Leave it to da playaz

In the new campaign, we're mixing a buttload of rules options and what have you together into one melting pot D&D thing. It's been done before, people do it all the time. Campaign's not ready to go yet, so we're just running some stand alone adventures to test various things and see how they work together. We're starting out with gestalt characters, action points, armor as damage conversion, and a couple of other things. John's running a human fighter/scout. I asked Nick to play an Aranea, cause I want to see how unbalanced it is as a class option in a gestalt setting (my guess is crazy unbalanced, even without the sorceror ability and limited HD restraints I put on it). His secondary class is spellthief (from Complete Arcane). Pretty interesting couple of characters, and I'm really glad we'll be using the armor conversion rules. Don't really think they'd live otherwise, hehe.

Trouble is, the spellthief is gonna give me some work. One of the things I've mentioned doing away with is the Vancian style magic (spellcasters have spell lists or spell books and can prepare or cast a certain number of those spells per day, based on level and one of the intellectual attributes).

I'm heavily considering using the spell system from Elements of Magic, in which casters have a certain number of mana points, and use those points to craft spells on the fly, selecting an action and element, then modifying the variables (say Charm and Plant, then modifying the area to affect the entire front yard, causing the grass to reach lovingly for the sun late in the year, rather than storing most of its energy in its roots to prepare for the impending winter. or of course, Create and Fire, then modifying the area and energy output to create an explosive fireball in the midst of the onrushing orcs). I like the style because you can tailor the casters options to fit a certain flavor (air shugenja can't manipulate Earth, but get a reduction in the cost of air spells, for example), but you really get one set of rules to work with. Not only that, but it fits the style of casting I'd like with this campaign. Casters should have something that normal people don't, or possibly that all people do but casters have specifically learned how to manipulate it. Regardless, there's no schools for it, etc. I'm digressing a bit. Regardless, doing away with spell, spell lists, and a constant number of casting options really affects the spellthief.

The most obvious solution is to just not test the two together, especially since the spellthief itself doesn't fit the campaign. It's such an easy solution that I'm rolling with that one for awhile, at least until I come up with something else, or the need arises. It's no big deal since we're likely just playing pre-published adventures for now. The real challenge, and the part that I'm looking forward to the most, is figuring out a way to run the Elements of Magic (and all of the other magic variants I'm considering) through the mixer without the player's being aware of it at all, except for a bit of foncusion (dyselexia intentional) when they get nailed with an acid arrow from someone that merely twitched a smile. It could be a silenced, quickened, stilled spell. Or I could be testing rules from the unofficial Harry Potter RPG. Or I could have just developed an entirely new feat and skill based casting system and that particular opponent has maxed out his Sleight of Hand skill, allowing him to hide his somatic gestures completely. Hmmm.