Spell lists vs. the Warlock path

[JonSetanta]

I removed the snapback too late, Im sorry for writing that.
I went back and did read the rest of your critique. Good points, really.

I did not know FT supported the Orangutan.

Edit: okay. Here's my attempt at understanding where you're approach and communication style is coming from, because I kept getting flashbacks to troll threads since a decade ago when TGD was bustling, but we really need to communicate better since there's so few left here.

I'm from Baltimore on the east coast of the USA.
Everything is a threat here.
Every hotheaded phrase has to be redacted with a "my bad" or "sorry" when tempers flare, often, or people get hurt. Like, in bad ways. With guns.
That's my background.
I don't like being like a rabid city dog, I'm trying to use antianxiety meds to claim rationality, but if you could tell me generally where you're from, Kaelik, like which country and city, I'll adapt.

[JonSetanta]

But really, just now when Klonopin and the AC kicked in on this scorching afternoon, I read all of these comments and I am paying attention and making adjustments based on all input.

Ok. Further consideration.

What EXACTLY about specific, commonly abused spells don't I tolerate in games I play in?
Not the whole list, I was seesawing a bit too hard there earlier, but with everyone's points about specific GOOD and ESSENTIAL spells worth keeping, yes, I am leaning more towards a surgery than a nuke of the Arcane/Divine selections.

IMHO allowing a choice of only one school by option, blended with the Mage spells I'm still adapting from sources such as Spheres of Power, and only at most (at cost) one of said spells per level should cut down on a majority of the problems I've personally encountered.

[Kaelik]

I apologize for having gone gung-ho about "scrap the whole spell list" but if you've ever played an all-caster campaign in 3.5/3.75, it's a pain in the ass.

It can definitely be a pain in the ass to play, I even wrote a Wizard class designed to basically do all the same things the Wizard does, but be easier to play, using the existing spells unchanged. But pain in the ass to play is a different problem then Wizards being too powerful, which is different from prefering more specific THEMES for characters, which is a different problem from having conceptual problems with the way that the game lays out the book, which is a different problem then wanting all the characters to be less powerful, which is a different problem then wanting fights to last longer.

I'm trying to address each possible problem as it seems to motivate you while trying to figure out what the most meaningful one is, but it's difficult.

I did not know FT supported the Orangutan.

Different transphobe. (Kier Starmer)

[JonSetanta]

Ah ok. Not only do I recognize that name (curse be upon Starmer and all transphobes) but I pointed out the two key problem spells that really get my goat in D&D, in the Mage class, but not sure if I posted v2 yet, I want to stat out the spells based on Spheres first.

I'll mention them here and we can discuss:

1. Celerity
2. Contingency

The core issue I have with both is "haha your turn is mine" Wizards.

[Kaelik]

Ah ok. Not only do I recognize that name (curse be upon Starmer and all transphobes) but I pointed out the two key problem spells that really get my goat in D&D, in the Mage class, but not sure if I posted v2 yet, I want to stat out the spells based on Spheres first.

I'll mention them here and we can discuss:

1. Celerity
2. Contingency

The core issue I have with both is "haha your turn is mine" Wizards.

1) I mean, Contingency is explicitly limited to 1 at a time per Wizard who casts it on themselves. Even assuming you get like, full spectrum control "as a free action that I can take during other people's turn when I say the word Escalflowne my contingency will cast X" It's still best used as an all purpose defensive spell instead of trying to use a 6th level slot and a 4th level slot at level 12 to get one extra attack spell in round one of combat that day. I'd prefer to sit on my Contingency for a long time, not be devoting an entire 6th level spell slot every day to that thing. In most combats in most of the games I've been in, your abilitiy to hyper murder the combat encounter by casting an extra spell your selected ahead of time is very low and it's not an efficient use of your spell slots, especially not when you might have 4-7 combats that day.

I'm sure sometimes it might be annoying to people, but it just doesn't seem like a problem to me to give Wizards one get out of dying free spell they cast a week ago, so long as they never die more then once per day, and if they want to spend multiple spell slots today to get the extra action, there are LOTS of encounters where that's going to be not very useful. Like every time there's a deception involved, an enemy with an unknown number of immunities and defenses of unknown values, or a fight with just like 12 people.

2) For Celerity: I know of one weird Paladin spell and one +3 LA template that gives immunity to Daze. Being Dazed for one turn, in return for getting to cast two spells on the first turn is good. Unlike the above contingency discussion, it's probably worth doing the 4th level slot for two turns thing way more often at higher levels, possibly all the time if you use the Tome Item that turns Dazed into Staggered.

But I mostly never use it and mostly never see other people use it, because standing around dazed for a turn is a huge drawback. In Tome games, even casting two spells every round isn't going to make you as much of a combat monsters as a Samurai that Kiaed everyone within 200ft, so I'm not overly worried about the power here, but it's certainly a degenerate kind of play, so I would personally ban any use of FireSouled with LA buyoff, or Incantatrix (all of it) but specifically to persist and then spell steal Favor of Illmater for Daze immunity.

Regarding the concept of taking people's turns, most every class I write ends up with something like an immediate action defense, Abrupt Jaunt, the counterspell as immediate action abilities written into Tome, Fighter Foil and Improved Delay, ect. There's lots of that stuff, and it mostly just seems like an okay thing for people to do if they are willing to do it. In fact, it actually makes things like casting two spells in one turn less important, because both you and enemies can do something to save yourself from a high grade attack.

Is your problem one based on combat results: "I believe the Wizard kills everyone and/or wins the fight on the first turn, so it's bad if they double kill people or kill the people that wouldn't have died before anyone gets to go"

Is the problem one based on having immediate actions or such at all like, everyone always has to pay attention even when it isn't their turn and the game goes slower because of cycling around asking about counter responses? Because then Celerity isn't an issue.

Is the problem one where you just conceptually hate the idea of people "going twice" and you are just as offended by Chokers or people having necromantic armies?

[JonSetanta]

Out of your three inquiries, it's a blend of 1 and 2.

Arcane casters that go first no matter what, shut down combat on turn 1, then retreat via more spells as a Reaction if anything even comes close to threatening them.
I've encountered this a lot in mid to late level AD&D, 3.x, and even 5e play.

I've even done it myself by "going nova" a few times during 5e early release playtest material.

I've also played M:tA games and Exalted where similar, and sorry to digress to CCGs, "counterspell wars" with MtG.

I deliberately put in huge stonking beasts that can't be targeted or countered in one deck just to ensure I don't get the No Fun For You treatment.



Speaking of 1-hit KO Samurai examples, I remember a postulation showdown between one member here that made a human samurai with a warpick vs. my Tome Fiendish Brute that pumped everything into invisible, poison claws, and DEX.

You can guess who went first and dealt about 150 Crit damage on the first turn.

[JonSetanta]

Chokers are obnoxious but overall poor threats due to their glass cannon stature. They are only a problem between levels 1-2.

Zombarmies should be handled with the Swarm Template rather than 60+ units each taking actions, not really a big problem since it takes time to build a true army and in-campaign all the Good characters have to do is look for grave robbers.

I've been hemming and hawing about an alternate Summon kind of magic capability that functions more like JoJo's Bizarre adventure than 12 Blink dogs at the same time.
I'll post it among other excerpts from the d6 system, adapt it to d20, and explain how it works in a week or two.
Think of it more like a combination of a WoW mount and FF10 Summon that "tanks the hits" on turns it isn't sent out to a set distance to attack, or can "act as a mount when doing neither ".
I call the ability "Aspect".

[JonSetanta]

[Warlock Path] Mage

7/18/2024

V2


Disclaimer and design statement:
This D&D 3.5e class is an attempt to combine the versatile Sorcerer with the reliable yet weaker Warlock.
I called this aim of using Warlock from 3e as basis due to unlimited use, customizable Invocations the "Warlock Path", because of this Mage class succeeds in a slightly lower power tier than Wizard yet higher than Warlock, it's design and capabilities can be adapted to other classes as well.

Half-warlock, half-sorcerer, specialized yet somewhat adaptive.


HP: 8
SP: 6
Class skills: as Wizard
Saves: Will
AB: 1/2

Level to Rank to maximum spell slot equivalent
Level 1: Rank 1 : SL 1
Level 5: Rank 2 : SL 3
Level 9: Rank 3 : SL 5
Level 13: Rank 4 : SL 7
Level 17: Rank 5 : SL 9



Mage Spell Basics:

1 Mage or Filter, known per character level, adding Wisdom bonus to that amount.
With each 8 hour sleep a single spell or Filter (explained later) may be rechosen.
By player's choice a single Arcane school or element selection of Arcane spells may be chosen and spells may be readied and rechosen also from that school or if the spell has that element tag.
The Mage "knows" all spells from that school or element except Celerity and Contingency but may only ready, as if each were a Mage spell, a number of those level-appropriate spells as of they were a Wizard to determine maximum slot level, and cast them at-will.

Level 1: Mage Power: Add the character's Charisma bonus to Spellcraft and Concentration checks.

Any Mage spell may be cast with Verbal and Somatic components as a Standard action. The only Material component required is a Spell Focus, which is any wood, bone, metal, or crystal wand, rod, or staff. Once chosen it is bonded after 8 hours of sleep, then the Mage can summon it as if by magic item curse, bond released willingly as a Standard action, and placed or retrieved with a personal pocket dimension as a Free Action.

Don't use Attack rolls but instead roll a Spellcraft check vs. either Dexterity or Constitution score (not bonus), whichever is higher when offensive spells target any number of opponents, compared for each target, but if any target has Spell Resistance the Spellcraft roll must also match or best that value before comparing it to others.

For more than one target roll a Spellcraft check once then compare it to the Dexterity, Constitution, and SR of each chosen targets within that area.


DM Option: Standard save DC

When a Mage casts a spell, add 10 + per odd level + Charisma bonus, opponents make a Reflex save to negate all effects

DM Option: Static DC
If this is too much math simply roll a d20 against Target Number 6.
Lazy and doesn't scale, but hey, it's fast.




Spells:

Starting Target: Touch

Starting area: all adjacent targets of choice within 1 space of the caster

Mage Blast: Deal 1d6 Force damage per Rank + Charisma bonus with +3 per level 2 and higher.

Astral: Self and willing allies only, the Spirits of all affected split from their bodies and are able to interact with the Ethereal Plane, moving at double normal speed and even to the Astral if 1 hour is spent in an in-between phased state. Spirits are identical to the affected but have 1 HP per level and can act normally but the bodies are in stasis and Dazed until those affected are damaged in body or the Spirit is reduced to 0 HP, after which the body receives a matching amount of damage and returns to normal at the beginning of their next turn.

Jaunt: Teleport self and willing allies to any unoccupied spaces within range that you have unobstructed line of effect to or have touched previouly. All allies must touch you or your Spirit (while they are also Spirit) when this spell is cast.

Detect: By default you detect magic of any school within range. You know the caster level, how recently magic was used, whether or not the caster or origin is also within your Detect range, and either Arcane, Divine, or Psionic. The "magic" detection is changed to that of whichever element or elements Filter you apply.

Barrier: You designate an uninterrupted sphere within the Area (surrounding yourself if Touch range) that nothing you do not allow can pass through the Force effect. The sphere has 10 HP per level you have and even prevents teleporting into it or out of it if you desire. It lasts each round you spend a Move action to maintain it and can be collapsed to crush everything inside as if a Mage Blast spell using Constitution and/or Fortitude as a save to prevent damage.

Morph: You and all willing allies take a "monster" or "animal" form or forms of each target's choice within the area. The highest Challenge Rating of another form any individual can become is your level - 2.
You replace all aspects of those morphed with that of another being, retaining only this Mage class feature which costs you your Bonus action each round to maintain, or until you lose the new form's HP in which case you revert and are reduced to 1 HP; the same applies to all others affected.

Door: Connect two Gate-spell like portals between two points in your range. Anything sensing, moving, and attacking from one Door passes to the other.
At Rank 3 the spell may connect to any location you have touched before.
At Rank 4 the spell connects even between worlds on the same plane.
At Rank 5 the spell connects between planes you have touched.
Maintaining these portals is a Move action each round, requires that you take no damage, and anything or anyone caught between locations halfway of the portals collapse must choose which one to exit from and takes damage on a failed Reflex/Dexterity save as by Mage Blast.


Filters:


The number of Filters, which function like free yet limited Metamagic feats, alter and boost your Mage spells.

They are readied as if spells but do not function by themselves.

1 Filter per odd level may be applied at any one time at maximum, swap out 1 as a 1 Hour Rest action, and applied to a spell cast as if it were a Slot Level +1 Metamagic feat (although Mages don't use spell slots). More Filters may be readied and applied by spending a feat to increase the limit for each one.
Applied Filters change the element or shape from Force to that of the Filter or Touch to Ranged and/or Area. For Mages this does not cost anything beyond requiring that it is currently readied.
If more than one Filter is altering the element, choose one element to be the "dominant" one, all others being "passive", but all status effects still apply on a failed save.

Using a shape Filter such as Enhance Range or Enhance Area can be applied multiple times.

Enhance Range:
Touch becomes Close
Close become Medium
Medium becomes Long

Enhance Area begins at 1 adjacent space from the first target by default, doubling each time and allowing one choice between:
Line - double the number of adjacent targets to all targets affected in a beam originating from the caster out to maximum distance, beginning at 5 spaces long
Cone - a spray originating from the caster extends to a starting space of 1 and ending with a width of 3 spaces at maximum length of 3 spaces
Internal - reduce the number of targets down to 1 but change the Save to Constitution or Fortitude only if it isn't already, your Save DC or Spellcraft check to affect that target gets +4
Surround - from a 10-round lasting sphere around the area you choose within possible spaces in range, change the Save to Dexterity or Reflex only if it isn't already

Fire: +1 per level Fire damage and Burn at the end of every round for 1d6 Fire until a Standard action is taken to put it out.
Ice/Cold: +1 per level Cold damage and +1 per level Piercing.
Electric: +1
Stone
Water
Air
Acid
Iron
Silver
Poison
Holy
Unholy
Enhance Range
Enhance Area

[JonSetanta]

Following that version 2, I'm still looking at Spheres of Power D&D expansion rules for magic because even though I had it memorized two years ago it's been a while and about a dozen performances in Baltimore and two album releases and two side jobs, and two trips to the ER just this year one of which infected me with staph, so yeah I've been through a lot lately.
Regardless, I persist, now I have some downtime, I'm focusing on these writings.

I need to know, is applying debuffs via elements WITH damage bonuses too much, or should I just have the element tags alter the Force damage to something entirely while slapping a status effect on top?
Is Stun per Eectric spell and a "gain half of damage dealt in HP" too much for for Unholy? They are literally area effects once per round.
For Unholy I could reduce it to "heal an amount equal to your level" so that's the minimum with no division required. The stipulation is it'll be Negative energy, undead are immune to it.

Holy I think should Blind because it's light. Like pure photons.

The ONLY effects I absolutely refuse to apply are Paralyzed and Dazed because robbing an entire area, at range, of all their turns every round is too much.

[JonSetanta]

Here's the simple versions.

Element filters only change the damage type for the d6s rolled. The rest remains Force damage.
If multiple elements are applied, caster chooses which d6s are which element, but multiple elements all apply their status effects to all within range that either fail their save or fail to the caster's Spellcraft check (as by option).

Fire: change damage to Fire and affected Burn at the end of every round for 1d6 Fire until a Standard action is taken to put it out.
Ice/Cold: change damage to Cold affected are Held during each turn as a Cold effect until a Standard action is taken to shatter the ice
Electric: change damage to Electric and affected are Stunned for 1 round
Stone: change damage to Bashing and all affected are Prone
Water: change damage to Slashing and all affected take maximum damage from the otherwise rolled damage dice
Air: change damage to Piercing and all affected are Checked for 1 round (see the Gust of Wind spell for similar)
Acid: change damage to Acid and ignore Hardness
Iron: change damage to Slashing and deal double rolled damage to anything that has DR#/Cold Iron
Silver: change damage to Piercing and deal double rolled damage to anything that has DR#/Silver
Poison: change damage to Poison, all affected are Sickened for 1 round and apply rolled damage again at the end of the next turn
Holy: change damage to Divine and either deal double damage to fiends and Undead and all affected are Blind for 1 round, or instead heal all beings with a Constitution score within the area for an amount equal to roll total per casting
Unholy: change damage to Profane and deal double damage to Fey and Celestials, healing the caster for an amount of damage equal to your level per casting but only if at least one target was damaged

[deaddmwalking]

I need to know, is applying debuffs via elements WITH damage bonuses too much, or should I just have the element tags alter the Force damage to something entirely while slapping a status effect on top?

It's impossible to determine if something is too much or too little in a vacuum. It has to be compared to something. I do think it's important to point out that a buff (say, giving all of your allies a +4 AC) and giving an opponent a debuff (say -4 to attack rolls) do the same thing, but normally buffing your allies doesn't allow a save but applying the penalty directly to your opponent does. By that metric, most debuffs are underpowered (ie, they have a chance not to work at all, and working on the other side of the equation is equally powerful with no chance to fail).

Is Stun per Eectric spell and a "gain half of damage dealt in HP" too much for for Unholy? They are literally area effects once per round.
For Unholy I could reduce it to "heal an amount equal to your level" so that's the minimum with no division required. The stipulation is it'll be Negative energy, undead are immune to it.

How often do you want people to be stunned? I think if fire does x damage, and unholy does x damage, but unholy also heals x/2 damage that's a pretty significant disparity. But I can't see if that's true.

I highly recommend that you spread out any rider effects and not make them available immediately. Characters should be able to embody their concept fully at level 1, but they need to have something to grow into.

In our system, a level 1 fire spell does 1d10+1d10/caster level touch. A level 2 fire spell does 1d8+1d8/caster level ranged touch. A level 3 fire spell does 3d6+1d6/caster level in a 20-foot radius with a save for half. A 4th level spell does 2d6+2d6/caster level with a ranged touch and save versus stun rider. A 5th level fire spell doesn't require any attack roll and does 2d10+2d10/caster level fire damage (save for half) and save or be staggered. A 6th level fire spell does 2d10+2d10/caster level to one target with a ranged touch, and half that to a number of targets equal to Caster Level within range and all of them might be stunned. A 7th level Fire spell does 4d6+4d6/caster level in a 20' radius, with a save for half damage and to avoid being blinded. Please note that this is a small sample of fire spells that do similar things (direct damage) and does not represent everything in the school.

The reason we start adding rider effects with higher level spells is that we still want lower level spells to be useful. From the perspective of damage output our 1st level spell can do more damage than a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level spell, but it has the disadvantage of having to be next to your opponent. What's probably most important is that players feel like they're getting new toys when they go up in level. Having spells that do similar things, but more powerfully, feed that feeling of advancement. Even though opposition has gotten more powerful, you're not just doing exactly the same thing you were at 1st level. If people are Mage Blasting at level 1, and they're Mage Blasting at level 5, you need to do SOMETHING to make those feel different.

[JonSetanta]

My metric is an optimized, fully slotted Wizard for a single encounter, but less damage due to the Warlock-like Invocation similarities.

With this you can stack filters but none of the effects or damage happen on a pass save.

I'm not ignoring your middle of the response but the important part I noticed was that indeed a Mage will use (usually) Mage Blast from level 1-20, stacking a ton of elements and enhanced range and area, but even without enhanced range and area they will be able to add yet more element and these can even apply to the Arcane spells they cast since they are essentially Metamagic.

A feat most offensive Mages would want to grab would be Skill focus: Spellcraft for better odds of success, but even that takes away from other options...

[Foxwarrior]

Items that add to skills are generally super cheap, but given that the Dexterity or Constitution score (whichever is higher) doesn't scale to keep up with Spellcraft you'll probably only worry about boosting it at low levels anyway. A touch attack would be fine tbh, is it really necessary for the warlockmage to be able to bypass all special defenses against attacks like cover and concealment? Being able to almost always pierce spell resistance seems unnecessary to me too...

Are you actually interested in making your class heavily mathematical like this? You know there's standard rules for attacks and save DCs and such that are generally accepted as fine, and if you look around a little you should be able to find guidelines for how much damage you should do to be actually useful, you don't have to try reinventing it if you don't want to make the effort to math out how your new system shakes out.

[JonSetanta]

A touch attack requires an attack roll which can also be boosted out the wazoo..

I was trying something out but look just below where it says optional ruled

[deaddmwalking]

One of the nice things about 3.x was an attempt to make a whole bunch of disparate systems work consistently. In earlier editions climbing walls was a percentage check and lighting a fire required rolling less than your attribute on a d20. Modifiers were inconsistent and arbitrary.

If you want to attack somebody and you want there to be a chance of failure, an attack roll already exists. If you want a completely different system that does the same thing, you have to ask whether it does enough to justify the complexity of a bespoke system used nowhere else in the game.

[Foxwarrior]

In this case it's not so much complexity, as it is complexity-erasure. There's a lot of random-ass abilities that interact with the being attacked rules, and pretty much no abilities that interact with the having someone roll a Spellcraft check against you rules, so you miss out on any sort of unusual experiences when you encounter a strange monster.

[deaddmwalking]

I think any time you have to ask 'do any of my existing abilities interact with this', that adds complexity. Or at least table discussion and arguments. Like if you have an ability that lets you negate an attack, does it apply, or not? There are all kinds of questions about what qualifies as an 'attack' for the purposes of invisibility, for instance.

That complexity doesn't go away because you don't address it - it actually just causes the whole game to grind to a halt while each table worries whether it was an oversight (failure to address existing rules) or an intentional omission (didn't need to address existing rules because they aren't supposed to apply).

[JonSetanta]

One of the nice things about 3.x was an attempt to make a whole bunch of disparate systems work consistently. In earlier editions climbing walls was a percentage check and lighting a fire required rolling less than your attribute on a d20. Modifiers were inconsistent and arbitrary.

If you want to attack somebody and you want there to be a chance of failure, an attack roll already exists. If you want a completely different system that does the same thing, you have to ask whether it does enough to justify the complexity of a bespoke system used nowhere else in the game.

Excellent selling point. I'll change the basic setup for a Reflex save vs set CHA DC

[JonSetanta]

Ok. V3 standardizes spellcaster and save interaction as by normal rules, cleaned up the wording a bit too.

[Warlock Path] Mage

7/20/2024


Disclaimer and design statement:
This D&D 3.5e class is an attempt to combine the versatile Sorcerer with the reliable yet weaker Warlock.
I called this aim of using Warlock from 3e as basis due to unlimited use, customizable Invocations the "Warlock Path", because of this Mage class succeeds in a slightly lower power tier than Wizard yet higher than Warlock, it's design and capabilities can be adapted to other classes as well.

Half-warlock, half-sorcerer, specialized yet somewhat adaptive.


HP: 8
SP: 6
Class skills: as Wizard
Saves: Will
AB: 1/2

Level to Rank to maximum spell slot equivalent
Level 1: Rank 1 : SL 1
Level 5: Rank 2 : SL 3
Level 9: Rank 3 : SL 5
Level 13: Rank 4 : SL 7
Level 17: Rank 5 : SL 9



Mage Spell Basics:

1 Mage spell or Filter, known per character level, adding Intelligence bonus to the number of spells known and Wisdom bonus to the number of Filters known.
With each 8 hour sleep a single spell or Filter (explained later) may be rechosen.

By DM and player's choice a single Arcane school or element selection of Arcane spells may be chosen and spells may be readied and rechosen also from that school or if the spell has that element tag.
The Mage "knows" all spells from that school or element except Celerity and Contingency but may only ready, as if each were a Mage spell, a number of those level-appropriate spells as of they were a Wizard to determine maximum slot level, and cast them at-will.

Any Mage spell may be cast with Verbal and Somatic components as a Standard action. The only Material component required is a Spell Focus, which is any wood, bone, metal, or crystal wand, rod, or staff. Once chosen it is bonded after 8 hours of sleep, then the Mage can summon it as if by magic item curse, bond released willingly as a Standard action, and placed or retrieved with a personal pocket dimension as a Free Action.



Standard save DC

When a Mage casts a spell, add 10 + per odd level + Charisma bonus, opponents make a Reflex save to negate all effects unless a Filter adjusts the save made.




Spells:


Starting range and area: all adjacent targets of choice within 1 space of the caster that must make a Reflex save, or a single target as by Touch Attack.

Mage Blast: Deal 1d6 Force damage per Rank + Charisma bonus with +3 per level 2 and higher.

Astral: Self and willing allies only, the Spirits of all affected split from their bodies and are able to interact with the Ethereal Plane, moving at double normal speed and even to the Astral if 1 hour is spent in an in-between phased state. Spirits are identical to the affected but have 1 HP per level and can act normally but the bodies are in stasis and Dazed until those affected are damaged in body or the Spirit is reduced to 0 HP, after which the body receives a matching amount of damage and returns to normal at the beginning of their next turn.

Jaunt: Teleport self and willing allies to any unoccupied spaces within range that you have unobstructed line of effect to or have touched previouly. All allies must touch you or your Spirit (while they are also Spirit) when this spell is cast.

Detect: By default you detect magic of any school within range. You know the caster level, how recently magic was used, whether or not the caster or origin is also within your Detect range, and either Arcane, Divine, or Psionic. The "magic" detection can be changed to that of whichever element or elements Filter you apply.

Barrier: You designate an uninterrupted sphere within the Area (surrounding yourself if Touch range) that nothing you do not allow can pass through the Force effect. The sphere has 10 HP per level you have and even prevents teleporting into it or out of it if you desire. It lasts each round you spend a Move action to maintain it and can be collapsed to crush everything inside as if a Mage Blast spell using Constitution and/or Fortitude as a save to prevent damage.

Morph: You and all willing allies take a "monster" or "animal" form or forms of each target's choice within the area. The highest Challenge Rating of another form any individual can become is your level - 2.
You replace all aspects of those morphed with that of another being, retaining only this Mage class feature which costs you your Bonus action each round to maintain, or until you lose the new form's HP in which case you revert and are reduced to 1 HP; the same applies to all others affected.

Door: Connect two Gate-spell like portals between two points in your range. Anything sensing, moving, and attacking from one Door passes to the other.
At Rank 3 the spell may connect to any location you have touched before.
At Rank 4 the spell connects even between worlds on the same plane.
At Rank 5 the spell connects between planes you have touched.
Maintaining these portals is a Move action each round, requires that you take no damage, and anything or anyone caught between locations halfway of the portals collapse must choose which one to exit from and takes damage on a failed Reflex/Dexterity save as by Mage Blast.


Filters:


The number of Filters, which function like free yet limited Metamagic feats, alter and boost your Mage spells.

They are readied as if spells but do not function by themselves.

1 Filter per odd level may be applied at any one time at maximum, swap out 1 as a 1 Hour Rest action, and applied to a spell cast as if it were a Slot Level +1 Metamagic feat (although Mages don't use spell slots).
More Filters may be readied and applied by spending a feat to increase the limit for each one.
Applied Filters change the element or shape from Force to that of the Filter or Touch to Ranged and/or Area. For Mages this does not cost anything beyond requiring that it is currently readied.
If more than one Filter is altering the element, choose one element to be the "dominant" one, all others being "passive", but all status effects still apply on a failed save.

Using a shape Filter such as Enhance Range or Enhance Area can be applied multiple times.

"Enhance Range"
Touch becomes Close
Close become Medium
Medium becomes Long

"Enhance Area" begins at 1 adjacent space from the first target by default, doubling each time and allowing one choice between:
Line - all targets are affected in a beam originating from the caster out to maximum distance, beginning at 5 spaces long
Cone - a spray originating from the caster extends to a starting space of 1 and ending with a width of 3 spaces at maximum length of 3 spaces
Internal - reduce the number of targets down to 1 but change the Save to Constitution or Fortitude only if it isn't already, your Save DC gets a +3 bonus.



Element filters only change the damage type for the d6s rolled. The rest remains Force damage.
If multiple elements are applied, caster chooses which d6s are which element, but multiple elements all apply their status effects to all within range that either fail their save or fail to the caster's Spellcraft check (as by option).

Fire: change damage to Fire and affected Burn at the end of every round for 1d6 Fire until a Standard action is taken to put it out.
Ice/Cold: change damage to Cold and affected are Grappled during each turn as a Cold effect until a Standard action is taken to shatter the ice
Electric: change damage to Electric and affected are Stunned for 1 round
Stone: change damage to Bludgeoning and all affected are Prone
Water: change damage to Slashing and all affected take maximum damage from the otherwise rolled damage dice
Air: change damage to Piercing and all affected are Checked for 1 round (see the Gust of Wind spell for similar)
Acid: change damage to Acid and ignore Hardness
Iron: change damage to Slashing and deal double rolled damage to anything that has DR#/Cold Iron
Silver: change damage to Piercing and deal double rolled damage to anything that has DR#/Silver
Poison: change damage to Poison, all affected are Sickened for 1 round and apply rolled damage again at the end of the next turn
Holy: change damage to Divine and either deal double damage to Fiends and Undead and all affected are Blind for 1 round, or instead heal all beings with a Constitution score within the area for an amount equal to roll total per casting
Unholy: change damage to Profane and either deal double damage to Fey and Celestials, healing the caster for an amount of damage equal to your level per casting but only if at least one target was damaged

[Thaluikhain]

Ok, I'm a bit late to this, but while I don't think scrapping an existing system's giant magic thing is a great idea, from the PoV of a ground up new thing for, say, a new system, the idea is interesting.

" Turning burning hands into scorching ray into fireball is relatively easy"...this looks a lot like casting a spell at a higher level in 5e. From Acid Arrow: "At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage (both initial and later) increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 2nd."

You could do more than just increase damage. Say, you learn power X, which is touch attack at will, ranged at level 1 and ranged and area effect at level 2 or whatever. And have Y and Z work the same way. EDIT, or you can make it better at touch range at level 1, or longer ranged at level 2, instead, to give more options.

Customising your own spells with a formula sounds nice, only you run into people figuring out some weird combo the designers didn't anticipate, which seems less likely (hardly impossible) if they write out each spell individually.

[JonSetanta]

Very true, just like with any games there are those savants with too much free time and neurons to take A, B, and C things, slap them together and come out with "i^2"

No doubt someone will break this but I was cautious about the design.