I've been working on re-balancing spellcasting classes and the tables have become so complex I thought about revisiting spell points. However, rather than having huge pools which make spellcasting complex and difficult, I had an idea for a variant that makes keeping track of spells easier and encourages spellcasters to use low level spells often, and high level spells rarely. It also greatly helps low level casters be able to keep up with other classes while giving higher level casters a reason not to immediately expend their mightiest spells.

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MANA POOL

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• Instead of spells per day, you use MANA POINTS (MP) to cast spells and spell-like abilities.
• Any "per day uses" granted by traits, racial traits, class features, feats, etc. are lost in exchange for everyone gaining MP.
• Everyone has a caster level equal to their character level for any magical effect they use.
• Once per 2 hours you can take a short rest to regaining MP equal to your level and losing nonlethal damage equal to your level up to your normal maximum.
• Once per day you can take a long rest to refill your entire MP pool and regaining HP equal to your level.

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SPELL REPERTOIRE

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This variant makes all spellcasting similar to spontaneous casting.

Full Spellcaster (cleric, druid, wizard, sorcerer):

• Highest spell level you can cast from your class list is equal to 1/2 class level (rounded up).
• Spells known: You know three spells of every spell level you can cast plus whatever your class features like bloodlines, domains, and mysteries grant you
• Spell Points: triple caster level + spellcasting ability modifier

3/4 Spellcaster (bard):

• Highest spell level you can cast from your class list is 1/2 class level -3  (rounded up). If this value is less than 0, you can't cast spells yet.
• Spells known: You know two spells of every spell level you can cast plus whatever your class features like bloodlines, domains, and mysteries grant you.
• Spell Points: double caster level + spellcasting ability modifier

1/2 Spellcaster (paladin, ranger):

• Highest spell level you can cast from your class list is 1/2 class level -6  (rounded up). If this value is less than 0, you can't cast spells yet.
• Spells known: You know one spell of every spell level you can cast plus whatever your class features like bloodlines, domains, and mysteries grant you.
• Spell Points: caster level + spellcasting ability modifier

Non-caster (barbarian, fighter, monk, rogue):

• You don't gain spells but you gain spell points and use them in place of rounds of rage per day, bardic performance rounds per day, arcane points, ki points, grit points, pinache, etc.
• 1 spell point is worth 1 arcane, ki, grit, pinache, etc.
• 1 spell point is worth 2 rounds of bardic performance, rage, etc.
• Spell Points: caster level + highest mental ability modifier (Int, Wis, Cha)

Prepared Casters: Clerics, druids, paladins, rangers and wizards gain Meditation which allows them to change their spells known once per day by meditating, studying or practicing for 1 hour.

Spontaneous Casters: Bards and sorcerers gain +1 spell point per caster level greater than normal. They can also change spells known with an hour-long ritual but can do this only do this once per time they level up. Leveling up multiple times without performing this ritual does not stack uses.

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MAGIC SPECIALIZATION

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Any spellcaster can specialize in 1 school, subschool, or descriptor of magic. If they specialize in a school, they pick 2 other schools that they can't learn or cast. If they specialize in a subschool or descriptor, they pick 1 school that they can't learn or cast. Specialization gives you Combat Casting and Spell Focus and Spell Specialization for all your specialty spells.

If you specialize more than once, you simply pick more schools to ban but retain the same specialty. Specializing a second time grants you Uncanny Concentration, another metamagic feat, and Greater Spell Focus, Greater Spell Specialization for your specialty spells.

If you specialize a third (and final time) you gain a third metamagic feat and reduce the metamagic level increase to all your specialty spells by 1 as if you had Magical Lineage for all of them.

Example: Jimmy creates a pyromancer called Burninator and wants to specialize in the [fire] descriptor three times! He wants to be a blaster caster so he drops Divination, Illusion, and Necromancy as his banned schools. This gives him Combat Casting, Uncanny Concentration, Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Specialization, Greater Spell Specialization, and Magical Lineage (effectively) for all [fire] spells as soon as he's a high enough level to acquire these feats and traits, but not any other type of spell. At 10th level his fire spells have a DC of 12+SL+Casting mod, deal +3 damage per damage dice (1 from spell specialization, 1 from greater spell specialization, and 1 from bloodline) and he can use Still Spell and Silent Spell with only a level adjustment of +1 to the SL level for doing so. He also intents to make many of his spells Dazing Spells. He is a monster.

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NEW FEATS

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A GM may allow the following feats:


BARBARIAN RAGE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Con 13, Barbarian level 1st.
Benefit: When you use the Rage class feature, you do not expend rage rounds per day for the first X number of rounds with X being your Constitution modifier. If your rage lasts less than this duration, you can essentially use it at will between the time spent recovering from fatigue. You can expend rounds of rage to extend a rage beyond this time limit without having to end it.

EXTRA SPELL POINTS [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Caster level 1st.
Benefit: Choose one spellcasting class which you have at least 1 level in. You gain 3 additional spell points for this class.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Its effects stack.

MASTER CRAFTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Any item creation feat.
Benefit: You have a +4 bonus to Spellcraft checks made to break down magic items into usable component parts. When you succeed in this check, you also gain an amount of XP from the item equal to half the XP that it cost to be created. However, you can only use this XP to craft items and not to level up. This XP is usually set aside and labeled Craft XP, separate from your actual experience pool.
Normal: Destroying a magical item for component parts requires a Spellcraft check, DC 10 + caster level of magic item. Failure by 4 or less merely destroys the item without any GP gain. Failing by 5 or more causes a mishap as if you had failed to activate a wand (usually 1d6 damage per 2 caster levels of item is dealt to you and anyone adjacent to you at the time, Will for half). Success grants you 50% of the items market value in GP worth of components. Success by 5 or more grants you 75% and success by 10 or more grants you 100%. Creating magic items also requires a Spellcraft check DC10 + caster level. Failure by 4 or less merely fails to create the item. Failure by 5 or more loses all the materials and fails to create the item. Success creates the item for the listed GP/XP/time cost.

SOUL CRAFTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Master Crafter, any item creation feat.
Benefit: When you destroy magic items and absorb their Craft XP, you absorb the full amount of XP needed to create the item instead of just half. Also, if you invest double the normal XP and GP cost to create a magic item, you can create it in 1/10th the time (minimum 1 hour). This stacks with the ability to hastily build an item (-10 Spellcraft or Craft check done in half the time) so you could hypothetically do it in 1/20th the time by taking the -10 and investing double GP/XP.

STUDIED SPELLCASTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Caster level 1st.
Benefit: Choose one spellcasting class which you have at least 1 level in. You are treated as knowing all spells on that class's spell list which you are high enough level to learn for the purposes of using magic devices and crafting magic items. You still cannot cast spells you do not actually know without a scroll, wand or other magic device.

WAND SAVANT [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Spellcraft 1 rank, Use Magic Device 1 rank.
Benefit: Choose one spellcasting class. You are treated as knowing a number of spells on that class's spell list as if you were a caster whose level is equal to your ranks in Spellcraft, but only for the purposes of using magic devices and crafting magic items. You still cannot cast spells that you do not actually know without a scroll, wand or other magic device. This means that you can qualify for Item Creation feats with a high enough Spellcraft rank instead of actually needing spellcasting abilities. You do still need to know the appropriate spells.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:37, Fri 18 Nov 2022.

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Mana & Magic

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All creatures have a pool of mana determined by class, level, and Charisma modifier (see mage, rogue, warrior). You must spend mana to activate extraordinary and supernatural abilities. The amount of mana needed is based on the ability's tier.


Resting:
A short rest allows you to recover an amount of expended mana equal to your level while a long rest allows you to recover all of your expended mana.

Augments:
Augment feats (formerly 'metamagic') increases a special ability's tier to add special effects to them. This increases its mana cost based on the new tier. You cannot use abilities with a tier greater than half your level.
     To use an augment feat, you take the Augment action (1 act, Complex) to apply any number of augment feats you have to the next action you take immediately afterwards. If you do not take an action that can be affected by your chosen augments immediately after taking the augment action, then the augmentation fails and the action is wasted. The Quicken Spell feat is an exception as noted in its description.

Heightened:
Some spells provide additional effects when cast at a higher tier than the base tier that they are listed at. You can learn such a spell at a higher tier to create such effects. You can cast a spell at a lower tier than the one you know it as to a minimum tier equal to its base tier listed in its description. However, you can't cast a spell at a higher tier than the one you learned it at unless you have the Specialty Spell feat applied to it.

Rituals:
Rituals are particularly powerful spells that require additional time and resources to cast. All rituals require material components and at least 1 minute to cast. You use the ritual casting duration or effect duration to determine the material component cost, whichever is longer. Very short rituals are 1 minute, short are 10 minutes, medium are 1 hour, long are 8 hours, and very long are 24 hours. Multiply the effects of a normal spell by 1 + ritual tier to determine how much stronger it is than normal spells.

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Death & Massive Damage

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Every creature has Constitution score and Massive Damage Threshold.

• Constructs and undead don't apply Charisma or size bonuses to HP. Instead, they have Constitution scores equal to 10 + 2 per size larger than medium and -2 per size smaller than medium. Characters generate Constitution scores normally.
• Constructs and undead aren't immune to effects that target Fortitude but retain all their other immunities and have a +4 racial bonus to Fortitude saving throws against any effect that tries to apply the Dazed, Nauseated, Paralyzed, Sickened, Staggered, or Stunned conditions to them.
• Massive Damage Threshold (MDT) is equal to your Constitution score + your level. You do not die until your hit point value is equal to or lower than the negative value of your MDT. For example, if you were level 6 with 16 Constitution, you wouldn't die until your HP reached -22.

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Affliction

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Ability damage, ability drain, and level drain are removed from the game and replaced with physical or mental impairment. Each failed save against the effect pushes the target 1 stage further on the impairment track.

Physical Impairment: Stage 1: Fatigued (-2 Str, Con, Dex), Stage 2: Sickened, Stage 3: Exhausted (-4 Str, Con, Dex), Stage 4: Max Dex +1 and -6 check penalty, Stage 5: Staggered & unable to take AoOs, Stage 6: Nauseated & flat-footed even if having uncanny dodge, Stage 7: Stunned, Stage 8: Paralyzed, Stage 9: Unconscious, Stage 10: Dead.

Mental Impairment: Stage 1: Mentally Fatigued (-2 Int, Wis, Cha), Stage 2: Shaken, Stage 3: Mentally Exhausted (-4 Int, Wis, Cha), Stage 4: Confused except will not attack unless another hostile creature is present, Stage 5: Staggered & unable to take AoOs, Stage 6: Nauseated & flat-footed even if having uncanny dodge, Stage 7: Stunned, Stage 8: Paralyzed, Stage 9: Unconscious, Stage 10: Dead.

If the effect normally dealt ability damage or drain, the target also takes penalty to all

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Damage Adjustment

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D&D 3e/3.5e and Pathfinder RPG are known for having a lot of 'broken' or 'power-gamed' damage.


Multipliers
Everything in the game that multiplies damage (including crits) is replaced by "+1 damage per damage die" for each point in a multiplier above 1. For example, a greataxe normally deals x3 damage on crit but instead it would simply deal maximum damage on a hit, +1 damage per damage dice.

Damage dice
Regardless of the weapon, feature, feat, trait, or spell used, no effect can deal more damage dice than 5 + 1/2 level. This is the maximum number of damage dice you deal no matter what.

Environmental damage (like falling damage, damage from lava immersion, etc.) half the number of dice but add +5 per damage dice. So maximum velocity deals 10d6+50 instead of 20d6.

The exception is Sneak Attack which is now a Standard action rather than part of an attack.

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Special Abilities

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There are many types of special abilities that can emulate spell effects.

Extraordinary Talents:
An extraordinary talent has a tier that's 1 tier higher than normal for the spell effect, as they don't utilize magic, but rather incredible skill and/or technology. They also may have less components needed than spells, further increasing their tier.

Innate Spells:
An innate spell (or "spell-like ability") has a tier that's 1 tier higher than normal for the spell effect, as it requires only 2 components instead of 3.

Prepared Spells:
A prepared spell has a tier that's 1 tier lower than normal for the spell effect, as they require 4 components instead of 3.

Spontaneous Spells:
A spontaneous spell is the standard for determining spell tiers. Whatever its spell level was in another d20 edition, that's its spell tier in Trailblazer unless noted otherwise by having more or less than 3 components in which case you adjust the components accordingly.

Supernatural Powers:
A supernatural power has a tier that's 2 tiers higher than normal for the spell effect, as it requires only 1 component instead of 3.

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Spell Components

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All powers require components to be cast. Supernatural powers require 1, innate spells require 2, spontaneous spells require 3, and prepared spells require 4. Unless exclusively noted otherwise, assume prepared spells require Somatic, Concentration, Verbal, and Material components, spontaneous spells require Concentration, Somatic, and Verbal components, innate spells require Concentration and Somatic components, and supernatural powers require only Concentration. Extraordinary abilities require either concentration, linguistic, or somatic components depending on what they do.

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Using Magic

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Most spells require 2 actions to cast, but some may be 3 actions, 1 action, or even a reaction. Spells that require more than 3 actions to cast are called "rituals" and often have much longer durations and/or much wider areas of effect as a result of requiring so much time to set up.

Analyzing Magic:
You make Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion checks to craft, recognize, repair, or utilize rituals, spells, and magic items. The DC to do so for common spells or common magic items is 10 + creator's level + spell tier. Uncommon spells increase the DC by 5 while rare spells increase the DC by 10. Trying to craft, repair, or utilize a magic item without knowing the spell or the components also increases the DC by 5.
     Which spells are common, uncommon, or rare is determined by the setting. By default, all spells that do not have a 2 action casting time are uncommon and all spells with any of the following types are rare: calling, creation, teleport, summoning. This includes all effects that create or manipulate extradimensional spaces.

Concentration
If an effect deals damage to you exceeding your Massive Damage Threshold (MDT) or afflicts you with any of the following conditions while casting or concentrating, your concentration is broken: blinded, staggered, stunned, petrified, unconscious. The deafened and silenced conditions also break your concentration if your action has the verbal component.

Difficulty Class
Unless noted otherwise, the DC to resist an effect is 10 + attack bonus of the creator that they used to make the initial attack with it. This does not include any bonuses they have to attack rolls but does include bonuses they have to DCs. Spells now apply caster level instead of spell level to determine their DCs.

Learning Magic
When you take a feat that allows you to learn spells, you have to research or meditate on each one. Common spells require 1 hour/tier, uncommon spells require 1 day/tier, and rare spells require 1 week per tier. You make an appropriate skill check (Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion) at the end of this research to identify the spell, learning it or adding it to your spellbook upon a success. Failure means you don't gain the spell and simply need to start over.

Spell Attacks
Most spells that target an unwilling creature or object requires you to make a spell attack against the target's defense DC. A spell attack is a normal attack roll applying your level and spellcasting ability modifier to the attack roll. If the spell is a class spell, you also apply your +3 class bonus. Each spell lists a defense that your attack roll must hit to be effective. Some spells have two defenses that apply, requiring you to hit the higher of the two.

Saving Throws
Saving throws are only rolled against ongoing effects, triggered traps, and triggered AoO DCs. Essentially, if it's your turn, you do the rolling.

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Converting to Trailblazer

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When converting a spell or ability from another edition, remember that:

• Spell "level" has been changed to "tier" to differentiate it from character level.
• Trailblazer spells use "double the spell's tier" instead of "caster level" to determine range, duration, damage, etc.
• Trailblazer spells calculate damage, healing, etc. based on "double the spell's tier" instead of "caster level".
• Trailblazer spells calculate spell DCs based on "double the spell's tier" instead of spell level.
• Trailblazer spells involve attack rolls for initial effects rather than having targets roll saving throws. Saving throws against spell DCs are only made for ongoing effects.
• Trailblazer spells that grant you base speeds grant you only 20 ft. + 5ft/spell tier and no more. If they increase your existing speed, they cannot do so more than 5ft/spell tier.
• Assume modifiers created by divination spells are competence modifiers, modifiers created by transmutation, disease, poison, and necromancy spells are innate modifiers, modifiers created by any other spell are item modifiers. Exceptions are "shield" bonuses which are now circumstance bonuses.

If an ability doesn't emulate a spell and doesn't grow with class level, use "half class level" as its tier. If it DOES grow with level, use whichever level you are at the time. Increase this by 2 if it is from a prestige class. Note "grow with level" does not include additional uses per day as its now mana-based.



Some classes allow you to improve existing class features, improving their spell level to equal half the level prerequisite (if any) or increasing its spell level by 1 (whichever is a greater increase).

If it is a supernatural power that requires arcane points, grit, ki points, panache, or similar points to activate, then its effective spell level is equal to twice the number of points it costs or the normal calculations listed above, whichever is greater.

For example, a Paladin's Lay on Hands ability is acquired at 2nd level but continues to increase its healing amount and grant special mercy boosts as they progress, so its effective spell level would always be half the Paladin's class level (rounded down, minimum 0). A monk can normally increase their base speed by a flat amount as a swift action by spending 1 ki point. This system eliminates ki points in place of the spell pool and since this effect is attained at earliest, 4th level, and never improves, it would be effectively a 2nd-level spell. If the monk could somehow improve it by taking another ki power or feat, this would increase it's effective spell level by either 1 or increase it to to half the minimum class level at which they could attain that improvement (whichever would increase it more).
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:53, Sat 19 Nov 2022.