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Post by Lord Cias on Oct 18, 2004 19:19:22 GMT -5
I'm curious, would anyone here allow a spell caster to cast a spell (one that has a duration, area of effect, or effectivness based on the caster's level) as if the spell caster were a lower level. For example, would you let a 5th level magic-user cast a fireball spell at a third level effectiveness (3d6)?
Of course aspects of a spell that are not level dependant cannot be reduced. For example a spell with a permanent duration is still permanent, or the fireball spell will still affect a 20' sphere. Also, no affect could be lowered beyond 1st level effectiveness, so a friends spell would still have an area of effect of at least a 2" radius sphere.
I think I would allow this in my game. I can't see too many advantages for a spell caster to do so, and I don't think it would unbalance anything.
If you wouldn't allow it, are there any specific reasons? If you can see a potential problem with allowing this, would you please point it out to me?
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dcas
Warlock
Duke of Pennsylvania, Knight Commander
Posts: 481
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Post by dcas on Oct 18, 2004 19:55:26 GMT -5
The only potential problem I could see would be a caster centering a 3-die fireball on himself to destroy a surrounding horde of kobolds. I don't think I would allow a caster to do this on the fly.
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Post by Scott on Oct 18, 2004 23:54:30 GMT -5
I would probably handle each instance on the fly, but just in the few seconds I thought about it, I've come up with numerous ways this could be abused. The biggest would be altering spell effects to avoid damaging treasure that would otherwise be destroyed. Scott
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Post by DragonFire on Oct 19, 2004 13:11:08 GMT -5
I would allow it, surprised it has never come up before IMC. I would relate this to "pulling a punch". Still being effective, but restraining to some degree. ..... or the fireball spell will still affect a 20' sphere. Also, no affect could be lowered beyond 1st level effectiveness, so a friends spell would still have an area of effect of at least a 2" radius sphere. I would allow area of effects to be adjusted as well. A spell caster should have control over their spells. I would give a % for failure if "adjusting" the spell though, if the Mage doesn't normally cast the spell in that fashion. The more it is changed/adjusted, the larger the % for failure.
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Post by Lord Cias on Oct 19, 2004 13:42:21 GMT -5
The only potential problem I could see would be a caster centering a 3-die fireball on himself to destroy a surrounding horde of kobolds. I don't think I would allow a caster to do this on the fly. I thought about that. But would this be considered an actual problem or just a legitimate use of the option? If a magic-user in my game tried this, I would allow it. However, a magic-user casting a fireball targeted right at his own feet will NOT get a saving throw. In addition, all of his equipment will need to make a save vs. magical fire or be destroyed. While lowering the damage of an area of effect spell might allow the spell to be cast amid friends, equipment will still need to save as normal. I would probably handle each instance on the fly, but just in the few seconds I thought about it, I've come up with numerous ways this could be abused. The biggest would be altering spell effects to avoid damaging treasure that would otherwise be destroyed. Scott Could you give me an example of how lowering the effect would save treasure? If you are talking about reducing the damage of a fireball, I think that all items would still need to save or be destroyed even if the blast was for just 1d6. Or did you have another scenario in mind? Also, would this be considered abuse or simply a legitimate use of the option? What were some of the other problems you saw? I am planning on allowing this in my game and, although it won't be a concern right away, it would be nice to have a heads-up on any potential problems.
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Post by Lord Cias on Oct 19, 2004 13:46:44 GMT -5
I would allow area of effects to be adjusted as well. A spell caster should have control over their spells. I would give a % for failure if "adjusting" the spell though, if the Mage doesn't normally cast the spell in that fashion. The more it is changed/adjusted, the larger the % for failure. A little too complicated for me and not quite what I'm looking for. Allowing spells to be altered in this fashion would certainly cause problems. For example, allowing a fireball spell to be reduced in size increases its versatility far more than letting a high level caster cast it as if he were a lower level.
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Post by Lord Cias on Oct 19, 2004 13:56:33 GMT -5
The main reason I want to do this is because there might be a few situations in which a high level caster is actually at a disadvantage compared to a lower level caster if the high level caster must always cast spells at maximum power. For example, a 3rd level caster can create webs that last for 1 hour (6 turns). What if that same caster at 6th level needed to create webs, but also would need them gone in under 2 hours and burning them was not an option?
Although I don't think I would require these, here are a couple of restrictions on this ability. First, the caster might have to decide what the effective casting level will be when he memorizes the spell , he could not spontaniously decide to cast his fireball at a different level than what he memorized it for. Second, no spell can be cast at a lower effective level than the minimum level needed to cast the spell. Thus a fireball could never be less than 5d6, although a 10th level caster could cast a 5d6 fireball.
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dcas
Warlock
Duke of Pennsylvania, Knight Commander
Posts: 481
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Post by dcas on Oct 19, 2004 14:25:31 GMT -5
Although I don't think I would require these, here are a couple of restrictions on this ability. First, the caster might have to decide what the effective casting level will be when he memorizes the spell , he could not spontaniously decide to cast his fireball at a different level than what he memorized it for. Second, no spell can be cast at a lower effective level than the minimum level needed to cast the spell. Thus a fireball could never be less than 5d6, although a 10th level caster could cast a 5d6 fireball. I view these restrictions as totally acceptable. My main beef with the proposed ability is allowing it to be done on the fly.
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