The Spell Point system

[greowhiste]

Does anyone out there use the Spell Point system, specifically from Unearthed Arcana (book by Andy Collins/jesse Decker/David Noonan/Rich Redman page 153) ?

I do, and it is a very fine system I believe. However, I'm having a hard time really adapting it well into FGII and I don't know a whole lot about changing rulesets and page layout in order to get something manageable. Is there anyone out there with suggestions or who can help?

Thanks. (If you need more info on this style of casting I would be happy to post a summary of how it works — there may be other systems out there similar enough to this that I could bend to my ruleset...if anyone knows of any).

[Ram Tyr]

d20 Spell Points System (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/spellPoints.htm)

Unfortunately, I cannot be more helpful than to provide that link for a description of the system.

Later.

[JMOxx75]

I am adding on to the d20 rules mod the Element of Magic which uses the spell point system. I don't know how to modify the character sheet yet, I'll worry about that when I get there. Right now all I am doing is using the templates (xml) in the client.xml inside the module to add new classes, prestige classes, skills and feats. Its really all right there for you to follow how they do it.

Just go into your module folder (in user files) and copy the rules mod to somewhere else so you still have the original. Then change it to a zip file by renaming it with the .zip file extension. Extract it and you will get 3 files: client.xml, definition.xml and a picture. The client file is the one that you need to change/add/modify. In this regard its a lot like FGI.

[greowhiste]

thanks JMOxx75. However, i'm not really concerned about having a written class feature explained in a module form i suppose. Mostly becaue my group is pretty tight, we know each other, and we all know the spell points rules.

So really, the thing i'm after is altering the character sheet so that it is more conducive to this method of casting spells and using spell points.

One idea i had was to give a character an extra "class" and call it "Spell Points" so that in the spells tab of the char sheet, a new set would open. In that set you could set it up so that every level has 10 spells, give each level a blank spell (so that there is somewhere to use the little tick circles), and then every time a character uses a spell, he would tick the amount of spell points it costs in the "Spell Point" class spell list in casting mode.

This seems really cumbersome though. It's hard to to envision I know. If anyone has any other ideas or knows more about how to alter the character sheets so that it might be easier that would be appreciated.

ALSO, here is what I was doing with FGI, which I could be happy with as well:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=38749#post38749

[greowhiste]

soo. No one has ideas?

Another option I thought of was just using a ranged weapon in the weapons section of the combat tab as "Spell Points" so that you could assign how many you have and tick them off as you use them. I still don't like this idea.

[Griogre]

I guess I don't really see what you need. You just want a spell point counter? Something you could count down like a wand charge counter? If so, I would just either use a special ability counter or an inventory counter. Either would give you access to a counter via a mini sheet.

[The High Druid]

If you're just looking for something to count down spell-points you can use the special abilities list. You can drag either a dice or a number next to a special ability and open a mini-sheet for them. So if you have an ability called "Spell points" you could set the value and use the the minis sheet to count them down. Dunno if that entirely covers what you're after though.

[Kilahm]

I am also using the spell point system as laid out in Unearthed Arcana (as well as the d20srd.org site), and I have the same problem as you, but I may be able to clarify it a little better, and give my take on a possible solution.

In my vision, there would be a number control next to the spell level title (the text that you can click to expand/collapse the spellbook for that level) that would count the number of spells from that level that have been cast so far today.

Instead of the current number controls at the top of the page to keep track of number of spells per day allowed, there would only be one number control and one number display. the control would set the maximum number of spell points the caster can use each day, and the other one would display how many spell points the character has left for the day.

The reason I would want this is that the standard character sheet doesn't have many misc. notes sections, so the information for many conditional modifiers have to go in the notes tab, making it hard to find/remember information that's important in only a few cases. Putting spell point information anywhere but on the spell sheet tab would be a pain, as well as always making sure the arithmetic of the players is correct.

My plan was to make these modifications, but I haven't had much success in making any modifications at all (I'm still stuck on trying to have modules appear in a custom ruleset).

[greowhiste]

Kilahm, thanks for replying, good to know there is another spell point user out there.

The crazy thing is, that if your character has 32 spell points total, then technically they could cast 32 1st level spells. Having a system where circles appear available for spells you COULD cast doesn't seem the best idea, graphically. (all those circles would be a pain

You're totally right that there isn't a "miscellaneous" section available. With FG1, I used that misc section under the save DC line to denote how much each level spell cost in points (not that they wouldn't remember the simple progression, but it's always nice).

I don't know what the solution is. I would have to work it out graphically (i'm a graphic designer after all). However, i don't really want to go through this if i can't really build the page, since i don't know xml. It would be nice i suppose if there was some sort of button for each spell level. When you push the button, you've cast a spell, and that level's spell point cost would deduct from the Spell Points Used Today field. Then there would just be a field that had your Spell Point Maximum that would go up when you level up in casting classes. Then the preparation mode for memorizing/praying for spells could pretty much just be the same.

don't know how to do it though.

[Kilahm]

greowhiste, that's pretty much what I was thinking, except instead of a button there would be a number control that the player would increment every time they cast a spell of that level.

I finally figured out how to include the standard modules in a custom ruleset, so as soon as I figure out how to make new number controls, the rest should go fairly smoothly. Since I'm a pysics PhD student, I don't have much time to work on this project, but I'll post what I come up with as soon as I can (seeing as how none of the other people better at making rulesets seems interested in this idea).

[Griogre]

Maybe it is inelegant, but I don't understand why you don’t add the following entries to the spellbook: Total Spellpoints, Current SP and next to the Spell DCs - SP Cost (assuming the same level spells are the same SP cost). Every time the player casts a spell he just drag and drops the SP Cost for the spell into the Current SP box. Basically I'm suggesting make it work similar to the way HPs do.

[Kilahm]

So I stayed up way to late last night and completed much of this project. I posted it in a different forum:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=42022#post42022