Now, I can't speak for how it affects other spellcasters, as I've not playtested with them. The sorcerer still ends up casting booming blade a lot at the end of the day once his points run out. In short, it makes spellcasters more powerful by nature of greater flexibility and more access to upcasting, but the amount of resources they have to expend remains roughly the same. The flexibility of magic does make more sense than the spell slots in a narrative sense, now that true Vancian casting (you prepare each instance of each spell) has gone by the wayside. The sorcerers are able to act with impunity, casting their powerful spells more often and worrying less about upcasting, while simultaneously getting much more use out of their metamagic.īut do I think it's imbalanced? No, not really. It has made them far more flexible in their casting. So they don't convert between slots and points at all, but use the single pool. I have used it before, in a somewhat unique way-only sorcerers use it, and it combines with their sorcery points. In addition, Sorcerers may feel like you're giving out one of their class features to everyone (because you are). The variant is technically unbalanced before level 19 simply because you get something (flexibility) for free. That is, they are strictly better than spell slots - because you can use them to exactly replicate the spell slots of a non-variant caster at any level, but have added flexibility.Īt levels 19 and 20, the only meaningful restrictions come into play - while a standard caster would have two 6th or 7th level spell slots per day, the spell point caster can still only create one of each per day.įrom a balance standpoint, spell points treads on the toes of a Sorcerer's Flexible Spellcasting feature (meant to allow Sorcerers to trade down or trade up spell slots).Īs well the spell point variant is better than the Sorcerer feature - a sorcerer can convert 1 first level and 2 second level slots into 5 points to use as a third level spell, but the spell point variant has 5 points by forgoing only 1 first and 1 second level slot. Up until level 19, spell points are a power positive change. How does using the spell point variant rule affect balance for spellcasting classes?
If anyone is super great at balance-math I would be interested in mechanical answers as well.
I would be interested in hearing examples of issues that came up when using this system as well as overall feel of the balance of this system compared to traditional spell-slots. My question is for anyone that has used this variant system, either as a player or DM. I plan to playtest it as a player before using it for a campaign and wanted to find out if there are issue I should be aware of. I am considering using this system in the near future. You can’t reduce your spell point total to less than 0, and you regain all spent spell points when you finish a long rest. You expend a number of spell points to create a spell slot of a given level, and then use that slot to cast a spell. Instead of gaining a number of spell slots to cast your spells from the Spellcasting feature, you gain a pool of spell points instead. Cantrips don't require slots and therefore don't require spell points. The Spell Point Cost table summarizes the cost in spell points of slots from 1st to 9th level. In this variant, each spell has a point cost based on its level. Below are the best summary paragraphs of the system: On page 288-289 of the DMG, there is a "Variant: Spell Points" rule.