Hot answers tagged spellcasting
26
The SRD is very much on your side as a Fighter/Bard if you're wearing light armour:
Bards can wear light armor without incurring any arcane spell failure chance for their bard spells.
And with heavier armour it's got your back too – it's explicit that you only suffer an Arcane Spell Failure chance with spells that have somatic components:
If the ...
24
No, not generally. Spellcasting in D&D or Pathfinder is a routine process -- you select the spell, and then cast it. The character is presumed to be so proficient at this process that there is no chance of failure under normal circumstances.
However, there are some special cases where there is a random chance of failure. Two of them require the ...
23
Races of Stone page 133 has an expanded use of Sleight of Hand to hide spellcasting chants and gestures.
Complete Scoundrel page 85 has the Conceal Spellcasting skill trick. That costs 2 skill points, and requires Concentration 1, Sleight of Hand 5, and Spellcraft 1.
Cityscape has Deceptive Spell on page 60, and Invisible Spell on page 61. These are ...
20
The Eidetic Spellcaster ACF (Dragon vol. 357 pg. 89) replaces a Wizard’s familiar and Scribe Scroll with the ability to memorize and prepare spells without a spellbook. This works, as I recall, exactly like doing things with a spellbook, the spellbook is just in your head.
Otherwise it’s Spell Mastery, or things like the Archmage’s ...
18
You can extrapolate from these spell area diagrams and the rules for determining the exact radius in squares.
Regardless of the shape of the area, you select the point where the spell originates, but otherwise you don't control which creatures or objects the spell affects. The point of origin of a spell is always a grid intersection. When determining ...
17
Have you considered solving the underlying problem, which is your spellbook's vulnerability? You're an Illusionist; you ought to be able to conceal your prized spellbook using your character's strengths. Likewise, wizards can make a copy of their spellbook. That copy can be stored in a safe location. The spells Secret Page and Secret Chest seem to be ...
15
If you have high Conviction and low Discipline, you're a lot like Harry Dresden! I've been running a DFRPG campaign for several months now, we've completed one "novel" and we're in our second. So, I consider myself a pretty decent authority on this fairly young game.
Here are some tips:
You don't HAVE to gather as much power as your Conviction, you just ...
14
Considering page 186 of Complete Arcane, there are a number of solutions here.
First, there is no such thing as a singular spellbook. A competent wizard will have at least 3 copies. The gold/time cost is insignificant against the risk and can be mitigated through various means:
The original master
Almost always a book, this is kept in a secure location. ...
13
No.
It specifically mentions that warlock eldritch blasts and invocations are subject to arcane spell failure because unlike most spell-like abilities they have somatic and/or verbal components, albeit simple ones that can be cast while wearing light armor (or medium with Battle Caster feat).
So in that situation, no they couldn't. And since spell-like ...
13
I’m not going to give a list of examples because list questions are off-topic here, and because I don’t have a list handy. Instead, I’m going to talk about the problems with Epic Spells.
Also, caveat, I have not really spent a lot of time with Epic Spellcasting; I saw the problems that they had, and wrote them (and all of the Epic Level ...
13
First, make sure your DM understands this is a houserule.
Show him the actual rules regarding this situation in the Player’s Handbook. @DuckTapeal has quoted the relevant section from the System Reference Document, which is official and accurate, but for maximum effectiveness go back to the book.
In addition to that line in the Magic section, the ...
12
No, and wizards don't either.
Wizards learn all cantrips available to them automatically, but they are restricted by their prepared spell slots per day in cantrips as with every other level of spell. This slots-per-day limit is true of all other casters (spontaneous or prepared-type) with access to 0-level spells of any sort; the advantage wizards get is ...
12
Up to 3.5 and Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons allows you to use mundane abilities whenever you like.
Magic is limited, both in being hard to channel but by time. It takes minutes to cast even the simplest spell. Spell preparation is similar to winding the elastic in a toy plane. You can hold the propeller for a while until you decide to let it go. In a ...
12
The rules are quite clear about bards casting spells without somatic components.
The question becomes, what's your next course of action? Since showing him the book and the SRD are insufficient, I doubt pointing him at rpg.stackexchange.com is really going to change his mind. Do you want him to explain exactly what rules changes he is making so that your ...
11
I would say that the stress continues either until the end of he scene or until such a time as the character can rest for a little time.
So, in your example, if after casting the last spell, a monkey demon were to burst in and combat start then the stress would remain. If on the other hand, the character made a cup of coffee and relaxed for a little while ...
11
As usual, the SRD knows all.
What you see are two steps of a single process:
First the wizard must interpret and understand the spellbook/scroll. This is a Spellcraft check, and takes eight hours.
Once understood, the wizard writes the spell into his spellbook. This process takes 24 hours.
The total time to copy a spell from another wizard's spellbook ...
11
From the SRD's section on Arcane Spells:
Rest
To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The wizard does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but she must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If her rest ...
11
On p42 and pp95-96 of the 3e DMG there are rules and guidelines for creating new spells. The rules in a nutshell:
Access to a library, just as if the character were researching to learn a spell.
1,000gp expenditure per week
1 week per spell level
Spellcraft check of 10 + level of spell means the character was successful.
The text notes that creating ...
11
Depriving a spell of its components via a combination of feats such as Silent Spell, Still Spell and/or Eschew Materials makes it a purely mental (and undetectable) action.
Bards also have the opportunity to weave a spell in their performance (and make its spellcasting unnoticed) via the Disguise Spell feat.
10
No, under optimal circumstances there is not a check. However there are a long list of situations that involve a check:
Strong Wind
Situations where you can speak but cannot hear yourself
In grapple
While being stabbed
etc
Note that while the spell may succeed under normal circumstances, spells that negatively affect other creatures may well fail or ...
10
One of the worst aspects of D&D 3.5/PF is the idea that something cool you want to try isn't possible without some feat or skill trick or something. Don't buy into that.
I would simply allow a spellcaster to make a Bluff/Stealth/Sleight of Hand vs. Perception/Sense Motive/Spellcraft (hey he just did something sneaky/hey he's acting weird/hey that's a ...
10
Sorcerers vs. Wizards without Spell Points
The thing with Sorcerers is, their Spells Known table looks a lot like the Wizard’s Spells per Day table, level-by-level. That means that for all the Wizard has to prepare his day in advance, the Sorcerer has to plan his life in advance. The Sorcerer does not have a versatility bonus. The Wizard is massively ...
9
"Your colour spray lights up the crypt for a moment. You've caught the undead horror cleanly in its fan… but it continues to advance as if the spray of blinding light didn't exist."
Players are there to experience a world and events, with their characters in the middle of it, solving problems by their wits and kicking tail with their characters' abilities. ...
9
From Shadowrun FAQ:
Do you need to maintain line of sight (or touch, with Touch range
spells) to sustain a spell? What about Permanent spells?
A spell requires a magical link (touch, sight, material link, symbolic
link, etc.) to cast. There is, however, no requirement for the
magician to maintain touch or line-of-sight while maintaining the
...
9
I have not played with this variant before, but I still see two advantages that sorcerors have over wizards with this variant rule (besides the 7% more spell points).
Wizards must still prepare their spells according to their allotted spell slots per day. Though this variant rule allows wizards to ignore preparing a particular spell in more than one spell ...
9
First, you ask
is this considered fair enough?
My answer: No, it isn't. Sorcerers are behind Wizards on the power curve as it is, this variant rule as it is presented in Unearthed Arcana increases the difference.
Then, you ask
How can this be fixed?
My answer: Not easily. Any attempt (I can think of) to make the Wizard more point-based is going ...
9
Here's a link to an article which answers your question pretty accurately.
Q: Where such a system came from?
A: Jack Vance. The system first appears in a book "Dying Earth".
Q: Why Vancian magic for DND?
A: Because Gary Gygax loved it.
It is not necessary - it is just a design choice made early on and not changed thereafter.
As for Gary ...
9
You either handwave them away or you require them to be gathered on the wizard's initiative and you roleplay it out.
Lots of groups opt for the former. It means you don't have to track every live spider or think about how they're stored and carried. The disadvantage is that you lose a huge aspect of the original power balance between wizards and other ...
9
Elemental body places no restriction on spellcasting
Nowhere in the elemental body spell is any limitation on spellcasting offered. It simply says you take the forms of the various elementals.
Elementals are capable of casting spells
Unlike animals, elementals can talk, tend to be roughly humanoid in appearance, and thus can perform gestures and ...
8
Quicken Spell Rod - It's expensive, but it will give you what you want 3x per day: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Metamagic_Rod
So that will help you get your spells off.
Alternatively if you have something you cast every combat you might consider getting it enchanted into a continuous magic item (which is also expensive), but then you don't have to cast ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
