vstraydogstrutv
Hi all. Well it's been a long time now since I've trolled the forums and thought I'd share the mana system I threw together for my campaign. So far, the PC's have really liked it, and it's made magic using PC's feel like they're really contributing to the group as with the system they're much MUCH more flexible. Try it out and tell me what you think, if you'd like!
"Mana System":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/the-serpent-kingdoms/wikis/mana-system
Comments
Also, how do you deal with Metamagic? Just bump up the comparative spell level?
As for metamagic, I'll have to give it some thought. I think maybe take the appropriate spell slot's mana cost: Fireball, 3rd level spell, costs 8 mana to cast; Maximized would be spell slot 3 levels higher so 6th level which is 64 mana to cast. Can't cast 6th level spells until 12th level (as a sorcerer for this demonstration), which gives you a base mana of 602 anyway. I think that might work for metamagic.
Seems like they will have access to pretty much unlimited lower level spells once the mana levels get up there.
Are you going to have a re-charge rate for mana, or go with the 8 hour rest rule? I toy with recharge rate in my mind. Not so much a boon to the casters that have to memorize spells, but it might give the spontaneous casters a bit of a boost.
I like the flexibility, but It might need some tweaking?
For instance:
Maybe you can only cast a certain number of metamagic spells per day.
Maybe summoning all of this arcane power leaves the PC drained (as when a barbarian loses his rage).
Maybe mana takes longer to refill once these metamagic spells have been used (as it is now, mana refills at the beginning of every day, but if you used a metamagic spell the mana used takes x amount of hours the next day to refill based on the how many spell slots higher were used). IE 3 extra hours to refill for maximized fireball.
These are all good points and questions so far, and that's the exact reason I posted up here. Once I get a lot of stuff addressed I'll update the wiki appropriately.
Mana Potions/Fountain/Etc...
*drooool*
Yes I am easlily entertained ...
Without having playtested it, it does seem that depending on how one builds encounters, this could lead to really supercharged mages. Like psionics, unless you keep the party fighting without a rest for a long time the wizard or sorc could dominate by using nothing but the big guns and not really need to worry about running out.
A lot of my mechanics ideas for this system has stemmed from playing a priest in WoW. As healers, their mana consumption can be quite substantial, so I've spent a lot of time fine-tuning my character to balance my most useful spells with a minimal amount of mana.
So when I decided to start this, I tried to keep that in mind on how quickly mana would be used and what would make the casters feel like they were a more integral part of combat. Being that I've played a lot of casters, I know my biggest gripe has always been that my highest level spells I could only cast one or two max in a day. Knowing this, I would have to decide when the best time to use that spell was and I would either miss that chance (and the spell would go to waste), not get that chance (and the spell would go to waste) or use it in one encounter only to discover it would've been much more handy in the next.
I understand that that's the strategy of playing a caster, but when everyone else around me is afforded encounter-based feats like cleave, manyshot, etc. and so on, it feels as if I was getting the shit-end of the stick. Once my spells were gone, I'd be sending low-lev spells dealing 1-4 damage to a creature that had 80-90 hp -- or worse yet -- attacking them with a freaking quarterstaff >.