Unearthed Arcania is one of those supplements that I found later in my gaming career that I wish I had found much earlier. For completeness, I also would have liked Rhyme of the Ancient Spelljammer and Temporum Sphaera. (I currently have all three now.) Sometime ago, I also found a netbook called Wizard's Netbook that provides all kinds of spellcaster variation. I could list a lot more of them, but if you remember them at all, you probably have all the same ones I have.
As an aside, do any of you have the Spell Markup Language? Fun to read...
Anyway, there's something about the wealth of the house rules that inspire all kinds of creative possibilities. I plan on adapting a well playtested spell point variant to the OSR Project. Spell points available would be properly notated like this:
and add 1 to the result.
The spell level limitation will be per the Microlite 20 Core Rules - Spells can be cast with a spell level equal or below 1/2 a spellcaster's level, rounded up. The cost to cast a spell will be 2* spell level. Cantrips will cost 1 point. Owing to my OSR ways, all of this information will be presented in a chart that looks something like this:
Level | Spell Points | Max Spell Level |
1 | 2 | 1 |
2 | 4 | 1 |
3 | 7 | 2 |
4 | 11 | 2 |
5 | 16 | 3 |
6 | 22 | 3 |
7 | 29 | 4 |
8 | 37 | 4 |
9 | 46 | 5 |
10 | 56 | 5 |
11 | 67 | 6 |
12 | 79 | 6 |
13 | 92 | 7 |
14 | 106 | 7 |
15 | 121 | 8 |
16 | 137 | 8 |
17 | 154 | 9 |
18 | 172 | 9 |
19 | 191 | 9 |
20 | 211 | 9 |
For those that wonder, this makes them weaker than standard spellcasters - the effect is that noticeable until around 10th level or so. As a result, the XP required to advance to the next level is approx 10% less than a standard spellcaster. Debate now swings around Meditation in lieu of sleep. Basically, 3 hrs meditation = 8 hours sleep.
More later.