Alternative Spellcasting Possible?

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by raptor, Sep 1, 2016.

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  1. raptor

    raptor Title

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    Hello.

    I'm one of those that absolutely loath the Vancian Magic system, and as such am wondering if it is possible to mod the Magic System in ToEE ? I've played the game several times before, and like it for it's combat and other things, but the magic has frustrated me the entire time.

    Even something like replacing it with the Sorcerer's system would be an improvement for me. Basically implementing the "Spontanous Divine Spellcasting" house-rule from Unearthed Arcana. Though optimally I'd prefer the Spell Points system, or something like the Spell Recharge from BG2 mods.

    Tried searching, but haven't found anyone talking about replacing the magic system in this game, guessing that most others are happy with the Vancian/D&D 3.5 magic system. Personally it has been the first thing I've house-ruled when I've GM'ed the game, and when being a player I've begged for Spell-points, or just played a non-caster.

    Any information or showing me where to start would be appreciated!
     
  2. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    @WinstonShnozwick is currently working on getting Psi into Temple+. I think that might suit you.
     
  3. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    I am with you on that 100%. My groups irl still use the number of spell slots available, but clerics can use any spell, and wizards can use any spell in their spell book. The main purpose of this is to actually save a ton of game-playing time since those players now don't have to spend precious time deciding which spells to memorize based on where they think the adventure is going to lead that game session.

    In ToEE, I usually play a sorcerer or bard and lots of martial characters, because I hate selecting spells for memorization.

    One thing that can help is making lots of scrolls, which can kind of simulate the concept of having any spell available.
     
  4. raptor

    raptor Title

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    @Sitra Achara

    Psionicks would be interesting, but unfortunately not replace cleric/druid role in party. :( Still a fan of psionicks and looking very much forward to see how he manages that!

    I noticed you where creating new Prestige Classes, and mentioned on the Codex forums that you externalized the classes into python ? I don't know python, but considering it is supposed to be a "fairly" simple scripting language, I might try learning it. Any estimate on how much work it would be to either replace Cleric + Druid with identical class just with Sorcerers casting tables ? Or a House-rule variant for that ?

    @marc1967

    I'd actually forgotten about the bard having healing! Unfortunately it doesn't fit any of the characters I had planned this time, back to the drawing table I guess, new group!

    For cRPG's especially I'm starting to link the sorc/bard spont casting more and more, since you typically only use 3-4 spells of each spell level anyways. Typically end up using much more variety of spells in P&P as I can be more creative with things. And yeah i know of the Scribe Scroll trick, been using it plenty of times with Wizard, it's the main way to make Wizard work the first 5 levels :)

    Thanks for replies all!
     
  5. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    That part of the engine is still hardcoded, but I'll be reworking it for the coming Assassin / Blackguard Prestige Classes so it might not be too complicated to modify. I think it'll be ready in about a month or two.
     
  6. raptor

    raptor Title

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    Ooohh! Looking forward to see what you come up with then. Should I look at learning Python in that time ?

    I was honestly never a fan of of Prestige Classes, because of how much people used them to power-play, and felt that most of the same things could be accomplished with normal classes and some houserules. But I'm getting tempted to try it in Temple+, it looks pretty well done, and after all these years, nice with something new :)
     
  7. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    If you want to mod it then yeah, you should learn some python. If you have background in other programming languages it shouldn't be too hard, just get used to the basic syntax and that should be enough for that purpose.
     
  8. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Something along these lines? :)

    upload_2016-9-15_0-23-49.png

    I'll probably just add Favored Soul though, having access to ALL the Cleric spells seems a bit much, UI-wise if nothing else.
     
  9. WinstonShnozwick

    WinstonShnozwick Established Member

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    Is that what I think it is? :eek:
     
  10. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    If you mean a Cleric converted to Spontaneous Divine Casting a la the Sorcerer, then yes :)

    As mentioned I'm doing some infrastructure for the new casting classes with their own spell lists, and along the way I'm generalizing how the spell list is processed. Converting to Spontaneous Casting is as easy as changing a setting in a py file now :)
     
  11. WinstonShnozwick

    WinstonShnozwick Established Member

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    So creating a new spell list should be pretty easy?
     
  12. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Yeah. I just committed a WIP update, check out the Assassin / Blackguard python class specs.
     
  13. Onyx

    Onyx The Slayer

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    I don't mind the Vancian magic system, although I find the concept of "forgetting" spells just after you casted them to be strange. That said, more options are always better. Spell point systems have the advantage of being more flexible than Vancian magic so that's good.

    As for Python, I've actually been tinkering with it myself a little. I've done a few (really minor) homebrew changes to the Eldritch Knight like upping its hit die to a d10 (like Pathfinder) and adding additional fighter feats (again like Pathfinder). Doubt I'll be able to create the "spell critical" ability, although that's not really necessary.

    edit: Nice work on the spell lists! I guess it's possible to make a "Favoured Soul" type of character considering the spontaneous cleric?
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2016
  14. raptor

    raptor Title

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    Wow very nice Sitra! And yes, that looks like a bit of a nightmare to look through every time you want to select a spell :p

    Favored Soul is for the most part cleric + spontanous casting, so that would work quite well. The Alternative houserule from Unearthed Arcana for Spontanous Divine Spellcasting changes both cleric/druid into using a similar system to Sorcerer (select spells on level up, limited spell list similar to sorc, but they ran different tables, to retain some of the cleric/druid play-style. link here if interested: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm )

    But hey, any hack will do ^_^
     
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