I almost always play as a caster, but I've never been able to really figure out one critical detail about them for roleplay.
How does your character knows how many spell slots they have left?
The PHB says "Spellcasting is taxing, so a spellcaster can cast only a limited number of level 1+ spells before resting. Spell slots are the main way a spellcaster’s magical potential is represented."
So your character gets more and more worn out as they cast spells? What exactly does that look like?
With a sorcerer, I can see it being physically draining on them, maybe even with a druid.
Warlocks might be the easiest one to explain because your patron could literally tell you that it will let you cast a certain number of spells until you pray to it again (a short rest.) Same with clerics.
Wizards and bards are the tricky one for me, since their magic comes from study and manipulation of forces around them that theoretically anyone could accomplish. Is casting the spell mentally draining, like doing a bunch of math problems in a row, so you become more and more worn out and lack the mental acuity to keep casting? Or is it physically draining, and literally tires you out as you cast more? Would it be okay for a wizard character to say "I only have the strength left to cast 2 more spells before I'll be too worn out."?
Anyone have any thoughts or ways you've played this in the past?
I think it’s just a feeling you develop from experience. Like when I go to the gym, I set up my exercise and I kind of know how many times I can lift a given weight. And I also know if I take a few pounds off, I’ll be able to do a few more. And as the workout progressed and I move to a different exercise, I can feel how tired I am, and can apply that to the new exercise.
To a certain degree it's also just that spell slots are a part of the physics of the universe- it's a simple fact of how magic works that barring exceptional conditions- such as acquiring the relevant Epic Boon- you can only handle one 9th level cast per day, even if logically the remaining slots should seem to represent enough "fuel" for another one.
Anyone have any thoughts or ways you've played this in the past?
Not really. Vancian magic is one of the worst aspects of D&D and I hope it gets completely dropped at some point.
In 3.5 you had official variants for spell points. You didn't have spell slots; you had spell points per level and a maximum number of points you could spend per casting (not important here). Each spell cost the spell level times 2 - 1 points (1, 3, 5, 7, and so on). It was so good, especially the way the Expanded Psionics Handbook handled it.
You could calculate the spell point equivalent for your spell slots and after you cast spells, recalculate what your current percentage remaining is and that would represent your percentage of magical stamina remaining and it would represent it by power level not just a spell count. You could achieve a similar result using spell slot level directly instead of calculating the spell point value. I don't know if one works better for this than the other.
Anyone have any thoughts or ways you've played this in the past?
Not really. Vancian magic is one of the worst aspects of D&D and I hope it gets completely dropped at some point.
In 3.5 you had official variants for spell points. You didn't have spell slots; you had spell points per level and a maximum number of points you could spend per casting (not important here). Each spell cost the spell level times 2 - 1 points (1, 3, 5, 7, and so on). It was so good, especially the way the Expanded Psionics Handbook handled it.
You could calculate the spell point equivalent for your spell slots and after you cast spells, recalculate what your current percentage remaining is and that would represent your percentage of magical stamina remaining and it would represent it by power level not just a spell count. You could achieve a similar result using spell slot level directly instead of calculating the spell point value. I don't know if one works better for this than the other.
5e has had an official spell point option since the very beginning. It appears in the 2014 DMG. Towards the end of chapter 9.
Eh, there's more to Vancian magic hanging in there than being a sacred cow. Mana pool systems in the paradigm of D&D combat just encourage frontloading into the strongest spells possible as much as possible- note that the 2014 optional rules specifically had a narratively arbitrary "you can't make more than one 6th to 9th level slot per day" rule. You need to completely rebuild the damage to resource calculations from the ground up to avoid almost instantly making lower level damage spells obsolete once a higher level becomes available.
Anyone have any thoughts or ways you've played this in the past?
Not really. Vancian magic is one of the worst aspects of D&D and I hope it gets completely dropped at some point.
In 3.5 you had official variants for spell points. You didn't have spell slots; you had spell points per level and a maximum number of points you could spend per casting (not important here). Each spell cost the spell level times 2 - 1 points (1, 3, 5, 7, and so on). It was so good, especially the way the Expanded Psionics Handbook handled it.
You could calculate the spell point equivalent for your spell slots and after you cast spells, recalculate what your current percentage remaining is and that would represent your percentage of magical stamina remaining and it would represent it by power level not just a spell count. You could achieve a similar result using spell slot level directly instead of calculating the spell point value. I don't know if one works better for this than the other.
5e has had an official spell point option since the very beginning. It appears in the 2014 DMG. Towards the end of chapter 9.
It's not the same. First, 3.x had an official set of classes (the Psionic classes) that used the spell points, then they added variants that tied into that system. Particularly in 3.5, the Psionic spell point system was well developed and interesting. I think it was Unearthed Arcana that published the general spell point variants, including the Vitalizing (you become fatigued or exhausted if you use too many spell points but if you rest enough to no longer be fatigued or exhausted, you can recover spell points.
I miss the Psionic feats and gaining, holding, and expending psionic focus. Also, I had homebrewed focus and focus feats for general spellcasting. So, I guess I am partially being nostalgic for the homebrew on top of the official offerings.
Back on topic, I've actually played a wizard who gave an in-universe explanation for spell slots and levels, though he didn't use the term "spell slots". Instead, he explained to a fellow adventurer that anyone and everyone has an amount of magic they can tap into at any time, and that it can be just as tiring as physical exhaustion to burn through it. Not only do you have a limited number of spells you could cast in a day (aside from cantrips, which he pointed out are basically effortless, like the equivalent of taking a couple of steps or picking up a pen), stronger spells are more taxing and can't be tapped into more than a couple of times before your body refuses to let out that much magic at once. And the more you practice with magic, the more your body will attune to it and become capable of greater amounts, to a point.
He did use spell levels as a term, but explained them as being a classification used for easy identification among casters and that it's just one of the more widely accepted explanations about the amounts of magic they take to cast. Kind of like a set of thresholds that have been measured, similar to how we have thresholds IRL tied to measuring temperature or the speeds of different things.
Back on topic, I've actually played a wizard who gave an in-universe explanation for spell slots and levels, though he didn't use the term "spell slots". Instead, he explained to a fellow adventurer that anyone and everyone has an amount of magic they can tap into at any time, and that it can be just as tiring as physical exhaustion to burn through it. Not only do you have a limited number of spells you could cast in a day (aside from cantrips, which he pointed out are basically effortless, like the equivalent of taking a couple of steps or picking up a pen), stronger spells are more taxing and can't be tapped into more than a couple of times before your body refuses to let out that much magic at once. And the more you practice with magic, the more your body will attune to it and become capable of greater amounts, to a point.
He did use spell levels as a term, but explained them as being a classification used for easy identification among casters and that it's just one of the more widely accepted explanations about the amounts of magic they take to cast. Kind of like a set of thresholds that have been measured, similar to how we have thresholds IRL tied to measuring temperature or the speeds of different things.
As illustrated, one can come up with in-world explanations, but I think it's best to treat them like hit points -- they're one of those things that it's better to not think about too hard.
Amusingly, it's much easier to explain the old-school "memorize specific spells" system, but those are much worse for most people's actual fun, so it's not worth it.
I don't consider knowing your spell slots to be metagaming, to me it's how the world works. Yes, it's a little bit Harry Potter and the Natural 20, but to me characters would create a taxonomy of their powers, and this is one of them. Same as "Hey I can action surge once to attack more, but I have to rest an hour to do it again."
I don't consider knowing your spell slots to be metagaming, to me it's how the world works. Yes, it's a little bit Harry Potter and the Natural 20, but to me characters would create a taxonomy of their powers, and this is one of them. Same as "Hey I can action surge once to attack more, but I have to rest an hour to do it again."
I don't think anybody's talking about it as a metagaming problem. (Also, I think "metagaming" is pretty much a non-problem most of the time, and people shouldn't be worried about people doing it.)
It's more about "how do you make this make sense in a nominally serious game world?"
And, having said above that it's best not to think about it, I'm now gonna think about it:
"Spell levels" are a quantum phenomenon. You can tap into a "charge" (or whatever) the magical field, but only at certain energy levels. It's why you can't cast a fireball at level 3.5 -- there's nothing there to interact with at that energy level. A caster can "capture" some number of these "charges", and the more skilled they are, the more they can keep hold of. It's kind of like how atoms in our world capture electrons at different energy levels. Casting a spell involves draining one of these "charges" to power the spell.
To a certain degree it’s all a construct of the god of magic in FR lore. The current one specifically capped spells at 9th level after someone’s earlier use of something stronger broke reality for a bit, iirc.
To a certain degree it’s all a construct of the god of magic in FR lore. The current one specifically capped spells at 9th level after someone’s earlier use of something stronger broke reality for a bit, iirc.
Yes, it was a spell to try to steal Mystra's divinity. It did bad things. Magic stopped. Floating cities fell. Mystra sacrificed herself to preserve magic. New Mystra appears and has like an extra "r" in her name or something and hangs around for a bit. New Mystra tried to force her way in past another god and got wrecked. One of her followers, Midnight, becomes Next Mystra and takes New Mystra's name to smooth the transition. Either New Mystra or Next Mystra capped spells at 9th level.
Particularly if you're in the Forgotten Realms, the concept of spell levels, slots, sorcery points, and whatnot may be a mechanic documented in universe as knowledge passed down from the Mystras or another god of Magic/Knowledge.
I almost always play as a caster, but I've never been able to really figure out one critical detail about them for roleplay.
How does your character knows how many spell slots they have left?
The PHB says "Spellcasting is taxing, so a spellcaster can cast only a limited number of level 1+ spells before resting. Spell slots are the main way a spellcaster’s magical potential is represented."
So your character gets more and more worn out as they cast spells? What exactly does that look like?
With a sorcerer, I can see it being physically draining on them, maybe even with a druid.
Warlocks might be the easiest one to explain because your patron could literally tell you that it will let you cast a certain number of spells until you pray to it again (a short rest.) Same with clerics.
Wizards and bards are the tricky one for me, since their magic comes from study and manipulation of forces around them that theoretically anyone could accomplish. Is casting the spell mentally draining, like doing a bunch of math problems in a row, so you become more and more worn out and lack the mental acuity to keep casting? Or is it physically draining, and literally tires you out as you cast more? Would it be okay for a wizard character to say "I only have the strength left to cast 2 more spells before I'll be too worn out."?
Anyone have any thoughts or ways you've played this in the past?
I think it’s just a feeling you develop from experience. Like when I go to the gym, I set up my exercise and I kind of know how many times I can lift a given weight. And I also know if I take a few pounds off, I’ll be able to do a few more. And as the workout progressed and I move to a different exercise, I can feel how tired I am, and can apply that to the new exercise.
To a certain degree it's also just that spell slots are a part of the physics of the universe- it's a simple fact of how magic works that barring exceptional conditions- such as acquiring the relevant Epic Boon- you can only handle one 9th level cast per day, even if logically the remaining slots should seem to represent enough "fuel" for another one.
Not really. Vancian magic is one of the worst aspects of D&D and I hope it gets completely dropped at some point.
In 3.5 you had official variants for spell points. You didn't have spell slots; you had spell points per level and a maximum number of points you could spend per casting (not important here). Each spell cost the spell level times 2 - 1 points (1, 3, 5, 7, and so on). It was so good, especially the way the Expanded Psionics Handbook handled it.
You could calculate the spell point equivalent for your spell slots and after you cast spells, recalculate what your current percentage remaining is and that would represent your percentage of magical stamina remaining and it would represent it by power level not just a spell count. You could achieve a similar result using spell slot level directly instead of calculating the spell point value. I don't know if one works better for this than the other.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
5e has had an official spell point option since the very beginning. It appears in the 2014 DMG. Towards the end of chapter 9.
Eh, there's more to Vancian magic hanging in there than being a sacred cow. Mana pool systems in the paradigm of D&D combat just encourage frontloading into the strongest spells possible as much as possible- note that the 2014 optional rules specifically had a narratively arbitrary "you can't make more than one 6th to 9th level slot per day" rule. You need to completely rebuild the damage to resource calculations from the ground up to avoid almost instantly making lower level damage spells obsolete once a higher level becomes available.
It's not the same. First, 3.x had an official set of classes (the Psionic classes) that used the spell points, then they added variants that tied into that system. Particularly in 3.5, the Psionic spell point system was well developed and interesting. I think it was Unearthed Arcana that published the general spell point variants, including the Vitalizing (you become fatigued or exhausted if you use too many spell points but if you rest enough to no longer be fatigued or exhausted, you can recover spell points.
I miss the Psionic feats and gaining, holding, and expending psionic focus. Also, I had homebrewed focus and focus feats for general spellcasting. So, I guess I am partially being nostalgic for the homebrew on top of the official offerings.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Back on topic, I've actually played a wizard who gave an in-universe explanation for spell slots and levels, though he didn't use the term "spell slots". Instead, he explained to a fellow adventurer that anyone and everyone has an amount of magic they can tap into at any time, and that it can be just as tiring as physical exhaustion to burn through it. Not only do you have a limited number of spells you could cast in a day (aside from cantrips, which he pointed out are basically effortless, like the equivalent of taking a couple of steps or picking up a pen), stronger spells are more taxing and can't be tapped into more than a couple of times before your body refuses to let out that much magic at once. And the more you practice with magic, the more your body will attune to it and become capable of greater amounts, to a point.
He did use spell levels as a term, but explained them as being a classification used for easy identification among casters and that it's just one of the more widely accepted explanations about the amounts of magic they take to cast. Kind of like a set of thresholds that have been measured, similar to how we have thresholds IRL tied to measuring temperature or the speeds of different things.
As illustrated, one can come up with in-world explanations, but I think it's best to treat them like hit points -- they're one of those things that it's better to not think about too hard.
Amusingly, it's much easier to explain the old-school "memorize specific spells" system, but those are much worse for most people's actual fun, so it's not worth it.
I don't consider knowing your spell slots to be metagaming, to me it's how the world works. Yes, it's a little bit Harry Potter and the Natural 20, but to me characters would create a taxonomy of their powers, and this is one of them. Same as "Hey I can action surge once to attack more, but I have to rest an hour to do it again."
I believe my approach is an outlier.
I don't think anybody's talking about it as a metagaming problem. (Also, I think "metagaming" is pretty much a non-problem most of the time, and people shouldn't be worried about people doing it.)
It's more about "how do you make this make sense in a nominally serious game world?"
And, having said above that it's best not to think about it, I'm now gonna think about it:
"Spell levels" are a quantum phenomenon. You can tap into a "charge" (or whatever) the magical field, but only at certain energy levels. It's why you can't cast a fireball at level 3.5 -- there's nothing there to interact with at that energy level. A caster can "capture" some number of these "charges", and the more skilled they are, the more they can keep hold of. It's kind of like how atoms in our world capture electrons at different energy levels. Casting a spell involves draining one of these "charges" to power the spell.
(Fill in your own nouns to make it sound good.)
(Just don't ask about how sorcerers work. :)
To a certain degree it’s all a construct of the god of magic in FR lore. The current one specifically capped spells at 9th level after someone’s earlier use of something stronger broke reality for a bit, iirc.
Yes, it was a spell to try to steal Mystra's divinity. It did bad things. Magic stopped. Floating cities fell. Mystra sacrificed herself to preserve magic. New Mystra appears and has like an extra "r" in her name or something and hangs around for a bit. New Mystra tried to force her way in past another god and got wrecked. One of her followers, Midnight, becomes Next Mystra and takes New Mystra's name to smooth the transition. Either New Mystra or Next Mystra capped spells at 9th level.
Particularly if you're in the Forgotten Realms, the concept of spell levels, slots, sorcery points, and whatnot may be a mechanic documented in universe as knowledge passed down from the Mystras or another god of Magic/Knowledge.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.