Troll Lord Games

I saw the idea of an Arcane Blast on these forums (from Treebore's house rules if memory serves) and loved it. But I worried it was a bit too powerful for my game. Hence, I've created a variant. My overall aim is to give spellcasters a bit more flexibility -- hoping they'll decide to memorize spells other than those directly needed for combat, knowing they can always convert them into an arcane blast.

I'd appreciate any feedback on what consequences adding this to my game might have (overpowered, underpowered, etc.?) or any tweaks I should make.
ARCANE BLASTS

Wizards and illusionists can make these attacks of pure magical energy as a result of converting and unleashing the raw powers of known spells.

A SIEGE check is required to convert a spells energy without taking a temporary loss of CON points because of the exhaustive nature of converting the spells energy. The challenge level = spell level. CON loss = one point for each spell level (ex. 1 point for a first-level spell; 3 points for a third-level spell). Con lost in this manner is restored 1 point per hour.

This attack requires a "To hit" roll versus the targets AC, but the casters BtH for purposes of this attack is equal to their caster level plus any DEX bonus/penalty. On a successful hit, the energy does 1d4+1 damage per spell level. (Ex., converting a 3rd level Fly spell into an arcane blast does 3d4+3 in damage.)

Note: Two 0-level spells can be combined and converted into one level of arcane blast. But other spell levels cannot be combined.

I actually thought of going this route. I wanted it to be something they could do all day long like it is in 4E, so thats why I abandoned this route. The only thing I like about this is that it will allow mages/illusionists to turn non combat spells into something usable when needed. Something Illusionists in particular may need.

The only thing I am thinking of capping, in some way, is the dice of damage it does. See, I was thinking how much damage a caster could do per round with a bow versus this blast idea, and went with it because it is "cooler" when they are doing the damage with arcane blasts instead of arrows. So I went with cool.

So I am thinking of rewriting it to where they can do 1d4/2 levels, and capping it at 5 dice. I think I am still going to allow them to make magical devices that are more powerful, and expensive, to boost the dice to d6, d8, and then d10, but I think I better scale that with level as well.

So to boost to d6 I was thinking 5th level and a 5,000 GP wand/device.

d8 would be 10th level and a 10,000 GP wand/device.

d10 would be 15th level and a 15,000 GP wand/device.

If I ever have a game make 20th level I'll worry about it then. I think I would go with 3d4/2 levels, maxed out at 15d4 (3d4x5), but maybe just advance it to 1d12/2 levels.

Anyways, I'll work that out if I ever have to worry about it.
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Treebore wrote:
The only thing I am thinking of capping, in some way, is the dice of damage it does. See, I was thinking how much damage a caster could do per round with a bow versus this blast idea, and went with it because it is "cooler" when they are doing the damage with arcane blasts instead of arrows. So I went with cool.

So I am thinking of rewriting it to where they can do 1d4/2 levels, and capping it at 5 dice. I think I am still going to allow them to make magical devices that are more powerful, and expensive, to boost the dice to d6, d8, and then d10, but I think I better scale that with level as well.

So to boost to d6 I was thinking 5th level and a 5,000 GP wand/device.

d8 would be 10th level and a 10,000 GP wand/device.

d10 would be 15th level and a 15,000 GP wand/device.

If I ever have a game make 20th level I'll worry about it then. I think I would go with 3d4/2 levels, maxed out at 15d4 (3d4x5), but maybe just advance it to 1d12/2 levels.

Scaling it was something I thought about too. I always wanted the damage to be less than other pure damage spells of a given level, but good enough that it was worth sacrificing a spell and risking Con damage. That's one of the reasons I didn't put on a cap. But I didn't give a whole lot of thought to what higher level spells you'd want to give up to do this. Will spellcasters reach a point where the other spells they can access make this power useless?

I do like the idea of making magic items to enhance the arcane blast. Gives the PCs something to spend all their cash on. And that might make this an ability worth using as they advance.

I always hated the idea of casters using crossbows and junk at low levels once their ONE (or two) spells were out. So I have think the Warlock class from Complete Arcane (3.5, not CnC, but trust me) was cool.

Basically, wizards/illusionsists can cast an endless amount of magical missiles at foes. This gives them something to do in combat besides duck for cover.

I would say the damage for these missiles should be really low, like a ranged touch attack that does the following damage:

1-3: d3

4-5: d4

6-8: d6

9-10: d8

11-14: d10

15+: d12

Having a wand of some sort as a focus adds one level of the caster to the damage (i.e. a 5th level mage with a wand focus would do d6 damage).

I also think that Prestidigitation should be a 24-hour duration 0-level spell, that way creative 1st-level characters should be able to do basic utility stuff that helps the party (light fires, do "magical" cartography, put marks on walls, spice food, etc.).

Of course, what I did for one wizard was to keep the RULES as is, and just had the first thing they found a wad that basically allowed them to do this. That way a) it doesn't change the rules and b) if it became a problem the magical item could be disposed of without changing the rules of the game.

For my "All Wizard Campaign" toolset, I came up with the following 0-level spells.
Wounding Strike
Damage: 1d4+1
Range: 30ft maximum. (10' is short range, 11'-20' is medium, 21'-30' is long range)
Effect: Could be acid, fire, cold, electrical, bludgeoning, piercing or whatever an individual wizard chooses. I would recommend that a wizard chooses a particular type of damage and that's more or less his/her normal mode of attack. However, if one wants, this could be changed with a SIEGE Engine check and a penalty of 3 points to the PC's initiative roll. The wizard simply has to make a successful to hit roll against the target's AC.
Description: The Wizard draws forth his/her wand which focuses a small amount of ambient magical energy and uses that to form a physical attack which emanates from the Wizard's wand. While the common name of this attack is "Wounding Strike" what a particular wizard calls his/her attack may vary greatly; Steven might call his Eldritch Blast, Clara may call hers Ice Bite and still others may have completely different names, physical and visual effects. The damage and range remains the same regardless of the wizard using this attack.
Defensive Shield
Effect: The wizard can create a minor defensive shield that has the effect of temporarily raising his/her armor class until his/her next combat action. Thus the wizard is protected from the start of his/her turn until the very next turn he/she takes. The effect of this charm is an increase of +2 to the Wizard's armor class, which may or may not be successful in deflecting a Wounding Strike attack. This effect is accumulative with Shield and other AC raising defensive full spells.
Description: Like Wounding Strike, the wizard uses his/her wand to draw ambient magical energy to the wand and uses that to create a protection against attacks. This shield may be called many different things depending upon who the wizard is and may have a variety of different visual effects.
Stunning Strike
Damage: Stuns target for 1d2 Rounds
Range: 30ft maximum. (10' is short range, 11'-20' is medium, 21'-30' is long range)
Effect: Similar to Wounding Strike, only the effect is a stun on the target that lasts 1d2 rounds. There is no save against this attack, a successful to hit roll is assumed to strike the solar plexus or similar vulnerable area of the target.

In such a campaign, a spell caster can cast these an endless number of times per day. These never become better/stronger and eventually they are far less useful as the spellcaster gains significant power with the increase in the number of spells they can cast each day increases. I suppose that these could scale, but I haven't had a good opportunity to perform in depth play testing with this toolkit. I do know that I would have to decrease the power of many standard wizard spells, since one 8th level caster Fireball could far to easily eliminate far to many wizard opponents...

Anyway, maybe something like this could be helpful for your needs.
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