Dungeons & Delvers: Wizards & Spell Upgrades

In Dungeons & Delvers, anyone can attempt to learn any wizard spell. You just need to study it for a few days or so and pass an Arcana check. Failure simply means you have to wait until you add another point to Arcana, or find someone that knows it to explain it to you, after which you can try again (so, easy adventure fodder).

But, learning a spell isn't the same as mastering it.

Casting a learned spell requires that you have the book, scroll, or page with the spell on it in front of you. It can also take longer and burn through more Willpower: the casting time is based on the Drain amount minus your Arcana, so if you've only got Arcana at +1, even 1d4 Drain spells might take two or more rounds to cast. But, if you don't have at least one of that spell's prerequisites, you automatically suffer maximum Drain.

So, a 1d4 Drain spell takes 4 rounds, while a 1d6 Drain spell takes six. This assumes you don't do anything to further enhance a spell, in which case the casting time could easily reach into taking minutes to pull off. Oh, and if you don't have Willpower at all, then that Drain is going right into your Vitality and Wound Points.

So, some spells might not be very useful during combat, but maybe beforehand. For example, a rogue could drop a Sleep spell on some monsters, or even a Fireball, and everyone could benefit from being able to cast Teleport. It's an option that doesn't cost you anything to try.

Mastering a spell--ie, using a wizard talent to choose it--drops the casting time to a Standard Action (or whatever the normal casting time is for it), and lets you roll Drain normally. Also, since you have to be a wizard to take wizard talents, you get that Willpower buffer, and can boost the spell in various ways since a lot of it is limited by wizard level.

With all that explained, here's the new setup for wizards:

Spells will be moved to their own section. No need for a [Spell] tag (or an [Enhancement] one). Wizard talents will include a lot of the stuff from the General category (ie, Force of Will, Swords & Wizardry, etc), along with Spell Mastery.

Spell Mastery lets you pick a spell that you have learned and flag it as mastered. You can take it multiple times, picking a new spell each time. This means that wizards won't just be able to snag a brand new spell when they level up and have it automatically: you're going to need to have a spell already learned, but you can always save your talent slot to master a spell later.

Also, a lot of spells are getting axed as individual spells/talents. Essentially the [Enhancement] talents that build on another spell/talent, like Clinging Mist, Corrosive Mist, and Stinking Mist, all of which require Obscuring Mist and let you modify it.

The logic behind many of these was that your wizard had to start with the basics. So you'd pick a school like Evoker, which meant your wizard knew the fundamentals of Evocation magic. From there you could pick up, say, Burning Hands, which in turn led to Scorching Ray, then Fireball, and then Delayed Blast Fireball, Flaming Sphere, and ultimately Wall of Fire.

I think this still largely makes sense, but in adding Attack and Defense bonuses to every class, I wanted to pare down on individual talents. The idea is that, outside of the "capstone" levels of 5, 10, 15, and 20, you just record WP and VP (using a Hit Die roll), your Attack and Defense bonus (if any), and then pick one thing. The only odd thing out right now is the rogue and ranger, which both still get Bonus Skills here and there.

Spells will still be grouped up into schools to make them easier to find, but you won't need a school talent to start taking them. Instead this will be for the 5th-, 10th-, 15th-, and 20th-level masteries, where you can focus/specialize on a school of magic.

The axed talents won't be going away entirely, but be folded into others, either as things you can do by suffering additional Drain, or learned as a Spell Upgrade, which you learn by spending skill points or undergoing research, similar to how you can research new spells.

For example, you take Shield. Currently Shield has two talents that build on it, Floating Shield and Hardened Shield. In the new system, these would simply be Upgrades that build on Shield.

This means wizards will no longer need so many talents, but also have something to do during downtime and to spend money on. This also further differentiates them from bards, warlocks, and sorcerers, who cannot simply research new spells and ways to use their magic.

Wizards can also opt to create special arcane focuses that grant access to new spells, or unlock upgrades while they are being used. For example, a staff could enable you to use Chain Lightning, but only if you have Lightning Bolt. They could of course also modify spells in other ways, such as by increasing the range or damage automatically.