Thoughts on Spell Slots

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DSN423
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Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by DSN423 »

Hello everyone. I've been running BFRPG for almost a year now after several heavy years of 5E. Loving it! My players are loving it too. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

However, I have not yet had any magic users surpass level 2. A few will be soon though. I wanted to get a few perspectives here on how some of you utilize spell slots. I'd seen it mentioned before from a few people here that you use spell slots as tokens and I really like the idea, and wanted to pin down the various alternatives.

As I understand it, a Magic User can use the sum of their spell slots to divide up among the spell levels. In other words, lets say you get to Level 6. When preparing spells, you could have 3 Leve One Spells, 2 Level Two, 2 Level Three...OR as an alternative, 1 Level Six spell and 1 Level One spell. Or, as another alternative, 1 Level Four Spell and 1 Level Three spell. And so forth.

I know most DMs do it differently, but this concept interests me and I wanted to see how others are doing it and maybe even get some clarification to the rules as written on it.

Thank you!
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Dimirag
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by Dimirag »

The only house rules I can remember reading here are:
A) You can use a higher spell slot to prepare a lower spell slot.
B) Casters don't prepare their spells, they prepare a list an can cast from that list as buy using a corresponding spell slot (some use option A here).
C) You can spontaneously cast any spell you have in your Grimoire buy using a corresponding slot (some add option A to this).

Other use an MP option: Multiply your spell slot for each spell level by that spell level, you have that amount as MP, you are still limited to spell level as normally. Some may caster prepare spells, some let spontaneous casting.

Whatever house rule you use, don't let the caster cast spells higher than what is allowed by his level, in your example, the level 6 character should be able to cast up to level 3 spells.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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FakeHealer
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by FakeHealer »

I've never seen anything allowing a level 6 MU to cast a level 6 spell...
That said I would have no problem with splitting up any way they want but the class descriptions list how many spells per day a MU can cast based on level of MU and level of spell, so converting them to spell slots and allowing a different mix is fine as a houserule but they would still only be able to cast up to the highest level of spell they in their class description. So by your 6th level example the MU would have 13 levels of spell to cast but could only cast spell of 3rd level or lower...
DSN423
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by DSN423 »

Dimirag wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 7:15 pm The only house rules I can remember reading here are:
A) You can use a higher spell slot to prepare a lower spell slot.
B) Casters don't prepare their spells, they prepare a list an can cast from that list as buy using a corresponding spell slot (some use option A here).
C) You can spontaneously cast any spell you have in your Grimoire buy using a corresponding slot (some add option A to this).

Other use an MP option: Multiply your spell slot for each spell level by that spell level, you have that amount as MP, you are still limited to spell level as normally. Some may caster prepare spells, some let spontaneous casting.

Whatever house rule you use, don't let the caster cast spells higher than what is allowed by his level, in your example, the level 6 character should be able to cast up to level 3 spells.
Okay, see, I was interpreting the use of a single higher spell as being a trade off for using multiple lower spells. Like a 5th level spell used the equivolent of magic that five level 1 spells would use.

Again, I realize this is probably different than most people would interpret but I like the idea as it gives players more to strategize with and decide whats important. Putting them on the spot to draw from their Grimoire as you mentioned but having to determine whats more important. A higher level spell in a pinch, or mitigating use of more lower level spells.

I may get a willing player of mine to try out this way of doing it and report back here what we all thought. Thanks for replying btw. I love the content I've seen from you.
DSN423
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by DSN423 »

FakeHealer wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 9:54 pm I've never seen anything allowing a level 6 MU to cast a level 6 spell...
That said I would have no problem with splitting up any way they want but the class descriptions list how many spells per day a MU can cast based on level of MU and level of spell, so converting them to spell slots and allowing a different mix is fine as a houserule but they would still only be able to cast up to the highest level of spell they in their class description. So by your 6th level example the MU would have 13 levels of spell to cast but could only cast spell of 3rd level or lower...
There was a post I saw a week or so ago that was from several years ago where someone used physical tokens at their table and it was implied that they could cast spell levels UP TO their class level, so long as that depleted their prepared spells. I did a cursory look before responding to you but I couldn't find it again. The concept intrigues me and I get that its not the usual way of going about it but I'd like to try it in action as per my other response.

Thank you for replying!
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FakeHealer
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by FakeHealer »

Even if they could cast spells up to their class level, they wouldn't know any spells or those levels unless you allowed that and writing those high levels of spells into their book would be cost prohibitive. IMO it is overall a very bad idea and would screw with balance horribly. Even casting an unknown 6th level spell from a scroll would give a 6th level character a 40% chance of failure. That chance of failure is there for balance.
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Dimirag
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by Dimirag »

DSN423 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:52 pm Okay, see, I was interpreting the use of a single higher spell as being a trade off for using multiple lower spells. Like a 5th level spell used the equivolent of magic that five level 1 spells would use.
That would be like individually converting slots to MP, its an option, but if using it, using MP is way easier.
DSN423 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:52 pm Again, I realize this is probably different than most people would interpret but I like the idea as it gives players more to strategize with and decide whats important. Putting them on the spot to draw from their Grimoire as you mentioned but having to determine whats more important. A higher level spell in a pinch, or mitigating use of more lower level spells.
I'm all in favor of increasing options and giving choices, but giving extra power like allowing higher level spells its another thing, at minimum I would use the penalty as mentioned by FakeHealer.
DSN423 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:52 pm I love the content I've seen from you.
Thanks!
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
Drawing portfolio: https://www.instagram.com/m.serena_dimirag/
DSN423
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by DSN423 »

FakeHealer wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:32 am Even if they could cast spells up to their class level, they wouldn't know any spells or those levels unless you allowed that and writing those high levels of spells into their book would be cost prohibitive. IMO it is overall a very bad idea and would screw with balance horribly. Even casting an unknown 6th level spell from a scroll would give a 6th level character a 40% chance of failure. That chance of failure is there for balance.
I typically play with the assumption that a Level 1 Magic User KNOWS spells from other levels, but doesn't have the talent to perform them until they level up. You make a good point about balance, but I would think that would be countered by the fact that they would be sacrificing the ability to do more spells until a rest if they chose to do a higher spell.
DSN423
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Re: Thoughts on Spell Slots

Post by DSN423 »

Dimirag wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2022 11:00 am
DSN423 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:52 pm Okay, see, I was interpreting the use of a single higher spell as being a trade off for using multiple lower spells. Like a 5th level spell used the equivolent of magic that five level 1 spells would use.
That would be like individually converting slots to MP, its an option, but if using it, using MP is way easier.
DSN423 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:52 pm Again, I realize this is probably different than most people would interpret but I like the idea as it gives players more to strategize with and decide whats important. Putting them on the spot to draw from their Grimoire as you mentioned but having to determine whats more important. A higher level spell in a pinch, or mitigating use of more lower level spells.
I'm all in favor of increasing options and giving choices, but giving extra power like allowing higher level spells its another thing, at minimum I would use the penalty as mentioned by FakeHealer.
DSN423 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:52 pm I love the content I've seen from you.
Thanks!
Got it!

Again, I may play test it this way with one player in my main group and see what we think. I'm thinking a penalty will be built in by having less spells to work with should they choose to do a higher one like that. And they wouldn't be able to go higher than their current level. But you guys did just give me an idea of penalizing a spell like that with a higher chance of failure.
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