The campaign would be taking place in a sort of post-apocalyptic city where magic was sort of dead or banned. This is where the party discovers an ancient tome of magic, which contains every single spell which requires material components in the game. (They would only be able to understand weaker spells at first, but as they level up they would understand more and more.)
My idea is that in order to cast any spell, you must have the material component for that spell (focuses and component pouches don't exist) and the spell consumes that component. For example, if you wanted to cast mage armor, you would need to have scavenged a strip of leather, and the strip of leather would be destroyed by the spell in order to cast it. In exchange for this severe drawback, you would be able to understand every spell in your class (within the level limit.)
I would be adding material components to spells that don't have material components.
Does anyone have any ideas to improve this magic system?
This is more a discussion for the Homebrew Forum than for here, since it isn't really discussion an existing rule or mechanic rather than proposing a new one.
That said, the spell slot system does two things for the game: it sets a limit on the number and power of spells, and it provides a universal and simple resource that can be tracked by players on a character sheet. For your system to work, you would need significantly more planning as a DM to make sure that resources that power the more powerful spells are rarer (both in total quantity and in accessible quantity...ie how many and how often. using spell slots, wish is limited to once per day by its slot, but using your method, if you had 3 djinni hearts (or whatever you assign as the material component for wish), you could cast it 3 times in a day, or even in an encounter if you wanted. That means that you will have to manage the component resources over the entire campaign or your players might save up and obliterate your BBEG and their army with 4 castings of meteor swarm
You would also have to create/assign materials for every spell, and likely change the materials for many others, to reflect their relative power. You would also have to ban foci or component pouches or give them alternate functions. That's a lot of extra tracking and homebrewing to do for both you and your spellcasting players.
It would also degrade martial classes significantly, especially if the resource allocation of material components was even slightly off. If your level 5 wizard can conceivably sling 20 fireball spells in one encounter, how does that compare to the fighter with a measly 2 attacks. no spell would be able to require any material considered common or else this situation would occur.
You would have to figure a way to manage upcasting, since that is also regulated by spell slots. and for a spell like wish, which can be used to cast any other spell or lower level (or kill a god, at DM discretion), how do you actually set a material for that spell without affecting the value of certain choices (if the material is rare, why use it to cast a different spell, and if common, how do you stop someone from wishing all the time?)
Lot of extra work. You are effectively trading tracking a limited resource (spell slots per level) for tracking multiple ones (for each and every spell.)
I would prefer a chance of failure system. I.e. you can cast as many spells as you want, but there is a set chance of failure the higher you go up in level.
Off the top of my head, sample rules: 50% chance of spell failure + 5% per spell level, -1% per character level.
At first level, chance of failing to cast a 1st level spell would be 54%. At 5th level, chance of failing to cast a 1st level would be 50%, but chance to fail to cast a 3rd level would be 60%... At 20th level, chance of failing a 1st level = 35%, but failure to cast a 9th level would be 75%.
Math is your friend, it saves you from recording EVERYTHING.
I have been down this road, and it leads to burnout. It's a cool system, but keeping track of the materials for every spell and parceling out/regulating the materials to prevent abuse of certain spells or to allow for X or Y spell at a certain point in the story is going to be time-consuming and eventually so annoying that you'll be putting off your prep for the next session because you just don't want to deal with it.
I mean right away I'm not so sure your system is a "severe drawback" for Mage Armor. Seems like a couple decent pieces of leather could fuel your slot-free casting for weeks. Unlimited access to spells with common material components will almost certainly be problematic. You can restrict what the party finds, but you can't really argue that something like "a pinch of ash" is only available in tiny amounts.
This is just my experience, so maybe I'm wrong and you'll figure out a way to make it easy. But I'd recommend you proceed with caution
If you want to do this, with all the extra work it implies you would have to do, I'd do the following:
Cantrips have no restriction or material components (this keeps spellcasting viable when no components are had/can be found)
Spell components for lower level spells (say 1st and 2nd level) are uncommon, but not so much that they could be sold at an apothecary shop in a mid-sized city or large town or harvested from the wild (think certain kinds of mushroom, low value gems/metals, specially treated leathers, etc)
Spell components for mid level spells (say 3rd, 4th and 5th) are rare, and likely not found in shops outside of major cities (or found in very limited quantities), but could be discovered in the wild. (think mid level gems, rare plants, precious metals, etc)
Spell components for high level spells (say 6th, 7th, and 8th) are very rare, and likely not found in any shops, but may require slaying certain monsters or seeking out powerful individuals (think dragon scales, high level gems, ground dust from the bones of a creature who died more than 500 years ago)
Spell components for max level spells (9th) are legendary, and require extraplanar travel or the defeat of highly powerful creatures to obtain (Sybriex Bile, the heart of an adult dragon, Chaos-stuff from Limbo, etc...)
Allow spellcasters to "refine" components to allow them to be used for upcasted spells. Refinement could require a certain amount of time (10 minutes per spell level?) and can be done during a short rest or the 'non-sleeping' time in a long rest. Foci (if you choose to use them this way) could be rarer magical items that use charges to cast or upcast spells without materials (one charge per level of spell or per level upcast), but the foci breaks or loses power when charges are depleted.
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So I have this idea for a magic system.
The campaign would be taking place in a sort of post-apocalyptic city where magic was sort of dead or banned. This is where the party discovers an ancient tome of magic, which contains every single spell which requires material components in the game. (They would only be able to understand weaker spells at first, but as they level up they would understand more and more.)
My idea is that in order to cast any spell, you must have the material component for that spell (focuses and component pouches don't exist) and the spell consumes that component. For example, if you wanted to cast mage armor, you would need to have scavenged a strip of leather, and the strip of leather would be destroyed by the spell in order to cast it. In exchange for this severe drawback, you would be able to understand every spell in your class (within the level limit.)
I would be adding material components to spells that don't have material components.
Does anyone have any ideas to improve this magic system?
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My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
This is more a discussion for the Homebrew Forum than for here, since it isn't really discussion an existing rule or mechanic rather than proposing a new one.
That said, the spell slot system does two things for the game: it sets a limit on the number and power of spells, and it provides a universal and simple resource that can be tracked by players on a character sheet. For your system to work, you would need significantly more planning as a DM to make sure that resources that power the more powerful spells are rarer (both in total quantity and in accessible quantity...ie how many and how often. using spell slots, wish is limited to once per day by its slot, but using your method, if you had 3 djinni hearts (or whatever you assign as the material component for wish), you could cast it 3 times in a day, or even in an encounter if you wanted. That means that you will have to manage the component resources over the entire campaign or your players might save up and obliterate your BBEG and their army with 4 castings of meteor swarm
You would also have to create/assign materials for every spell, and likely change the materials for many others, to reflect their relative power. You would also have to ban foci or component pouches or give them alternate functions. That's a lot of extra tracking and homebrewing to do for both you and your spellcasting players.
It would also degrade martial classes significantly, especially if the resource allocation of material components was even slightly off. If your level 5 wizard can conceivably sling 20 fireball spells in one encounter, how does that compare to the fighter with a measly 2 attacks. no spell would be able to require any material considered common or else this situation would occur.
You would have to figure a way to manage upcasting, since that is also regulated by spell slots. and for a spell like wish, which can be used to cast any other spell or lower level (or kill a god, at DM discretion), how do you actually set a material for that spell without affecting the value of certain choices (if the material is rare, why use it to cast a different spell, and if common, how do you stop someone from wishing all the time?)
Lot of extra work. You are effectively trading tracking a limited resource (spell slots per level) for tracking multiple ones (for each and every spell.)
I would prefer a chance of failure system. I.e. you can cast as many spells as you want, but there is a set chance of failure the higher you go up in level.
Off the top of my head, sample rules: 50% chance of spell failure + 5% per spell level, -1% per character level.
At first level, chance of failing to cast a 1st level spell would be 54%. At 5th level, chance of failing to cast a 1st level would be 50%, but chance to fail to cast a 3rd level would be 60%... At 20th level, chance of failing a 1st level = 35%, but failure to cast a 9th level would be 75%.
Math is your friend, it saves you from recording EVERYTHING.
I have been down this road, and it leads to burnout. It's a cool system, but keeping track of the materials for every spell and parceling out/regulating the materials to prevent abuse of certain spells or to allow for X or Y spell at a certain point in the story is going to be time-consuming and eventually so annoying that you'll be putting off your prep for the next session because you just don't want to deal with it.
I mean right away I'm not so sure your system is a "severe drawback" for Mage Armor. Seems like a couple decent pieces of leather could fuel your slot-free casting for weeks. Unlimited access to spells with common material components will almost certainly be problematic. You can restrict what the party finds, but you can't really argue that something like "a pinch of ash" is only available in tiny amounts.
This is just my experience, so maybe I'm wrong and you'll figure out a way to make it easy. But I'd recommend you proceed with caution
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
If you want to do this, with all the extra work it implies you would have to do, I'd do the following:
Allow spellcasters to "refine" components to allow them to be used for upcasted spells. Refinement could require a certain amount of time (10 minutes per spell level?) and can be done during a short rest or the 'non-sleeping' time in a long rest. Foci (if you choose to use them this way) could be rarer magical items that use charges to cast or upcast spells without materials (one charge per level of spell or per level upcast), but the foci breaks or loses power when charges are depleted.