Alternate Rules for Spellcasters Out of Spells (Update)

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About a week ago I asked for small, simple rules changes to let spellcasters have something useful to do or a way to cast one more critical spell even when the spellcaster is spent.  There were several good ideas, including reminders about the use of normal ranged weapons (even though I mentioned that) and scroll use.  Another point to remember along those lines is that if the spellcaster has a familiar, the familiar may have a useful role.

But I particularly liked the ideas to have feats that lets the spellcaster repeatedly cast something similar to individual spells and an idea to use “blood magic” where the spellcaster takes temporary ability score damage to cast an extra spell.

I’ve seen this blood magic idea before, and I usually see a simplistic formula for calculating the ability score damage which is out of balance either at low levels or at high levels.  However, the D&D Wiki has a blood mage class where the formula makes sense (but I’m going to ignore the idea of casting a higher level spell than the spellcaster is capable):

Ability Score Burn by Level

Highest spell level:7 points

2nd Highest spell level:6 points

3rd Highest spell level:6 points

4th Highest spell level:5 points

5th Highest spell level:4 points

6th Highest spell level:4 points

7th Highest spell level:3 points

8th Highest spell level:2 points

9th Highest spell level:2 points

10th Highest spell leve:1 points

I think it should be at the GM’s discretion to take the ability score damage from constitution, the spellcasting class’s primary ability, or rarely another ability  is there is a plausible reason.

Back to the other idea that I found very useful.  As mentioned about, it was to make feats based on some of the most basic spells and let the spellcaster repeatedly use those.  I would also suggest these could be  alternate powers in lieu of the ability to have a familiar.  Making them Summon Familiar alternatives may be even better game-wise.  or maybe they could be made as double-feats if your campaign has that concept.  In any case, the warlock’s eldritch blast is an example of this.  Likewise, the Pathfinder version of the wizard allows unlimited cantrip casting which also addresses the problem.

3 Comments on “Alternate Rules for Spellcasters Out of Spells (Update)”

  1. One thing I used to do back in the second-edition days was to provide casters with a small number of at-will spells (depending on the character level). The most basic version of this was a magical bolt of some kind. My players could specify the special effect of their spells, so it could be a fire bolt, an electrical blast, or a swipe of a conjured shadowy tendril, but it had certain set characteristics. Like a standard dex-based attack roll, a 60-yard range. and 1d4 damage.

    Or perhaps I’m misremembering the exact numbers. They don’t matter. The important part is: it was exactly identical to a thrown dart, aside from the damage type.

    The almost-inconsequential change was all it took to make my wizards’ players much happier with the campaign, because now they actually felt like wizards, rather than like dart-throwers.

  2. That’s almost exactly what I’m going for. Except that if they are spending a feat or substituting out an ability it can be a little better than throwing a dart.

  3. I really like cantrips. I think 0-level spells definitely have a place. Offensive cantrips tend to do just 1 damage, or D4 or something negligible, but principally cantrips should be used for clever trickery.