Unlimited spell slots? (My broken homebrew) 5e D&D
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2024
- Paid Sponsor: (homebrew is the second link below)
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Here's the homebrew we used:
drive.google.com/file/d/1q3bO...
Oh also we let forced movement trigger attacks of opportunity from martials. (yes the bludgeoning pushback was a brutal combo)
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That sounds like a great magic system for a fantasy novel series. Not certain about a game, but these sorts of systems that reward character creativity are exactly the sort of things that shape worlds, and get people talking.
Its seems fun if the gm knows what he do and the players are not super into optimaztion
maybe with four nations, one fighting the other threes, each representing an element.
@@zwojack7285 impossible
A mighty pirate, scourge of the sea
who vowed that every landmass is his enemy,
A powerful paladin, the knight of holy light
who ends his shift before the fall of night,
The lord of the dead ruling from his bone throne
-will he ever leave his tomb? That is unknown- without fresh bodies he'd be all alone, (edit: makes more sense now)
Master of shadows, number one assassin,
kills during day, not once was he seen
The Pyromagician, king of fire
without a flame his situation is dire,
The Snowceress who wields glacial cold
without ice nearby she's not very bold,
The Sheik of Sahara who commands sand
who wishes he could live in a cooler land
The druid who can speak with the plants
without flora nearby he'd shit his pants,
The strongest villain, the mightiest hero
If you find their weakness, they'll become zero.
@@zwojack7285 and there is on guy who can control all 4
I love this sort of homebrew. As a DM, it let's you play around and have a new way to control things. But it can also lead players to clever loopholes and workarounds. They may take you by surprise, but those are some of the best stories from games.
Just watch out for...pissy creative players.
Hahahah. If there is a loopholes, there is all of loopholes by your side as a dm. It will soon transform into a goofy ideas festival, and it will be fun.
One of my players in my very, very, very homebrew campaign came across a loophole so good, he essentially made himself a BBEG to be taken serious in the next campaign. Love it 😂
At least you know that loopholes to homebrew are something the player had to come up with themselves. I'd personally much rather experience that than "I'm going to pull this cheese that some guy on Reddit said was the optimal way to play my class"
@@johnnye87 I suddenly remember the first time I dealt with the peasant rail gun in my campaign and had a player storm off because I wouldn't let it work. It's great for passing a note, because that works to move an object at high speed, but speed doesn't add to damage in D&D physics (well, sort of with falling damage, but that has a max), so it's not the superweapon he'd been told about on MySpace. I didn't even have to pull DM fiat to shut it down.
I love this idea. Much more flavorful than spell slots and adds a fun “magic is everywhere but doesn’t just bend to the will of mortals” angle
I like this idea, though I would use it with about 1/2-1/4 availble slots dependent on caster class. Fussy Focus conditions feel like real magical artifacts that have just been discovered for the first time, or the things of legends being rediscovered, while spell slots would show what the caster has been able to achive on their own. Imagine if a wizards grimoire was a Fussy Focus that allowed them unlimited access to their spells they've learned, though the wizard still has a handful of spells they have "mastered" and can still use without their grimoire at nearly the same level, and a handful of spells they just learned and can bearly use without the grimoire.
@@truekurayami
That breaks the system though and the narrative aspect.
@@solsystem1342 System is already broken, the narrative aspect is just tweaked.
Madeline pfp my beloved
The concept of a shadow having an age is just fantastic
It definitely leaves a lot of room for interpretation, though. I'd argue that night is the oldest shadow in the world, for instance, since it has existed exactly as long as the planet, and the fact that the surface moves underneath it doesn't change anything.
@@iang0th Yeah that’s a hard one for me to think about. A part of me agrees with you, but another part disagrees with because of my definition of a old shadow maybe different and also the fact that it would make anyone using it super OP. I did have a similar question though.
How would it react to a huge Undark, in general as well, cavern with giant Bioluminescent mushrooms creating at least dim light almost everywhere? I know it’s specific but I’m running a campaign with such a thing and I now want to try this out with it.
@@iang0th idk aboutthat one, the closest I think would be a eclipse(the one where the moonis ahead ofthe sun)
Yeah, but isn't night just a shadow of the Earth and of course that shadow is as old as the Earth itself. So if I have the shadow Focus I can do whatever I want at night, an unlimited number of times.
Sure, ill take that one.
@@lunacron Pretty sure he would have ruled it as "the last time a light interfered with the shadow you're trying to use" kind of thing. Making deep dark caves and perpetually enchanted darkness's (that have been entirely lightless for who knows how long) the pinnacle of that power.
One of my players came up with a cool idea where magical power was tied to altitude, so stronger spells required being physically higher off the ground. So wizards used towers because the highest floor would have access to the strongest magic, and a lot of towers had been haphazardly built up over the years to push the boundaries of what they could do in them.
So, basically how Jedi wizardry works.
The first wizard to figure out orbital mechanics would have a field day
I have 2 thoughts on this. 1) Mages that could tame/ride flying creatures would be very powerful indeed. 2) Combat mages would become fortnite players. As soon as they see themselves in a combat situation, they start using spire/wall spells or fly to elevate themselves as fast as possible.
Wizards getting piggyback rides...
@@Ithtorukk nahhh the wizard in my party is cranking 90s again 💀
I can imagine a wizard with a squire whose entire purpose is to use the Decanter of Endless Water to fuel the wizard's spells
Also an emergency high level necromancy slot! 🌚
Why would we want s balanced thing? WE CRAVE POWER
Idk about that. I played in a game where it was roll 6 keep all of them for our stats AND we got to basically make our own soul bound unique magic items. I had some fun moments but the inherent imbalance just made it not fun. Bounded accuracy is a statistically sound system.
Also setting up that precedent justifies having busted stuff thrown at the players, defeating the purpose in the process
Me and my Brother with our homebrew wild magic barbarian have let the Power go to our heads.
Basically Rolls on a different Wild magic table with really different effects, each One with a positive and a negative outcome at 50%. It Rolls half the proficiency bonus up to lvl 14, then Just Rolls 5d12 for 5 effects, then see if the effect goes good or bad.
He can get a combo of something like Speed, Misty step each round, bless and hold person. Last for the full rage.
Also each One has the negative, sometimes way worse, and a banishment effect Is on the list. Like the lvl 4 spell. Negative banishment? He goes away for a minute. Yeah. Totally not gonna backfire.
At High lvl not only he Rolls lots of effects, It also goes on a large area After lvl 10. So yeah, this could give like 4 conc spell for free on the whole party, or exile the barbarian himself and slow everyone else for a minute. I call It the wild-wild barbarian.
No.
@Gray Rook I think it's more appropriate that players want powerful OPTIONS and not just powerful characters.
My current monk has real good stats, with all positives and the highest 3 were 16-17 at creation. And had free starter feats to boost 1 to 18. By all odds, she should be a big power house by monk standards.
I then didn't roll anything over a 10 for about a month. Those high stats didn't mean anything in light of this d20 system.
Options can be easily countered by the GM with a narrative element, but just inherently powerful characters are still at the whim of the rolls of the dice
I can just imagine a fire focus wizard knowing an army is coming.
When the army approaches, they see a great pile of wood, a mile long and several feet high.
The wizard calmly turns his back to them, and casts the create bonfire cantrip.
And with an inferno suddenly set alight behind him, the wizard turns to face the army once more, with unstoppable fiery magic to throw to his hearts content.
Let's hope the weather plays along...
@@chris_croissAntbig enough fires ignore or even alter the weather, just recently a wildfire in Hawaii was spread by a hurricane that hit it, and large wildfires commonly create their own weather patterns; spreading wildly because of extreme high winds caused by massive updrafts from the heat of the fire itself. Long story short, big enough fires will ignore rain, even torrential downpours from hurricanes.
If its an army, he wouldn't even need to do that. He'd just wait til it got dark and the army set up camp.
There'd be 10x the fires with none of the effort reqired on the Wizards part.
@@formdoggie5 *POOF* "Hail, weary soldiers! I have some scary campfire stories I'd like to share for you. But I don't think you'll like how they end!"
This seems incredible for a narrative heavy game. It will really make it feel like a story where magic is complex and requires skill to use.
What if there was a literally dark lord who had a shadow focus? He had a bunch of minions that go around casting darkness, hallucinatory terrain, and maddening darkness on loop, spreading shadows. Obviously spreading permanent shadows is dangerous so the players would have to go into the darkness to stop him. However, the deeper towards the center, the older the shadows, therefor the more powerful the Dark Lord and his minions get.
I know you prob forgot about this comment by now, but to jump off this comment you could have most/all clerics and healers use a light focus. This way you have a literal dark vs light story in a campaign.
@@RobertwsI never forget anything I post on the internet.
My groups been running with this in altered form, since we tend to be very Caster Heavy parties and play at 10+ levels. We've mostly started fleshing out the fussy Focus and playing around with it, some letting concentration on Cantrips to produce effects to start the eventual shuffle up the early spell levels - produce bonfire into more fire, eventually into Fireball and that's given spell casters a really dynamic feal. We've really liked it - honestly, especially since we run with allready buffed martial classes. We've found it also helps solve some of the rest issues people can have when playing with very few combats a day.
Your martial adjustments sound really good. And the fussy focus idea sounds really tight in a "this is rough, but it's life" sort of way. It forces players to sometimes set up the conditions they need to be at their best, not just be there for free. I like it. Helps balance the "caster - martial" divide even more. Good stuff! (thanks for the share!)
This would work so well for a more raw magic world! For sure making use of this and the rules for martials in a hardcore game in future
I LOVE this idea.
As primarily a Druid main, this adds SO much flavour to the stuff I'd wanna do
But... your focus requires you to be underground. The deeper the stronger the spells you can cast.
This idea is perfect for a "monkey paw" style system. lol
@@Ortorin Or just requires him to be near flora, the more lush the stronger the spell slots. And then the DM sends the party to the desert :P But when it comes time to fight the boss of the region, deus ex machina, an oasis! But lol nope, it's a mirage, there's just a singular cactus there >:P
@@LordDragox412 This could result in some pretty epic moments for the players. Imagine being in the middle of a desperate fight against a super tough enemy. The party is getting their asses handed to them, when suddenly an eclipse happens, and there just so happens to be a shadow sorcerer in the party. Or maybe the party plans out an encounter against a vastly superior opponent, where they have to plan out a retreating fight where they make the enemy think they are desperately fighting for their lives as they try to run away, when in fact they are luring them to an ancient grotto rich with life energy for the druid to call upon.
@@LordDragox412 Get yourself someone who CAN cast magic in a desert who can magically generate a forest or something and your druid goes from zero to hero in one spell cast. :P
I'll make a 2 small tweak. that would kind of balance it out.
charges to item- only when it been in a place over flowing with it type of power
time out for those charges
and you can still do the other stuff
This is exactly how "Adventures in Rokugan" works. This is a 5e professional grade book in the setting of Legends of the Five Rings you can buy and they've figured out the details and balance for you. Playing a caster is so immersive in the setting! You really care about temples, thresholds, and the weather.
Please boost this comment so more people learn about Rokugan.
Now I'm curious, what does it do differently to balance it?
@@dacomputernerd4096 The main thing is just that the conditions are really well thought out and integrated into the setting. Rokugan is a very specific setting and so there's a lot of reasonable assumptions that can be made about the probability of various conditions. So for example, in a Japanese Shinto inspired setting little shrines are just everywhere on the side of the road, whereas you wouldn't necessarily expect to see that in a corporate American mall. Zee mentioned the abundance of water being really important for a storm cleric. Is your game a traveling game or is the entire campaign set in the desert?
I think the thing that made it the most balanced is that instead of having a "flavor" of magic that would enable or disable all of my magic simultaneously, I had different spells with independent conditions. So which spells were powerful at any time was dependent on the circumstance. I had to use spells that were appropriate to the circumstances, rather than spamming my favorite all the time.
Thank you for this. I want to add for any onlookers that the "Resonances" don't let you cast the "Invocations"(the setting's Spells), but let you add "Empowerments". Empowerments are sort of a mix of Upcasting & Metamagic effects that are specific to their Invocation/Spell. A pretty basic way a DM could implement them is to have situational magic modifiers like "The intense heat of the volcano makes fire magic quicker to cast. All fire spells are Quickened." or "The massive battle & bloodshed empowers necromantic magic. All necromancy spells are treated as being cast at one level higher."
I love the idea of learning an enemy's weakness and overcoming it. Puzzle bosses are great like this, and a fussy focus sounds like an amazing puzzle boss!
As dm dependent as it is, being able to fine tune an encounter's feel and reward player creativity is pretty neat. Even passively gives martials an upside since they're very consentient in comparison.
*consistent is probably what you meant :p. It means to have a similar output/result over time/multiple iterations.
Consentient is a word (though I had to look it up :p), it means to be in agreement/of the same mind.
@@elonwhatever I didn't even realize the typo into a correct word lol
@@powercore2000 Are martials sentient though? :p
@@oz_jones No but they do ask for consent
Fascinating idea for sure! Both limiting and empowering spell use in a new, and convoluted way.
Ok Zee.... now 😂 we need an animated tale of your adventures with the fussy focus rules. This sounds incredible!
Sounds like a cool idea. I could see this in a MtG themed adventure focused around mana sources.
As someone who doens't play D&D, it sounds cool! Probably not something you'd see in an official publication since it would be too much "mother may I cast my spell?" and so on, but definitely neat.
Kind of reminds me of how Exalted does its Sorcery. While you can just use your innate casting abilities, you often augment them with Sorcerous Initiations which give you bonuses based on how you learned magic. So like, a necromancer might get benefits from people giving them burnt offerings ahead of time, someone from a drowned school of magic prepare for magic by drowning themselves ahead of time, while someone from a school would get a bonus from careful study and glyphs. One of the examples in a book I found was water-based initiation that gave you a bonus for being wet. Then the sidebar went "what if I make a little cloud to rain on me all the time?" andswering "then you will be known as gangrenous sorcerer and nobody will be want to be around you. People do be like that though, so if you want to be a sorcerous weirdo, do it!" which was rather fun :D.
I love Exalted. If you like this idea please look into Godbound. I just found it and am super hyped. It's a spiritual successor where you pick words of power that your demigod can use like Earth or Fear. Each word has different uses and each use has 3 tiers of power. Then you have miracles that allow more freeform use of your words. The whole thing is free and very high quality.
As someone who plays DnD it sounds awesome but broken as hell
The sourdough starter fussy focus. Stronger the older it is and greatly coveted by all. Just need to feed properly and continuously.
This definitely feels like a good way to make spell casting focus more I interesting and desired. Pretty much every game of dnd I’ve played with either completely ignores or just doesn’t know the point of, noir the purpose of spell casting focuses in general.
Inspired by this, I “crafted” a spell focus for our Druid, who is underpowered compared to the rest of the party. Her staff now contains a gem that will +2 increase her casting rolls if/ when she is holding it over dirt/earth. Not a huge boost, but a little, and gives her an edge on her home turf, so to speak. We will see how it works out.😊
Bard Focus that scales to failed seductions they had that day.
The more spectacular the failure, the higher the slot
Thank you Zee, your videos are a constant delight ☺️
I have to be honest, as a DnD fence sitter, this whole arrangement sounds BADASS!
This is such a cool idea! I particularly like the shadow focus. I think that one could work quite well in a dungeon crawl heavy game. Plenty of dark places beneath the earth that have not seen the passing light of a torch in untold centuries.
Cool! Thematic! Ya gotta love homebrew that has a purpose and makes meaningful changes, even if it's unbalanced it still actually adds something of value compared to yet another DarkEdgeSpellBlade class or massive binder of kitsune variants
Excellent ideas!
Here's some random additional ideas others could expand.
Chaos Focus: Fussy focus changes its rules every few days/per module the group is doing, that way they can't solve it too much.
Fussy Focus Ideas:
- Wish Focus
Level 1: Heard a simple request from a unique person within the past week.
Level 2: Heard a inner request from a unique person within the past week.
Level 3: Heard a dying wish from a unique person within the past week.
- Hungering Focus (replaces verbal components)
Level 1: Consume a handful of food.
Level 2: Consume a handful of fine food.
Level 3: Consume a handful of exquisite food and a swig of fine drink.
Level 6: Consume the soul essence of an living innocent.
- Geometric Focus
This one is a bit special, if the recently constructed structures are disturbed, the focus goes Fussy and shuts down or reduces in power.
Higher level Geometric spells would pulse and direct towards the structure.
Level 1: Draw a 2D structured shape within 100 yards.
Level 2: Construct a 3D structured shape within 100 yards.
Level 3: Construct a precise 3D structured shape within 100 yards.
Level 4: Construct two or more precise and fragile 3D structured shape within 100 yards.
Level 6: Construct a 8+ hedron network of precise and fragile 3D structures within 250 yards.
- Enigma Focus
This would be related to unknown questions
- Sound Focus
This would be related to music and audio emanations. So the sounds of combat and magic could disrupt it.
This is a really cool idea for how to implement the Magic system into my Magic The Gathering D&D campaign idea. Basically the focus would only work if you were around mana sources for the focus' color of mana
That is actually a really cool homebrew. Could be very fun for a short campaign where everyone is playing a caster.
Zee absolutely does the BEST homebrew mechanics. It's always a little messy, probably exploitable, with poor balance overall, but it's *cool as heck* and INTENSELY flavourful! This is a REALLY good one, which I'd love to use someday!
That’s sounds like it would be really fun with the right group!
A really great built in role playing opportunity during combat!
Kinda reminds me of character options in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.
Some of the backgrounds you could take were "Sky Mage" - bonus to magic power under an open sky, malus when you can't see the sky. Day/Night Mage - bonus during the day/night respectively, malus otherwise. Nature Mage etc. etc. but the fun one that broke the mold a bit was "Sold your soul" - magic bonus applied constantly, but you were forever cursed with a hefty penalty to NPCs' reaction to you, and your alignment could never go above evil.
Though obviously, it was nowhere near as cool as in your homebrew, due to the bonus in Arcanum being a simple +20% magic power, and not actually drawing spells from environment, which is a damn great concept for wizards.
Your home brews are so inspirational. A great way to incentivize player involvement and meld mechanics with immersion. Definitely going to use something like it in my own games
Would love to see more homebrew like this that cares more about the feel and how fun and interesting it is and less about balance.
This is so cool! I could honestly see building a whole system around this style of magic, something like Blades in the Dark where orchestrating the perfect encounter is more important than stats or subsequent rolls.
This is a system that sounds really busted on paper and really fun in practice, I'd imagine playing these rules at a table of all spellcasters would be pretty fun
Am I the only one who gets strong "Avatar - the last airbender" vibes from this homebrew?
Not so much the magic / bending system itself, but this are exactly the kind of thought processes, struggles and obstacles the bending characters needed to overcome in the show. At least with the elemental themed fuzzy focus.
I'll definitely shelf this idea for a future campaign! Thanks a lot!
That series had some excellent world building. 👌
@@ArDeeMee absolutely 👍🏻
I think this is the closest you can get to Jojo without playing Jojo.
It is definitely what is called a Hard Magic system- The rules surrounding how magic works are concrete, consistent, and codified, but they leave enough variables that characters who are smart, prepared, or just lucky can work within the system even when the odds are against them.
Zee please! I beg of you for more info about this insane homebrew! I need to play this at my table
Edit: to be clear I really wanna hear more about the martial changes because lord knows they could use it
@@JeromeAce111 bruh. Do people actually fall for these blatant scams?
Man I lost my job last week and your videos and others in the dnd community have really helped me stay afloat mentally.
You receive Inspiration on your next interviews. 🍀
Guidance! Take your d4 and good luck.
@@mluby7828 it worked
That's a really cool idea! I can see the death focus being wicked powerful - bring small sacrificial animals with you to get started and then as the battle goes on, the power compounds. Or a focus like fire could make casting powerful spells be a danger to the user giving them a tactical choice to make. Making the power unlimited but not free is pretty intriguing.
I've been trying to think of a way to add infinite spells without breaking things. This might not be it, but damn is it cool.
I made a homebrew class with infinite spells, and I limited them by heavily restricting the amount of spells they could have prepared, and by only giving them access to fairly low level spells (they get 1st level spells at level 5, 2nd level spells at 11, and 3rd level spells at 17. Initially they're stuck with cantrips).
I really like this idea. You could use it to make late game a bit easier only for your main antagonist to flip everything and strip you of that power right before facing them, making their fight much harder as the spell casters are now extremely limited on what spells to utilize.
Or give it to the player mid game and make a small test, the less they use it, the better it will be later on as less people know about your spell focus' limitations.
Yeah strip the magic users of their class while the martials get to keep doing their thing... sounds like that wont totally be an issue at the table at all lol
@@themeanlesbeann The players will have had an entire campaign to prepare for something like this. If they force themselves to fight on the BBEG's terms they would probably lose regardless.
@@themeanlesbeann exactly what I was gonna say. You aren't a very good dm if your plan is to ruin your players fun. Bad dm alert
@@donnellobrien4123 Bruv you can not seriously be that close minded. Its the players fault they didn't approach the fight Exactly how "I" wanted. Very bad dming. Its your players game and their story, stop stepping on toes.
Where is Zee
Thanks for sharing! I currently run a game where players can supplant spell components with the environment, so I'll probably try a variant of this.
Ideas of fussy focuses that come to mind are:
*Air: from gust to gale to hurricane
*Sound: from clap to boom to a storm's thunder (for a non-stealthy party)
*Performance: - from poem to song to duet to theatric play (for a more social/political setting)
But a lot of the fun is likely for a player to come up with their own.
I don't worry too much of it being broken since t's "fussy" enough to let the group arbitrate a consensus on "balance".
I adore strong, contextual magic systems. Huge bit of inspiration for the system I was playtest for, and now I am obsessed with it!
Been a while since your last video. Hope everything is cool with ya zee.
I got a friend, nickname's Zero, and one of his Homebrew things are physical spell slots - they're an item you wear. And, you can actually equip more than your level should hold - at the cost of taking progressively more damage with each slot to the point of DYING if you fail a save.
He likes Hollow Knight, if you couldn't tell.
It sounds GREAT, a fine addition to my already working mp magic system
0:51 Tempest Cleric used Rain Dance!
It's started to rain.
I like it! I did a similar weapon thing like that picture you had in the beginning. Spears give +1 AC, swords are standard, maces have less damage but +1 to hit. Fun little stuff.
Given how often a caster can create their own element, this sounds intriguing. Start with a light cantrip, spend a couple of rounds building power into brighter sources of light while the enemy tries to stop them from visibly charging up until BOOM high level spell dominates the battlefield.
imagine what a light caster would end up looking like too. armor polished to a mirror shine, covered in lanterns and a belt of alchemic flashbangs.
Glad you're not afraid to share openly broken/unbalanced but fun experimental stuff. Also, thanks for cluing into Blades In The Dark, its pretty damn good.
This is just the sort of homebrew rule I love: something that adds a cool option for players to get creative with, and through using it the houserule makes the setting more alive with mystique and flavor. Fussy Focuses make for a more magical world than "spell slots that every spellcaster just has for some unexplained reason."
Excellent ideas here! Reminds me a little of Dark Sun defilers, and the cool mercurial effects in DCC, will definitely be giving this a try.
Super cool! I'll definitely be pocketing this for later.
It's also pretty close to the system I'm working on for my own game! Only to make it more balanced, it's only enchantments and more permanent spells that need a source, like a forge for the lore of Iron, or a recently filled space ( such as the home of a recently dead person, or a pair of shoes someone has just taken off) for Void. Normal spells just require a focus of a type like the lore being used.
This has ridiculous flavor potential and I would love to see a story sett in a world where this is how magic works.
This is cool. Love the list of examples of things that make trained violence using tools of mayhem much more dangerous, and it sounds really neat to have magic's power and availability be situational both as a downside, and an upside in that you can temporarily be vastly powerful in the right situations.
I always like the idea of casters with more of a focused flavor that I think this would result in.
This is actually pretty neat. It's like a normal spell focus, but amped up to 11. You're either very powerful, or very weak. Taking away the spell focus, or the necessary conditions for it to work, effectively disarms you. I like it.
I've experimented with different incarnations of slot-less magic, including a couple different schemes for at will casting. The most complete is probably my homebrew Wild Magic system, based off of Tzeentch's Curse from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Basically, to cast a spell you roll one to four dice and add them together. Roll high enough, and the spell casts successfully (DC is determined by the spell level). But if you roll doubles, triples, or quadruples, you trigger a wild magic surge. Using more dice increases the odds of successfully getting the spell off, but also the risk of a surge. A big chunk of the effects for a minor surge (rolling doubles) wear off after a long rest (some after a short rest), making it sort of equivalent to needing to rest to regain spell slots. Major surges (triples) are actively harmful or permanent, and catastrophic surges (quadruples) can instantly kill your character. As you level up, your dice get bigger, increases the odds of successfully casting spells while reducing your odds of getting a surge.
Another scheme I've considered is a channeler class that can cast spells at-will but can only have a limited number active at a time. I think I had the base class mostly done, but never got around to finishing any subclasses. This one required a very carefully tailored spell list, one that mostly consisted of concentration spells and spells with a duration of a minute or longer. You still need open channels to cast an instantaneous spell, but obviously the spell ends immediately and those channels become open again.
Something else I've looked into is special rules for PCs that are either gods, demigods, or are ascending to godhood. Basically, start by learning a couple of free cantrips chosen from any spell list and using any mental stat to cast. As you level up, you gain two 1st level spells, then two 2nd level spells, etc., all the way up to two 5th level spells, each of which can be cast at will. Your choices essentially define your divine domain, and these spells become your domain spells once you're able to empower your own clerics. You can slap this over a 1st level character to simulate a fallen/"dead" god regaining their power, or a new god growing into their godhood. Or maybe you're not a god yourself but have been chosen as a champion by another god.
I just really like having utility spells as at will options, as that means it no longer has to be a rare thing constrained by resources. It can completely change how you approach problems because you have this new tool in your toolbox that you don't have to worry about "running out", and thus can incorporate it into a plan any chance you get. It changes the dynamic from, "Should I use this ability now or save it for later?" to, "How can I use this ability in this situation?" I just think it helps foster creativity and makes it more fun, as you're actively looking for any opportunity to use the ability instead of hoarding your resources until they're absolutely needed.
I had a cursed magic item that did something similar to this. A blood-stained crown of twisted metal with an unquenchable thirst for battle.
Effectively it did the following.
+Unlimited spell slots, of course.
+All spells cast were level 3, and could not be lower or higher (This campaign only lasted to level 10, mind you)
-At the beginning of battle, or after a long rest, the sorcerer would shuffle their spell cards and draw 5. These were the only spells they could cast on their turn.
-Once cast, they would discard the card and draw a new one.
-The only cards they could use outside of battle were the 5 left over from the previous battle/long rest, and would not be replaced after use. Fights were pretty frequent, so this restriction wasn't too detrimental, otherwise I would have probably written a rule for short rests and the like.
-For every long rest they would discard all remaining cards, shuffle their discard pile back into their draw pile and choose 5 new cards.
-5 Additional spells not already in their known spells list were added, selected by me. These were exclusively utility or under-utilized spells (Enlarge/Reduce and Jump, for instance)
-Cantrips remained unaffected, but I think one of the additional spells I added was a cantrip.
The sorcerer had a lot of fun with this, they enjoyed not having to manage spell slots, and I got to appreciate them using spells other than fireball and scorching ray, which up to that point had been their exclusive choices. It led to a few creative uses of spells that otherwise wouldn't have happened.
I wish I had done more with the concept, like having ways to modify their deck, swap out cards or something like that. Really turn the game into a psuedo deck builder. But what was there was still plenty fun.
I could imagine this playing really well in the Fate Core (or Accelerated) system. Plus, it has a vaguely Avatar:TLAB vibe to it. Sounds utterly delightful!
I love this kind of homebrew, kind of echoes the feeling of Warhammer's magic system with the spells dependent on the ebbs and flows of magic in the air. Totally using this.... somewhere.
The idea is lovely. It reminds me of the Evoker from Fabula Ultima. The GM must disclose the presence of at least 2 elemental sources each combat you are in, and the spells available to you change based on those sources!
I love this sorta homebrew for campaigns set in an era when magic is either new (say a bronze/stone-age type of setting) or a setting where magic is being rediscovered after a long time being dormant. It shows that people have been trying to make magic work with their flawed understanding for lifetimes before your characters showed up and found the product of their twisted minds.
It sounds like it gives each member of the party a time to shine, and allows the DM to place them where all or none of them will shine.
If it can be at least halfway balanced somehow it's be AWESOME.
You're a genius.
The animation looks so good, and i loved the ideas presented in the video
Great work ^^
I love it in concept!
I'm constantly looking for good non-vancian (sp?) magic systems: Magic that's not incredibly narrow, has a little bit of customization to it, doesn't limit to an arbitrary number of spells (or even spell levels), and somehow also doesn't break the game. I usually settle on adding some kind of mental HP and making spellcasting checks to see whether/how much damage is taken, but... it scarcely feels better tbh.
... And if any of my friends would let me use spheres of power I'd try that. XD
This is fantastic, dynamic homebrewing! I love the idea!
i love this system, and id love to hear more about those extra martial rules too
I did something similar with spell canisters for spell guns in a steampunk environment. Made spellcasters more about making them or using them more efficiently while giving martials some ways to play with spells like a canister in the hilt of a sword lighting it on fire for a couple rounds n stuff like that.
I loved it. The thrifty focus was just perfect for my start in out of the abyss
That's really cool and creative. Love the martial stuff too.
Thank you so much! This looks amazing.
Those martial homebrews look pretty cool. Definitely love the dagger effect the most.
i had a friend using that kind of rules, we were basicaly glass canons and we had to make a story about a merc company to explain how much we were changing the character roaster, but it was also the case for the enemy so it quickly became a battle of asset between 2 organisation; in the end, in the right mindset (the same as a very hardcore xcom) it was fun.
This sounds so cool. Sounds very "Winds of Magic" from Warhammer, where the specific wind of element of magic flows from river/trees/volcano/graveyard, etc.
@Zee Bashew I don't know if you ever looked at Negative Energy Flood. But I found it interesting that it creates a zombie that doesn't have to be of the humanoid creature type. Giving necromancers a lot more creativity and access with their Command Undead ability.
I love the Idea of making magic your own: This is my System that im working on: Every Spell starts as a cantrip, as you level up you get Points and slots ( 1 or 2 max basicly). With those points your level up the cantrip and make a new spell. So firebolt can eventually become fireball, and fireball can eventually be a 9th lvl spell with the range of a whole city - if you use your points to buy aoe. That way you can really choose what fantasy you want to have. Wizards have more spells to customize, Warlocks have more points to spend and so on. I have a similar system for martial classes where they build their own comabt stance/style with points.
This is absolutely spectacular theming and creative thinking-wise
Imma cook something up - thanks for the recipe
This is genius
I dont like having to count spell slots so this is a huge help
It will allow me to make some Noita like spells while also limiting their usage
Thank you so much
This is the single best caster idea I've ever heard. It's only down side it's its hard to codify in a 'printable' way, very 'open to gm interpitation'. Doesn't make it bad, just makes it harder to use widely.
I like how it kind of ramps up, like a fire spreading.
That magic focus homebrew is amazing if the requirement can be met, for example, for a magic that requires a fire source, they could carry a lantern wherever they go. Similar to other elements. The one requires a shadow, or sunlight can be devastating at the right time. For the one that requires death, you can always keep with you some pets/familiar to sacrifice when you need to use magic, such as a bag full of bettles. Also that homebrew martials. Holy shit, that's scary.
This feels awesome for a party with a lot of casters, really changes up who gets to feel badass in any given environment.
Sounded great for partial-casters who don’t normally get a lot of spell slots yet can also rely on some martial or class abilities. Paladins, Artificers, Warlocks, Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, etc.
Artificers I think could engineer a number of conditions to cast their spells; making a Decanter of Endless Water for the “living water”, using their level 1 Artificer ribbon ability to install a dim but semi permanent light source somewhere they know they will have to fight in a few days so that they have an “old shadow”, etc.
I love the goblin-things design, that big toothy grin and eyes work so well to sell "goblin mode"
I'm not a huge fan of homebrew, but this is really great! Thematic, with a real risk/reward element to it! Really awesome!
This sounds like it would be so much fun!!!! An all caster team with different foci running around would be so dope
I'm a fan of Mage: The Ascension, so I've done a bit of research into Real Life magical practices. One thing you learn quickly is the Rule of Similarity. That is to say, "like begets like" and "as above, so below". You mimic the effect you wish to see. Whether that's by having relevant materials (animal remains for animal traits, stone for stability, etc) or in action (sweeping the floor to sweep away malign influence, or acting out a successful mock birth to make the actual one easier, etc). The bigger the effect, the more pageantry must be employed in the ritual to make it work. And, naturally, many cultures have varied ideas about what magic is more potent when and where, like at crossroads or during celestial alignments.
To do magic is to engage in some combination of Art, Craft, and Science. It's often not terribly convenient. But it FEELS magical and mysterious.
One thing that MtAs does is make it so casting Effects (Spells) doesn't usually cost a magical energy (although such exists and it can help, or even be necessary for certain things). Instead, you must do things according to the character's Focus, using their Instruments and according to their Paradigm and Practice. This can, Focus dependent, require the use (sometimes expenditure) of dedicated materials or reagents, and usually requires actions the Mage believes relevant to making it work. This can even be physically exhausting, especially if they try to do big rituals, or use a physically demanding Instrument. The more involved the preparations and the more elements working in the Mage's favor, the easier the Effect is to cast.
But, barring these, the main thing stopping a Mage from casting spells is Paradox (basically Reality getting mad they're violating the Consensus of what's possible). Which can be anything from taking damage, to being afflicted with some weird phenomenon, to being attacked by a manifestation of Paradox (a Paradox spirit), to being shunted out of normal reality entirely. It's up to the GM. Basically, Mage is like having an entire party of Wild Magic Sorcerers, with slot-less spellcasting and a blank check to the GM to go nuts.
I don't know if D&D needs to emulate MtAs's scheme of magic. Especially since, unlike MtAs, not all PCs in D&D are spellcasters. But if one ever feels like D&D magic is getting stale, consider taking pointers from Mage.
One idea is to make it so your spell can be "upcast" for free if you meet certain requirements, have the right materials, or perform more involved actions. Contrarily, a spell might get harder to cast if the conditions are really wrong. The more the spellcaster tries to make conditions favorable or put more effort into it, the more potent they can be.
I could see this being very interesting to play - you could even consider giving multiple foci to an Archmage, who’s goal is to collect enough foci to cast THE ULTIMATE SPELL™️
This sounds like it could be really fun for a Necromancer. In places of undeath or using your Undead Minions as sources you could power your spells exponentially as your foes fall, but in the absence you could directly convert health and hit dice into spell slots, playing an extremely risky game in hopes to get a few bodies on and then off the ground to allow you to cast other spells.
I also feel that Tempest Cleric could’ve gotten creative in using their own blood as a source of power. A lot of room to play with blood tbh.
Sounds like a fun way of separating factions, too. Certain mages with afinity towards certain spell types will constantly find ways of facilitating their magic. You can end up with elaborate contraptions so that ideal conditions are met for their spells to be cast, or faction leaders scheming to expand the territory for their ideal spell type to gain an edge in a war.
For example, the shadow spellcasters think of a plan to block out the sun so they can destroy a rival faction that gets power from daylight. The ones needing water can try and flood large landmasses.
A world like this would be in constant strife and it's a perfect setup to make a point about balance and harmony.
nah screw balance and harmony.
metals and industry all the way.
if i cant cast Fabricate at all times. life aint worth living
I'm sure theres others but a Swedish role-playing game called Eon basically uses this magic system. Casters have to draw magic from its surroundings, a fire spells takes heat from nearby flames for example.
That little goblin is oddly adorable. So eager for chaos.
I dig this homebrew, thanks for sharing
I love your videos! And I would love to hear more about homebrew stuff, the flavor of these fussy focii really hits the mark