Vance vs The World: Using Spell Points in D&Dby Matthieu Pierce
In the gaming world, D&D is pretty much the last bastion of its magic system: spell preparation and memorization prior to casting, otherwise known as the Vancian magic system. The rest of the civilized world has moved on to newer and slicker systems, the most popular of these being the spell point system. In short, the amount of spells you can cast before recovering is limited to a pool of spell points, which are expended to different degrees depending on the power and efficacy of the spells being cast. From Diablo to Aberrant, spell/power points are the way to go. (It’s my opinion that the power point system is one of the primary appeals of psionics in D&D.)
The closest that we have to an official version of a D&D spell point system is the variant spellcasting system presented in
Unearthed Arcana (pgs 153-157). I decided to take a dive into that system (more of a belly flop, really) and see how a character of heroic attributes stacked up to his counterpart with the standard,
Player’s Handbook Vancian system.
Even though I’m not much of an optimizer, the system claims that its flexibility makes casters more powerful overall. Using average daily damage dealt as a rough guide for combat might, I’ve presented the comparative damage dealt by wizards with varied commitments to direct damage-dealing and “utility” spells in the hopes that this analysis will have an application to everyone, twinks and in-depth roleplayers alike.
Test Character: level 9 specialist (evocation) wizard, Int 20. Such a character would have:
Spells Per Day:0: 6 +1
1: 6 +1
2: 5 +1
3: 4 +1
4: 3 +1
5: 2 +1
----OR----
Total Spell Points: 82 The Unearthed Arcana Spell Point System, Bite-Sized:Spellcasters gain spell points daily in amounts related to their class, level, and pertinent ability modifiers. Preparation spellcasters prepare a list of spells as usual, from which they can cast any of those spells at the point costs listed below. Spontaneous casters can cast any known spells.
All spells behave normally, with one major exception: Spells that deal level-dependant damage default to dealing damage as the minimum caster level necessary to cast the spell (ex. 5d6 for a fireball). Casters may spend 1 point per effective damage-dealing level (ex. 8 total points for an 8d6 fireball). Other level dependant effects such as range and save DC act as normal.
Unearthed Arcana presents two options for using metamagic: 1) increase the spells’ level and cost as normal (still have to pay extra for damage spells) or 2) Each metamagic feat may be applied to spells 3 time/day at no extra spell point cost (still limited by max level rules, though). I highy recommend the first option.
Spell Point Costs:0st: free, 3 +1st level class spell points/day
1st: 1
2nd: 3
3rd: 5
4th: 7
5th: 9
1) Damage Summary—PH Vancian system (1 utility spell/level, “Frothing pyro”
:
1st: 6 magic missiles: 30d4 +30 damage
2nd: 5 scorching rays: 40d6 damage
3rd: 4 fireballs: 36d6 damage
4th: 3 ice storms: 15d6 damage
5th: 2 cones of cold: 18d6 damage
TOTAL: 109d6 +30d4 +30 damage = 486 avg damage
2) Damage Summary—PH Vancian system (2 utility spells /level, “war mage”
1st: 5
magic missiles: 25d4 +25 damage
2nd: 4
scorching rays: 32d6 damage
3rd: 3
fireballs: 27d6 damage
4th: 2
ice storms: 10d6 damage
5th: 1
cone of cold: 9d6 damage
TOTAL: 78d6 + 25d4 +25 damage = 360 avg. damage
3) Damage Summary—PH Vancian System (a “utility wizard's” damaging spells)
1st: 4
magic missiles: 20d4 +20 damage (+
expeditious retreat +
feather fall +
grease)
2nd: 3
scorching rays: 24d6 (+
glitterdust +
blur +
shatter)
3rd: 2
fireballs: 18d6 (+
arcane sight +
dispel magic +fly[/i])
4th: 1
ice storm: 5d6 (+
lesser geas +
Evards’s black tentacles +
shout)
5th:
1 cone of cold: 9d6 (+
baleful polymorph +
shout)
TOTAL: 56d6 +20d4 +20 damage = 266 avg. damage
4) Damage Summary—Unearthed Arcana Point System (simply the maximum amount of damage)
Available spell points: 82
1st: 1
magic missile: 1d4 +1 1 spell point
5th: 9
cones of cold: 81d6 damage 81 spell points
TOTAL: 81d6 +1d4 +1 damage = 294 avg. damage
5) Unearthed Arcana Point System Point cost estimation of a PHB “utility wizard’s” spell selection (same spell selection as #3)
0: Max 5/day, no cost
1st: (
expeditious retreat +
feather fall +
grease) 3 pts (2
freezing hands) 10 pts (2
magic missiles) 18 pts— 31 spell points
2nd: (3
scorching rays) 21 pts (
glitterdust + blur[/i] +
shatter) 9 pts— 30 spell points
3rd: (
fireball +
lightning bolt) 18 pts (
arcane sight +
fly +
dispel magic) 15 pts—33 spell points
4th: (
ice storm +
lesser geas +
Evard’s black tentacles +
shout)-- 28 points
5th: (
cone of cold +
baleful polymorph +
teleport)—27 points
TOTAL: 149 spell points
Note: For the spell point summaries, assume that all damage-dealing spells were spent as level 9 spells (and thus costing more than usual).
Note II: Because the option of "utility" spell use is built into the spell point system, there's no need to tally up alternate spell summaries.
Summary: With the
Unearthed Arcana spell point system, wizards lose 45% [82 points/149 needed for
PH-equivalent spell capacity] of their total spell capacity in exchange for a 10% [266/294] increase in average potential daily damage (when compared to a “utility wizard” spell preparation selection).
Conclusions: The
Unearthed Arcana spell point system is roughly worthwhile for spellcasters who currently invest at least 50% of their spell slots in non-damaging spells and consume roughly 55% or less of their resources each day. The improved efficiency of spell points and the arguable value of scalable damage are relatively valueless for the purpose of damage-value calculation in the face of these calculations.
The selling point for a damage-interested character is the potential increase in the quality of damage (delivery method and energy type) being applied, such as rays in singular-foe situations or ranged burst spells in multiple-foe situations. Of course, the value of this versatility is directly proportional to the amount of variety in combat situations presented to the character. Each player will have to consider the diversity of combat presented by their DM and make his own judgment.
The second dealbreaker is the drastic reduction in overall spell capacity. If a character regularly expends more than 60% of his/her spells in a day, this variant puts the character at a significant disadvantage.
Clearly, the Unearthed Arcana spell point system, as it currently stands, is a pretty terrible idea for mages who invest a great majority of their spell slots in damage-dealing spells or for mages who regularly exhaust their daily resources, as they’re far more likely to run out of spells.
Thoughts and Suggested Changes:On the roleplaying front, the spell point system offered by Unearthed Arcana is a great idea for most campaigns. Most people, I think, would concede that the Vancian system is goofy and counterintuitive to the modern fantasy roleplayer’s sensibilities. Alternatively, abstracting spell capacity in the same way that 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons vaguely quantifies hit points seems more natural, and fun to boot—it encourages wizards to prepare an eclectic variety of spells and perhaps even apply them in imaginative game situations. As for players who would use the system to chuck even more fireballs—first, my estimations above hopefully prove this to be an un-twinkworthy endeavor, and secondly, it’s not like they’ll get any less interesting.
On the player optimization front, the spell point system is a gamble for utility mages (at best) and akin to invading Russia in winter for straight-up battle mages (at worst). The most irksome issue is the drastic reduction in overall spell capacity. As a current player in a rough-and-tumble campaign that leaves most party members either crawling home or taking dirt naps on a regular basis, there’s no way that any of our casters would consider downsizing their spell capacity for a bit more flex.
As this is, after all, a variant, I’d like to offer some possible changes to make this tantalizing variant as mechanically tasty as it initially looks. The biggest problem is the overall spell capacity, and can be solved by a simple increase in daily spell points, allowing for roughly one or two more spells per day.
THE BIG FIX: Add 30% to the number of spell points per day (round down to the nearest point) to your class’s base spell points per day. This may seem like a lot, but because it’s a 30% increase prior to ability bonus modifications and because it’s fighting against an overall 45% spell capacity reduction just for choosing spell points over Vance, it works out just fine. Characters using the spell point system will still have fewer spells than their Player’s Handbook counterparts, but at least now the flexibility and fun provided by this variant is worthwhile.
If everything goes well, these modified spell pointers will mix and balance well with standard Vancian casters. Give spell points in D&D a shot. You won’t want to go back. It’s like trading in that tired old horse and buggy for a BMW.
Enjoy,
Matthieu Pierce
