But also, if they were to critically fail, they had to roll on a modified version of the wild magic chart and face the consequences. (There’s a sweet spot in there where a d20 offers some nice results, mostly negative, but not entirely.) This is because that chart works well for spell misfires, but a character class based on it is stupid, so you couldn’t just be a wild sorcerer. For the first X castings per day, you had advantage on your spellcasting roll, where X = the number of times you’d normally be allowed to cast such spell per the PHB. That’s it. Pretty easy-peasy. Makes wizards not feel like they’ll become useless if they do their thing all day, unlike martial classes, but had just enough risk that you wouldn’t blow through your advantaged rolls without good reason. It didn’t quite hit the vibes of a Deadlands huckster, but it did promote what I wanted from it: It made practicing magic feel powerful and dangerous in the world.
This reminds me of what happend in the Souls franchise. Started with mana in Demon’s Souls, then in Dark Souls “one” and two they kinda went down on the “spell slots” road. You have like 10 casts for a weak spell, 1 or 2 for the broken ones. To recover spells you have to use specific items or rest at the bonfire. But in DS3 and Elden Ring mana came back.. All this, only to say that, mana is the way to go 😅
Hahahaha. I swear to god, the amount of fucking fanboys i have had jump down my throat every time I say “The magic system is confusing bullshit nonsense largely serving to honour great moments from 40 to20 years ago, rip it out, and start by changing from spell slots to basic goddamn MP” and yet. and yet.
Nah! Mana pool systems deviates too far from dnd spell casting and too far into MMORPG. Wizards are supposed to be clever, preparing in advance what spells they need. It requires planing and strategy. Mindlessly spamming fireballs takes all the fun out of wizards and adding a manapool system is just too close to mindless MMORPG dps classes.
Warlock home brew idea: a warlock has the usual low amount of spell slots, however… they can cast as many leveled spells per day but if you cast beyond the spell slot cap you risk drawing attention of your patron. Once per long rest you must succeed on a charisma ability check (dc = 10 + x (x being the amount of spells cast beyond the allotted spells) or whatever arbitrary DC ruling you like. If you fail, your patron will visit you, demanding some kind of tribute as payment for casting beyond your allotted slots like a quest for a magical item, or perhaps you must commit some kind of crime like killing an influential civilian. I think this idea could make Warlocks more exciting and risk taking, as all pacts with a godlike entities are.
You know in 3.5e and pf1e you never had to worry about spell slots but since you all think simplicity for customization is better you play 5e when 3.5e is the definitive edition and is the peak of dnd. Also let me remind us all why we hated 4e. It was too much like a article game and not like dnd. This “rule” is literally ripped from any RPG in existence. But hey why listen to facts and logic.
As someone that has played with the “MP” system…as a caster I feel less impactful. Before my DM would balance around my limited spells. Now enemies have inflated HP and it all feels very whimsical and not stat driven. It’s fine, but before I felt like oh this fireball is gonna matter. Now I can yeet fireball to my hearts content but I could just be doing A fire bolt for all the good I feel it does. That’s my hot take.
It’s actually not that hard to retrofit the Spellpoints system to work with the Warlock, I know that makes it Homebrew but it gives Warlocks all these same benefits, because now they can cast things like Hex, Hold Person, Misty Step, Hunger of Hadar, or Shadow of Moil without upcasting them, many of these spells gaining no benefits from upcasting, while still retaining their short rest caster identity.
Interesting. I actually started to make a homebrew class that used a “spell point” system, but I didn’t know there was an official option for that. I’ll have to look into that. For anyone curious, it was going to be a Strength based full caster based on the concept of manifesting powers as a result of either physical effort or biological adaptation (think aliens, mutants, super heroes, etc), but their spell list was going to be very carefully curated in favor of spells that mostly emulate the types of abilities that you see on characters from comics and cartoons, but for certain spells you would switch to a class feature similar to Warlocks Eldritch Invocations. So for example, even in most of the subclasses, these characters wouldn’t have Fly on their lists because it’s difficult to justify a hero or alien giving someone else the ability to fly, however there would be an Invocation of sorts that would allow the character to cast Fly for some amount of points only specifically on themselves. A number of other spells like Haste would be treated the same way. I started building the class and got as far as curating the spell lists and developing subclasses, but then ADHD took over and I stopped writing and eventually lost all of my notes (damned old-school notebooks, I did most of my writing at work, so I didn’t have my laptop on me).
I use spell points in my D&D 3.5e game and it’s a beast! However, the downside is that as you lose more and more spell points you start to take penalties to your ability to attack and your ability to run away. This doesn’t matter that much if you’re casting buffs, but once your spell points hit zero you’re not casting anymore unless you succeed on a very difficult check.
That is actually how I built my custom Mage class They have a mage meter and spells cost mage mater points, with the ability to upcast them by expending a few more points. The higher the level, the more mage meter points you have. 1st level only get 2 but 20th has 35. I felt due to the uniqueness of how the Mage works, since all of its spells are exclusive due to being based on the Blue Mages from Final Fantasy, I felt they should have a unique spell casting system.
Ive used this for 7 years. VERY powerful, my only changes were that I filled in the levels where the point system stagnates and I did give them the 2nd casting of 6th and 7th level spells at the appropriate levels. Yes, this system very much feels like a mana bar, but overall across multiple games it has worked wonderfully.
I use a similar rule like this in my homebrew game for spellcasters. Basically mana points. You get a max amount of MP based on level, and spells cost varying amounts. My spin is that you can use an action to regain 1d6 MP or bonus action to regain 1d4. This leads to spellcasters being incentivized towards using more big, cool spells, and not leaving them high and dry just using boring cantrips if they run out. It also helps balance the dmg divide with martial classes since spells can do more damage.
I have a character that this would work out best on. They are partially an Armorer Artificer who uses their armor as a mech. (Still medium sized because they themselves are undersized for their race. ) The Spell Points would transfer better as a power supply than typical spell slots would. Maybe I could convince a DM to just allow me to use it because it would work better for the character.
I don’t like it. An artificial limit is being inserted for high level spells – why? Is it because the system is ripe for abuse the way it’s been documented? If my campaign has run up and into the higher levels, where casters can naturally cast 2 or more of the highest level, suddenly they’re effectively being punished by this new rule. I’m honestly not sure what problem you think you’re trying to solve.
Also running a campaign on this system. Its interesting how it changes the fundamental way many casters play. Sorcerer in particular leans into metamagic more than before. Paladin just level 1 smites for days. I’m doing it in a super powered high fantasy campaign though, so the 6th level and above restriction is lifted. Gonna regret that I’m sure.
Spell points, aka Mana is how most of my RPGs work. Primarily Rifts and Palladium Fantasy 2e. Heck, a Rifts wizard can learn every spell in the book and use any combination of them at any time of the day. With enough magic storage items its possible to cast them all in the same day, or the same low level spell can be spammed in perpetuity.
I’d love a game where you just had spell points, and every spell in the game had a minimum spell point cost, and then beyond that the effects and/or duration of those effects scaled with the number of points used. For example, if a firebolt did d8 + spellpoints*2 damage, spending 1 point on it would let it deal +2 damage, while spending 10 on it would let you do +20. Then it’s just a situation where you build your pool of magical power of time, and as you grow you learn spells with better point to effect ratios. Then there’s still a limit to magic use, but it’s now about how you utilize your points, so you could just use the minimum points to spam lower tier spells, dump in a ton of points for a single super powerful spell, or something in the middle.
First homebrew rule I ever did was spell points. I always hated the D&D rule on spell casting, and even in 1988 I was using spell points. With the addition of short rest and long rest, it included a mechanic that helps make it work even better. (Another home rule I used was that a spell caster could sacrifice constitution for emergency spell points, but that would take a week to recover one point of constitution and no magic could speed up the process… it created a heroic last ditch spell option if necessary) It’s nice to see some real spell point rules out there. (mind you, I’ve actually come around to accepting the rule of D&D spell system…using the concept that the spell caster actually pre-casts the spell and that the actions in combat is just activating the spell)
They had this back in AD&D 2nd Ed. They called them arcs and you had the same number of arcs as you would be able to use total spell levels in a day. 1st level spells cost 1 arc, 5th level cost 5 arcs, 9th level cost 9 arcs. I’ve pretty much always used this system because the yes of having to memorize spells each day made no damned sense. You get better with practice, you don’t forget the spell just because you cast it. And the idea of only being able to cast a given spell once a day also made no sense.