Hey. So something I've been kicking around as an idea for a rewrite for the Mage class (and it's many variants) was a Mage who got its spells in a Tome Monk like fashion. By this I mean there wouldn't be a Mage class and a spell list but rather, like the monk, there would be a list of "Basic Spells" with a large list of self encompassing standard action powers below it and then "Master spells" with the same kind of list, and finally "High Arcana" or "Epic Spells" or what have you. This would make the total amount of spells create reasonable I feel. Because instead of listing each possible damage spell variant possible you'd end up with something like this in the basic spell list
Basic Spells
* Ray - As a standard action you can make a touch attack roll against any target within 60ft, if you hit you deal 1d8 damage per level to the target. The damage may be Fire, Cold, Electric, or Acid damage, chosen at the time of casting.
* Blast - As a standard action you can force every creature in a 10ft radius within 100ft of you to make a reflex save. Any creature that fails this save take 1d6 damage per level. The damage may be Fire, Cold, Electric, or Acid damage, chosen at the time of casting.
There'd be tons more options obviously with regards to damage dealing spells. And then of course you'd have things like "Charms" and "Fear" and stuff like that. But I think the list would fill rather quickly and you'd have a working list of spells that was comprehensive but NOT the ....what...250 pages in length that the PHB devotes to spells.
I think this would be interesting and fun, and would provide a simple but completely effective backbone to base a class upon. It also has the added benefit when designing spells that you really only need to create three "levels" of power instead of 10, which is much easier to abjugate and design for. Whaddya all think?
Tome inspired Mage redux
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