Thursday, March 08, 2012

more spellcasting malarkey

So the chart below combines two charts from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed.  Well, only part of two charts.  Actually, four charts.  Part of four charts.  Let me explain.

The "part of" is because most days I don't give a crap about 0-level spells or what people above 14th (the BX upper limit) can cast.  So I saved myself a little work by chopping the combined chart down a bit.

The two charts combined are the Spells Prepared and Spells Cast charts for the Magister, Monte's alt-Wizard.  Turns out the Greenbond, the alt-Druid use the exact same numbers, that's why I say this chart sums up the relevant part of four charts.  Why Cook needed to put the same pair of charts in the book twice I don't know.  The Runethane, Mageblade and Witch classes (who constitue the "semi-spell casters" if you sprechen ze RoleMaster)  have redundant spell charts as well.  If you've got a copy of Arcana Unearthed, please feel free to double check this.  Maybe I'm missing something.  Otherwise this books seems to be wasting space for no good reason with all these charts.

(I'm moving the chart to behind a break because the CSS I'm using is causing problems with the headers on the rest of the page.)




1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
1
3/1
-
-
-
-
-
-
2
3/2
-
-
-
-
-
-
3
4/2
3/1
-
-
-
-
-
4
4/3
3/2
-
-
-
-
-
5
5/3
4/2
3/1
-
-
-
-
6
5/3
4/3
3/2
-
-
-
-
7
6/4
5/3
4/2
3/1
-
-
-
8
6/4
5/3
4/3
3/2
-
-
-
9
7/4
6/4
5/3
4/2
3/1
-
-
10
7/4
6/4
5/3
4/3
3/2
-
-
11
8/5
7/4
6/4
5/3
4/2
3/1
-
12
8/5
7/4
6/4
5/3
4/3
3/2
-
13
9/5
8/5
7/4
6/4
5/3
4/2
3/1
14
9/5
8/5
7/4
6/4
5/3
4/3
3/2
One of the things that makes starting a campaign of AE so hard for me is that everybody has a huge-ass spell list.  It's like every class is the cleric or druid, with a bunch of spells available.  Only unlike the BX version of the cleric, you can cast at first level.  This is one of the secret strengths of the dumb "no spell for you, level 1 cleric!" rule.  It allows newbies to play clerics without being overwhelmed by spell selection.  In Monte Cook's world, pretty much every spellcaster has to deal with umpteen spells right out of the gate.  And I'm not sure getting to pick three of them instead of one makes life any easier for the players.  And the friggin' spell section of AU is laid out like a murder scene.  Am I the only one who thinks AD&D1 and BX are much more player friendly with "Here's my class list by level, now here are my spells by level"?  Newbies only have to puzzle over the section labeled as first level.

But I think the numbers here could work for some other applications.  Like maybe a pre-3e Sorcerer class, where the number to the left is the total spells known for each level and the number to the right is castings per day.  If I used such a class then I would further differentiate the Sorcerer and MU by allowing one class to pick all their new spells and forcing the other to roll randomly.  Though I can't make up my mind which should roll and which should pick.

Part of me really wants to figure out a good way to re-design Arcana Unearthed into something more like BX D&D.  Squint for a minute and pretend that Cook's tome was AD&D, then build a BX off of it.  That's the idea that lead to me making this chart.
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Posted by Jeff Rients at 8:50 AM
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4 comments:

  1. The Iron Goat11:00 AM

    just curious, do you really find players overwhelmed by the cleric spell choices? With only 8 spells, a couple of which are so conditional that no one would bring them until higher level, I find the opposite. It's more like "give me a viable reason to bring something other than CLW...please!"

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  2. Robert3:34 PM

    I hated the way so many AD&D spells said, “Go read the cleric spell of the same name.” And it was sometimes mildly annoying as DM when you had to know the class + level of a spell to look up the details.

    I hate even more, though, having them alphabetical as they tend to be today. When picking an x level spell for my character, I want to be able to see the full descriptions of all the alternatives. Not one-line summaries that don’t make my choice any easier.

    That said, though, at least I have a decent d20 spell database on my iPhone and iPad when I’m playing a d20 game. All this can then—almost—become a non-issue. (There are still times when it fails me though. Like the way the summon monster spell tables don’t always end up with the spell.)

    I keep thinking that someday I’ll make a B/X spell database, but with so few spells, I’m not sure that it’s needed.

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  3. Changling bob4:50 PM

    "If I used such a class then I would further differentiate the Sorcerer and MU by allowing one class to pick all their new spells and forcing the other to roll randomly. Though I can't make up my mind which should roll and which should pick."

    I do a similar thing although with Elves in place of sorcerers; I let MUs pick spells they want until a unique spellbook from the world is identified and they start with that, whereas elves know random spells due to their fae and fickle nature.

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  4. Necropraxis5:24 PM

    One of the things that makes starting a campaign of AE so hard for me is that everybody has a huge-ass spell list. It's like every class is the cleric or druid, with a bunch of spells available.

    Welcome to my world as a 4E referee. Every class has a really long power list.

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