Path Mechanic

[God_of_Awesome]

Much like many of my ideas, I just throw them out in hopes they get hammered out into something serviceable.

The Path Mechanic is mixture of regular spell casting and the Spheres mechanic. Like regular spell lists, in relies on a spells known table, has a spell list you pick from instead of a set progression, can be made to stretch across any number of levels and usually is made for only a specific class (Or monster, whatever). Like Spheres, it relies on the Basic, Advanced and Expert progression mechanic for per day workings and CAN be made to work for multiple classes.

Example:

Path of Fire (For a 5 spell level class)
1: Burning Hand, Continual Flame
2: Produce Flame, Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Pyrotechnics
3: Resist Energy (Fire and cold only), Fireball, Flame Arrow
4: Wall of Fire, Fire Trap
5: Fire Shield, Delay Blast Fireball

Concievably, you could add this path and others to one class and progress them at different rates. It's mostly for classes that can pick and choose different Paths to progress at.

[Leress]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php? ... 28926&it=1

Paths of Power

http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?p=31512

My review.

[God_of_Awesome]

So as I understand it's almost exactly like what I'm writing here?

[Leress]

So as I understand it's almost exactly like what I'm writing here?

The only main difference I see is that you give basic, advanced, and expert (now what that means isn't really clear) access. I suggest looking in the book since it's free and maybe mine it for ideas.

[God_of_Awesome]

It means exactly what is means with the Spheres.

The Spheres

Fiends (and some of their minions and associates) cast magic primarily through spell-like abilities. While many signature fiends have arbitrary lists of spell-like abilities, the Tome of Fiends offers a method to advance Fiends into thematically appropriate spell-like abilities when they advance. When a fiend has access to a sphere, she is able to use all of the abilities within that sphere up to her character level. If she gains more levels, more powers of the sphere become available. In this way the spell-like abilities of fiends created with the rules in this tome should always be aesthetically and level appropriate.

Basic Sphere Access: When a creature has basic access to a sphere, she can use any of the spells listed in the sphere may be used once per day (each) as spell-like abilities, provided that their listed level is equal or lower to the creature's character level.

Advanced Sphere Access: When a creature has advanced access to a sphere, she can use any of the spells listed in the sphere may be used 3 times per day (each) as spell-like abilities, provided that their listed level is equal or lower to the creature's character level.

Expert Sphere Access: When a creature has expert access to a sphere, any spells listed in the sphere may be used at will as spell-like abilities, provided that their listed level is equal or lower to the creature's character level.

Creating new spheres: The following list of spheres isn't intended to be comprehensive, and we fully expect that some players and DMs will want many more spheres than we have scribed. All new spheres must be approved of by the DM, and should represent some actual (indifferent or evil) trait like "intoxication" or "badgers" rather than a game mechanical notion like "kicking ass and being totally sweet" or something praiseworthy like "generosity". A good place to start is actually Domains, as these are already a source by which a character gain a spell at every odd-numbered

Spheres and Spell Levels: Spell-like abilities used out of spheres re considered to be cast as a spell level equal to half the minimum needed character level to use the ability (rounded up). The save DC of a spell-like ability granted through Sphere access is Charisma-based. Thus, the save DC for a spell-like ability which becomes available at character level 5 is 12 + Charisma bonus.

[Grek]

Why not use the sphere mechanic wholesale?

[God_of_Awesome]

Apparently, it uses a certain rubric and other additions that paths don't. That is from my last thread with Spheres:

3. Shout...

9. Mass Cure Serious Wounds ...

10. Overland Flight ....

No... just, no.

Firstly, Spheres work on this rubric with few exceptions*:

• Sphere Name and Theme (Storms)

  Character level	Ability gained
  1	Special Ability relating to the Sphere (like: you ignore any penalty due to high winds) level 1 SLA (cone of cold*)
  3	level 2 SLA (gust of wind)
  5	Level 3 SLA (wind wall)
  7	Level 4 SLA (solid fog)
  9	Level 5 SLA (control winds)
  11	Level 6 SLA (chain lightning)
  13	Level 7 SLA (control weather)
  15	Level 8 SLA (whirlwind)
  17	Level 9 SLA (storm or vengeance)
  19	Level 9 SLA (reality maelstrom)

  
  

*Some spells auto-scale in a level appropriate manner from level 1 till forever. Spells like fireball, cone of cold, lighting bolt, and greater dispel magic always scale with level, and can be handed out at first level where nobody cares if once per day someone inflicts 3.5/1.75 damage on a failed/made save when the Greataxe wielding Orc does ~9.5 with every successful attack.

I'll see if I can help you out with a Forrest and Beast sphere.[/quote][/spoiler]

[Hicks]

Can you clarify the Path mechanic more? In your example you say that the "Fire Path" in a 5 caster level class grants:

5: Fire Shield, Delay Blast Fireball

Caster level is not spell level, but I just can't tell what ability you gain at what level, at all. fire shield is a rather ho-hum 4th level spell, but does this path grant the spell at character level 5 or 9?

[God_of_Awesome]

Okay, each caster class advances caster levels at a somewhat different rates. Sorcerers reach CL 5 at level 10 so say the class in question using the Path of Fire has the same caster progression as a Sorcerer. At level 10, Fire Shield and Delay Blast Fireball are available to be added to his spells known.

Now, for some classes, all spells available are automatically known. So this hypothetical class would know both Fire Shield and Delay Blast Fireball right of the bat. Or perhaps he has a limited spells known, he may only know 1 CL 5 spells at 10th level, so he must choose between Fire Shield and Delay Blast Fireball.

How many times you may cast those spells per day depends on whether you have Basic, Advanced or Expert access.

[Hicks]

Alright, so what we have is a breakdown in terminology: A Sorcerer with 10 class levels in Sorcerer has a caster level (CL) of 10 and can cast 5th level spells. Seriously:

Caster Level

A spell’s power often depends on its caster level, which for most spellcasting characters is equal to your class level in the class you’re using to cast the spell.

[God_of_Awesome]

Oh, fuck nuggets.

Alright, so do I call it spell level or what?

Edit: Is it SL? SLA?

[Hicks]

DON'T PANIC
This happens to a lot of people. I hope this helps:

• Class Level: is the number of levels you have in a class. "Lameus the Spell Knight" (Fighter 1, Wizard 5, Eldritch Knight 2) has 5 Class Levels of wizard.
  
  Character Level: is the total number of class levels a character possesses added together. "Lameus the Spell Knight" (Fighter 1, Wizard 5, Eldritch Knight 2) has 8 Character Levels of wizard.
  
  Caster Level: is the total number of spell-casting class levels a characer possesses added together. "Lameus the Spell Knight" (Fighter 1, Wizard 5, Eldritch Knight 2) has a 6 wizard Caster Levels.
  
  Spell Slot: is the ability to cast a single spell of an indicated Spell Level the indicated number of times per day.
  
  Spell Level: is a demarcation of absolute power a specific spell represents, with a higher spell level meaning more power; excluding the Epic Level Handbook (which is insanly flawed), there are no spells above 9th level or below 0th level. A 1st level spell such as sleep is less powerful than the 5th level spell symbol of sleep, which is less powerful than the 8th level spell mass charm monster. You cannot cast a spell unless you have a Spell Slot of the appropriate level, you cast it from an item (for Spell Compleation Items such as scrolls and staves, the item's spell must also be on your class's Spell List), or have it an a Spell Like Ability (or SLA); it is usually indicated in the character entry how many times they can use any given SLA per day (usually it is 1, 3, or unlimited times).
  
  Spell Slot: is the ability to cast a single spell of an indicated level the indicated number of times per day. Different classes gain spell slots at different, or even delayed rates; the gold standard for the acquisition of spell slots at a given spell level is the wizard (or cleric, or druid). You are only allowed to prepare spells (for preperation casters such as wizards and clerics) or know spells (such as sorcerers and bards) from your class's Spell List. How many different spells you can prepare or know is a function of the character's casting class (i.e. a class that grants spellcasting).
  
  Spell List: this is a list of spells you are able to cast from your spell slots. You cannot cast any spell that is not on your spell list, although there are feats, items, and class abilities that can add spells to your spell list.

EDIT: Formatting is a "female dog."

[schpeelah]

If we're talking about that, there may also be some confusion because there's caster level - the statistic which determines some effects of spells like duration and can be raised means like orange ioun stones or domain abilities - but the effective class level in a caster class for purposes of spell slots, spells known and accessible spell levels is also referred to as 'caster level'

[Username17]

If we're talking about that, there may also be some confusion because there's caster level - the statistic which determines some effects of spells like duration and can be raised means like orange ioun stones or domain abilities - but the effective class level in a caster class for purposes of spell slots, spells known and accessible spell levels is also referred to as 'caster level'

But that's usually called your "Class level for purposes of spells known and spells per day." So for purposes of spells per day, our Eldritch Knight is a level 6 Wizard. That gets into weirdness with PrCs and classes like Dread Necromancer, because class features that are specific extra spells known actually are gained because you are for those purposes a level whatever Dread Necromancer.

-Username17