#hey you you're finally awake

[seieifsetsuna]

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

In English, we say, "Hello."

In TES, we say, "Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."

[dev-solovey]

Wake up, new queer horror novella just dropped 👉 check it out here if you're cool and sexy

[hunter-sylvester]

This is fucking dumb

[caterjunes]

[dicesmasher]

Stop using spell slots! Alternative mana system for 5e

Lately I’ve been really getting into the idea of The Elder Scrolls as a TTRPG - taking my players through the lands of Skyrim and beyond in that rich, iconic setting. Thankfully, a 5e mod for this has already been made, called ‘Delvebound’ or ‘Unofficial Elder Scrolls TRPG (UESTRPG)’. I will provide a link in this post. Now, I ultimately decided not to use all of the mod, as it has a lot of design decisions I really disagree with. All I took for my own game were the races (which I modified to suit my own design philosophy) and the magicka system, which replaces spell slots. This is what I want to focus on in this post.

The magicka system is simple. Instead of spell slots, your spellcaster has a pool of magic points (MP) similar to their HP. This is drained when they cast spells of 1st level or higher, and different spell levels cost varying amounts of MP, as explained in the chart here: 'https://wiki.uestrpg.com/wiki/Spellcasting_Rules'. Just like in Elder Scrolls games, and most other video games that include spellcasting. It’s smooth, simple and elegant, and flexible. Using this system, you can cast additional lower-level spells if you wanted to, or forgo some of your lower-level spells to cast additional higher-level spells. You won’t get stuck with a handful of 2nd-level spell slots you don’t know what to do with.

It’s also an easy 1-1 conversion from base 5e. Your MP pool is determined by adding up the MP value of all the spell slots you would have under the base 5e framework, so in theory you could cast as if you were using spell slots, and nothing would change. Within the same game, some players could opt to keep using spell slots while others use MP, and nobody would have more or less magic than the others. However, the spell-slot users would still miss out on the flexibility of MP, and through MP there are additional opportunities I would prefer all my players to be able to take advantage of.

But before I proceed, I know what you may be thinking. Without some additional rules, this system would be horribly overpowered at later levels. A level 17 wizard starts his day with 107 MP. A level 9 spell costs 13 MP. Thus, I could cast Meteor Swarm 8 times in a day if I wanted to, and while I would forgo my ability to cast many other spells, I might not need to! However, the designers of Delvebound did account for this, with one more simple rule: You cannot cast a spell of level 6 or higher more than once per day in that slot. This lines up well with base 5e, as higher level characters only have 1 slot for levels 6-9 anyway, until you’re level 20 giving you one more 6th level spell slot. This does mean a level 20 character using MP is technically worse off this way, missing out on an extra 6th level slot, but you could easily just say ‘okay you can cast a 6th level spell twice per day now’. Or do yourself a favour and don’t play at level 20.

So what are these extra opportunities? Drawing from The Elder Scrolls, potions of magicka! Be wise with these, as the limit on spells cast per day is the main balancing factor for spellcasters who already are known to outstrip their martial colleagues, but on occasion, giving out a nice blue potion which restores a small amount of MP would be a really cool consumable magic item for your spellcasters. You could even roll for the MP restored, like a healing potion, say 2d4+2 which already restores juice for at least two 1st-level spells. At lower levels, depending on how often you give them out, they should be stingier than this (say, 1d4+1). You could also put a limit on how many potions a character can drink in a day without getting sick, especially if they are easily craftable or bought from shops.

Another opportunity I saw in MP was using this more simple and flexible system to handle interrupted long rests. If a long rest is interrupted by rude bandits or ghouls, should you get all your spell slots back anyway, or none of them? I believe RAW it’s none of them, but this seems too punishing especially if a character has already used up all their slots. A nice halfway solution is to restore half your spell slots, but how exactly? Well, I could use a somewhat complicated system where you break all your spell slots down into 1st level slots, add them all up, restore half of that pool, and allocate which slots you get back based on that budget (makes sense in my head but difficult to explain). Or, just get half your total MP back. Easy!

Using an MP system is also a godsend for DMs trying to use enemy spellcasters. Instead of keeping track of a monster’s spell slots (which most of us understandably don’t do anyway), we can keep track of the monster’s MP instead, in the same way as we normally keep track of its HP.

The main caveat of this system is that it’s not intuitive how much MP each spell level costs, so DMs and spellcasting players will need to keep the chart handy until they know the MP costs by heart. It also introduces additional mental maths that have to be done, with mistakes more easily leading to players using more or less MP than they’re supposed to. This is why there is no shame in making a calculator one of your tools at the table! Indeed, rather than making the game harder, I think the MP system might make it EASIER for new players to pick up spellcasters. The spell slot system isn’t the most intuitive thing in the world, especially when the word ‘level��� has distinct meanings between spells, slots, class levels and character levels, which don’t always align with one another. Newcomers coming from video games will find this especially easy, as most gamers already know what mana bars are, the same as health bars.

The second caveat is… this is all theory. I haven’t actually playtested this system very much as my Elder Scrolls campaign has only just started. The cleric and wizard of the party haven’t yet had an opportunity to cast many spells. I don’t foresee any major problems with using this system especially at low levels, but I’ll make another post if I do find them.

P.S. Warlocks!!! Their spell slots work differently to other classes as they always cast at the highest possible level and regenerate on a short rest. Using the MP framework doesn’t actually change anything here, as for balance reasons you should spend MP as if for your highest spell level even when casting a lower-level spell that can’t be upcast. For this reason, I recommend warlock players continue to use pact magic slots instead of warlock MP, and for multiclassers to track their MP and pact magic slots separately. If you’re going to use magicka potions in a game with warlocks, you should also think of a balanced way warlocks can use them, but that’s beyond the scope of this already too-long post.

[prince-kittens]

[my-screenshot-dump]

[mxtchbyx]

"Hey you. You're finally awake"

[totallyambiguoussnail]

[cutelittleexo]

I keep forgetting to promo stuff in at least one place. Today it's tumblr. ANYWAYS, new video out, go check it out!

[kind-of-an-author]

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

Lokir, in the cart heading to Helgen: I don’t want this to sound pessimistic, but I’m absolutely certain we’re all gonna die!

Ralof, deadpan: No, I think that’s a totally objective assessment of the situation.

[rosetta222]

Adventures in Arizona (1/8)

Part of a series I'm doing to practice rendering -> (2/8)

[jaye-of-the-glen]

Rise and shine, Mister Freeman. Rise and… shine. Not that I… wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No one is more deserving of a rest… and all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until… well, let’s just say your hour has… come again.

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So, wake up, Mister Freeman. Wake up and… smell the ashes…

Pal, I think you've got the wrong number. Maybe you're looking for @the-oneshot-crowbar ?

[bigjstrashcan]

Skyrim tries so hard to push you to becoming a Stormcloak that I'm surprised that they even give you a choice lmao. You damn near have to completely ignore the game's (OVER NINE MINUTE) intro to justify joining the Empire from a role-playing perspective.