Sycarion Diversions

While going through and rebuilding the spells with the spell building system, I ran across a big problem. Many of the spells were computing to second level spells, but were considerably weaker than spells listed in the PHB or even in the d20srd.

I couldn’t figure it out until I realized my mistake.

I played D&D with 10 second rounds. I wrote Andras for 1 minute rounds. When I started using the spell building system, values for minutes were an order of magnitude higher than values for rounds.

I tried to rewrite the table as I hadn’t changed much from d6 Fantasy at that time. Yet, the more I tried, the less it worked. I say that, but I think I got close only to realize that I had accidentally built something a little too close to EABA’s master table of values.

One minute rounds just don’t work for the spell system. The cost is pretty high for a spell that lasts more than a couple one-minute rounds. So, I decided to abstract the whole thing.

In one round, you can move half your move rate and attack. Kick over a table, jump on top of it and swing off the chandelier? Ok, you can do that in one round. Cast a spell? sure. Cast two spells with a casting time of 1? No. Move ten feet and cast a spell with a 6 casting time? Ok. Negotiate with the gelatinous cube? Unless you have a Speak with Goop spell already in effect, it won’t do you much good, but sure, you can talk at it.

(I’ve actually had someone try to reason with a gelatinous cube. It didn’t end well for neither negotiator nor cube.)

Point is, if you look at the spell building table, you find a round is 10 seconds. However, in the player’s guide, that won’t be mentioned.

If I can rebuild the table I will, but until then, this is what I got.

Hopefully, I’ll be back with more content on the weekend. I also hope to have some news about the OSR Co-op