💾 Archived View for gemini.theuse.net › textfiles.com › rpg › divine_magic.txt captured on 2022-01-08 at 19:48:26.

View Raw

More Information

-=-=-=-=-=-=-


	"This item incorporates or is based on or derived from
	 copyrighted material of TSR, Inc. and may contain trademarks
	 of TSR.  The item is made available by MPG-Net under license
	 from TSR, but is not authorized or endorsed by TSR.  The item
	 is for personal use only and may not be published or
	 distributed except through MPG-Net or TSR."

I had been looking to make the priest class more different from the wizard 
class, because right now, what more is the priest than a religious wizard who 
get spells from his god instead of a book? Going on this, I decided that there 
was no reason to have priests memorize spells at the beginning of the day. This,
however introduced a new problem: priests would be overpowered. So I developed a
new system where the player DOESN'T KNOW how many spells he can cast. He simply 
asks his diety (prays) when he needs one, and he MAY get it.


-* New Priest spellcasting system *-

The base spell progression for a priest is the same as before, but one level 
lower, so a second level priest would have a base of one first level spell, and 
a first level priest would have a base of no spells. Also, there is always a 
base chance of spell failure. This is figured by looking at the WIS table as if 
the priest had a WIS four lower than his actual WIS score. (17 & 18 WIS have a 
0% spell failure) Bonus wisdom spells still apply IF a normal AD&D priest would 
be high enough level to cast them.

That's the easy part.

When a priest goes a day without using any spells, the spell levels are "stored"
(kept track of by the DM) If a priest has a progression of 4/3/1, and he uses 
three first level spells and two second level spells that day (leaving one spell
of each level uncast), he stores six spell levels (1+2+3) If he had cast three 
first, one second and one third, he would have stored five spell levels 
(1x1 + 2x2 + 0x3) A MAXIMUM OF TEN SPELL LEVELS PER CASTER LEVEL MAY BE STORED.
A fourth level caster can store only up to forty spell levels.

Now it gets tricky.

These spell levels can be used to cast spells beyond the caster's base 
progression. The costs of spells are listed below. A caster may cast spells that
he ordinarily wouldn't have access to, but in order to do that, he'd have to go 
days without using any spells, and the %failure still applies. Also, if a caster
uses these bonus levels to cast more than one spell of the same level in the 
same day, the cost increases each time. This prevents a caster from 'taking 
advantage of his diety' by casting forty-two cure light wounds spells.

First level spell      costs 8 spell levels, then 16, then 24, etc...
Second level spell     costs 24 spell levels, then 32, then 40, etc...
Third level spell      costs 40 spell levels, then 48, then 56, etc...
Fourth level spell     costs 56 spell levels, then 64, then 72, etc...
Fifth level spell      costs 72 spell levels, then 80, then 88, etc...
Sixth level spell      costs 88 spell levels, then 96, then 104, etc...
Seventh level spell    costs 104 spell levels, then 112, then 120, etc...


This might at first seem to be a bit powerful, as a ninth level caster could 
cast sixth level spells at some points, but keep in mind that the player does 
not know when he can cast what, whether he has spells remaining in his 
progression, or whether the spell will fail or not. If a player has a 
progression of 4/3/1, has used 4/2/1, has 6 spell levels stored, and tries to 
cast a cure light wounds, it fails! (unless you decide to allow the 2nd level 
slot to be used for the first level spell)

This might also seem to limit the priest too much, but take into account the 
fighting ability and HP of priests, second only to warriors, and the greatly 
increased versatility and higher level spells available to priests under this 
system, and I think it will work nicely.

________________________________________________________________________________
Greg Howley                   | 
Bristol, CT                   | NEVER accept a teleport spell
Central CT State U            | from a mage with no legs
Howley_Gre@CCSUa.CTStateU.Edu |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------