[D&D] Arcane Accumulation Spellcasting

[Doomsmile]

This is a system I'm toying with- a homebrew modification of the Spell Point system from Unearthed Arcana. I call it Arcane Accumulation.

The concept here is that, while divine magic is simply gifted to a cleric by the gods, an arcane caster gathers the power for his spells from ambient arcane energies. Since this is where he gets his power from, why shouldn't he be allowed to re-accumulate spent energy during the day? This system will need a good bit of feed-back and editing to make it fair to all parties involved: the mages, the clerics, and non-casters (who I don't want to get screwed even more here!)

Due to the lengthy nature of the description, I'm going to put it up in a separate post (for ease of separation), but I should not that the description makes repeated refferances to the class "mage." This is beacuse the setting I intend to use this in is using a modified Genaric Class system, though the genaric class system itself should be discussed elsewhere. Suffice it to say that there are two spellcasting classes: mage and cleric. Mages, who these rules are intended to aply to, learn spells at the same rate as a sorcerer.
One could easily adapt this system to work with standard D&D classes by aplying these rule to all spontaneous arcane spellcasters instead of the "mage" class. Anyway, read on for the actual system!

[Doomsmile]

Arcane Accumulation Magic

What is the differance between arcane and divine magic?
Divine magic is granted to a cleric or paladin by their god- it is a gift in return for spreading the word and will of the diety.
Arcane magic, on the other hand, is not gifted, but gathered. Mages- users of arcane magic- gather arcane energies from the world around them. They store an ammount of this energy within their being, allowing them to later weave these energies into a coherant, controled effect- a spell, to put it in lay man's terms.

In order to reflect this, mages of the Northlands use the following modification of the Spell Point system presented in Unearthed Arcana. It represents the ability of a mage to re-accumulate their arcane energies throughout the day.
A mage has a Maximum Spell Point ammount based on their effective mage level. This effective level also determines the mage's Recharge Threshold, Fatigue Threshold, Exhaustion Threshold, and the mage's Unconciousness Threshold.

1089
Maximum Spell Points: This is the maxiumum number of spell points that the mage can ever have. If a mage is recieving bonus spell points from a high constitution*, add that number to this total.
Recharge Threshold: This is the maxiumum number of spell points you can recover to during the day. If a mage is recieving bonus spell points from a high constitution, add half of that number to this total.
Fatigue Threshold: If a mage's number of spell points is reduced to this threshold or below, she becomes fatigued until her spell points rise above this number. This fatigue can only be removed by the return of spell points.
Exhaustion Threshold: If a mage's number of spell points is reduced to this threshold or below, she becomes exhausted until her spell points rise above this number. This exhaustion can only be removed by the return of spell points.
Unconcious Threshold: If a mage of effective level 3rd or higher is ever reduced to 0 spell points for any reason, she succumbs to her exhaustion and colapses into unconciousness. She can be revived with a DC 15 heal check or by regaining at least 1 spell point.
*A mage needs a hearty body and spirit to contain arcane energies effectively (or be an elf). Thus, a mage gains bonus spell points based on her constitution instead of her relevant spellcasting ability score.


Spending Spell Points:
A mage can cast a spell by spending spell points. Each level of spell costs a certain number of spell points to cast. If do not have enough spell points to pay for the spell, the spell points are still spent, but the spell fails. This is called Overcasting. If a mage is reduced to her Unconcious Threshold from an overcasting, she will fall unconcious as per normal. If the mage does not have an Unconcious Threshold but is reduced to 0 spell points by an overcast, she will fall unconcious as if she had reached her Unconcious Threshold.
A spell's cost in spell points is based on its spell level:

1090
* A mage may cast 5 0-level spells each day at 0 spell points per casting. After that, 0-level spells cost 1 spell per casting.


Any spell that deals a number of dice of damage based on caster level (such as magic missile, searing light, or the ubiquitous fireball) deal damage as if cast by a character of the minimum level needed for a mage to cast the spell. Spells whose damage is based on caster level, but don't deal a number of dice of damage based on caster level (such as produce flame or an inflict spell) use the spellcaster's normal level to determine damage. Use the character's normal caster level for all other effects, including range and duration.
For example, a fireball deals a number of dice of damage based on the caster's level, so when it is cast by a mage using this system, it deals 6d6 points of damage, since the minmum level of mage capable of casting fireball is 6th.
A character can pay additional spell points to increse the dice of damage dealt by a spell limited by this system. Every 1 extra spell point spent at the time of casting increases the spell's effective caster level by 1 for the purposes of dealing damage. A character can't increase a damage-dealing spell's caster level above her own caster level this way, nor can she go above the maximum allowed by the spell.
For example, a lightning bolt cast by Erin Blacksteel, who is effectively an 8th level mage, would only deal 6d6 damage. How sad. If Erin spends one additional spell point (bringing the lightning bolt's spell point cost up from 5 for a normal 3rd level spell to 6), her lightning bold would deal 7d6 damage. If she really wanted to lay out the hurt, Erin could throw in yet another spell point (bringing the lightning bolt's spell point cost up to 7, but its damage up to a lovely 8d6). As much as she might love to, though, Erin may not sink another spell point into the lightning bolt, because that would bring the spell's effective caster level up to 9, which is higher than her own effective caster level.
The same would go for spells like magic missile, which gains an extra missile every two levels. Even at her effective mage level of 8, Blacksteel's magic missile spell would only fire off one missile. If she wanted to, though, Erin could spend 2 spell points to buy a second missile with the spell, two more to buy a third, and so on until she got to an effective caster level of 8, where her own skills would prohibit her (or, if she was a more powerful mage, 9th level, since the spell cuts off at 5 missiles). Nifty, eh?


Regaining Spell Points
A mage can recharge spell points in three ways: passive accumulation, active accumulations, and sleeping.

Passive Accumulation
As long as a mage is concious, outside of anti-magic effects, and isn't casting a spell, she will automatically regain spell points each hour equal to her relavent casting ability modifier (either intelegence of charisma, depending on the mage) or her caster level, whichever is lower. Casting a spell, entering an anti-magic effect, or falling unconcious will cause the hour counting to start over after the prohibiting activity has ended.
A mage can never exceed her Recharge Threshold with passive accumulation.

Active Accumulation
A mage may actively accumulate arcane energy to gain spell points. An individual mage's method of active accumulation may differ from that of others- be it meditation, reading a spellbook, or something more exotic. A mage is only moderately aware of her surroundings during active accumulation- treat her as asleep for the purposes of percieving her surroundings more than 5 feet away.
During active accumulation, a mage gains a number of spell points equal to her caster level plus her relevant casting ability modifier per hour of active accumulation. For example, an 8th-level mage who casts off of her 18 intelegence regains 12 spell points each hour she actively accumulates arcane energies.
A mage can never exceed her Recharge Threshold with active accumulation and cannot attempt to actively accumulate arcane energies while within an anti-magic effect.

Sleep
A sleeping mage subconciously absorbs arcane energy at a rapid rate. During each hour of sleep, a mage regains a number of spell points equal to her caster level plus her spellcasting ability modifier, provided she is outside of an anti-magic field.
A mage's refreshed body and mind allows her regain spell points beyond her Recharge Threshold while sleeping, though she cannot gain more spell points than her Maximum Spell Points.

[Takkaryx]

A few points:

I'm assuming that passive recharge is on an hourly basis, as it is not stated in the description.

The point buy for getting better spells is a bit rough. You are almost always going to want to cast fireball at your highest level, so you are almost always going to buy it up. One of the factors that make Fireball a third level spell is that it gets better as you level. If you had to burn a 5th level spell slot just to cast it at your caster level, it would be a much diffent spell. As would all other CLdX spells.

[Doomsmile]

Yes, passive accumulation is on an hourly basis. I will fix this without (significant) delay.

Now, the extra spell points for extra dice of damage is from the original spell point system put forth in Unearthed Arcana, and it's a feature that I like for a couple reasons.
1) It gives you a reason to cast, say, cone of cold (a higher-level spell) instead of a cold-laced fireball for the majority of mages (i.e. ones below 11th level). This is a point made in UA.
2) It encourrages players to try spells other than direct-damage spells once in a while.
3) It does something to restrict the power of the mage, compensating for the jump in power spell points would otherwise give them.

If it turns out that the oposite of this is true (i.e. I have screwed mages with this), then the extra spell points for extra damage thing may well go out the window to compesate.

[Takkaryx]

How does metamagic work into this? More points, I assume, but it's a delecate balence between levels.

[Doomsmile]

Meta-magic is handled just like in a spell-point system. If you cast a basic fireball, it costs 5 spell points, being a 3rd level spell. If you wanted to Empower it (+2 effective spell level) it would cost 11 spell points, since it's now (effectively) a 5th level spell.
Just in case you're wondering, the basic damage on that Empowered fireball would still be 6d6, despite it effectively being a 5th level spell.

Now, the issue that just occured to me with that is that higher level spells cost more under this variant compared to lower level spells than under the normal spell point system, so...