Talk:True Dweomers

tbh, I would love to get rid of the notion of minimum level for all of mana burning. If you've got the slots, and the will to make things explode, go for it. Since your level will always affect how many instances of the circle (or strata) damage you get, who cares if a level 10 character mana burns a fireball up to circle 17? They'll pay for that later, both by running out of spells quickly and because the surviving monsters will definitely see them as the biggest threat. My only hesitation on this is that we could be re-creating the 15 minute workday if the wizard/sorc just blows all their spells in the very first encounter each day and then whines until the party takes a full night's rest every time. (As a GM, I would punish the crap out of players who did this, but still...)

nah, let's leave TD's and sells different. i like that they're different, and putting training wheels on the burn rate of mid-level casters seems like good game design to me. :)  

System and Structure

True Dweomer Damage Model

Spell Strata	Burn Cost	Min Level	Base Dice	max dice	range	avg	perfected
1	+3	19th	1d6+6/CL	35d6+210	245-420	332.5	840
2	+3	21st	1d6+8/CL	35d6+280	315-490	402.5	940
3	+3	23rd	1d6+9/CL	35d6+315	350-525	437.5	1050
4	+3	25th	1d6+10/CL	35d6+350	385-560	472.5	1120
5	+3	27th	1d6+11/CL	35d6+385	420-595	507.5	1190
6	+3	29th	1d6+13/CL	35d6+455	490-665	577.5	1330
7	+3	31st	1d6+15/CL	35d6+525	560-735	647.5	1470
8	+3	33rd	1d6+16/CL	35d6+560	595-770	682.5	1540
9	+3	35+	1d6+17/CL	35d6+595	630-805	717.5	1610

True Dweomers are affected by metamagic feats, but note that many of the more potent feats have such a large level adjustment, they cannot be fit onto the higher level true dweomers without use of a magic wand or spell research.

• range

true Dweomers can use any range

• area of effect

true dweomers with AOE's tend to be LARGE, up to thousands of feet, miles, even leagues. note that metamagic can make even that larger.

• saves

true dweomers follow the basic rule 'no auto effects', but may impose severe save penalties in exchange for smaller range and/or area of effect, to the extreme of the example below "Corrupt Dweomers"

Current status

• True Dweomers - data compilation complete
• OGL info updated
• System scope and balance spreadsheet at about 70 percent complete (134 TD's placed so far)
• for balance pass, need to take into account the true-dweomer damage capacities of clerics, mages, druids, bard, paladins, rangers, etc. ergo, need to develop a bare-bones 'early implementation' of TD's
• have to take a feat to get a TD
• optionally, all TD's can be cast as rituals, requiring time as defined by the GM, but usually at LEAST a full minute, usually an hour or more. If cast this way, AOE's are multiplied by 10 in all dimensions, multi-target spells affect ten times as many, all ranges increase by 100 percent (double). saves and damage are the same.
• standard cast time is a full round action
• make skill roll below to cast as a standard, can be quickened if you want
• feats make skill roll easier/redundant

Example:

Bailiwick Skill Check:

• Roll is optional; if you succeed on an impossible check, you can cast the TD as a standard action, otherwise, always castable as a full round action. However, if you roll an Easy result or lower (or a 1), it counts as an auto-miss/auto-save. With 3rd and 5th feat, this risk mostly goes away, and it's just a question of whether you can get the impossible result or not.
• If you choose not to roll, or you get any result other than impossible or failure, TD takes a full-round action to cast.

Thus:

• Impossible DC (52) - standard action to cast
• Hard DC (47) - full round action to cast
• Challenging DC (43) - full round action to cast
• Average DC (38) - full round action to cast
• Easy DC or lower (33) - full round action, auto-miss/auto-save (half damage or whatever partial it does on a miss/save)