Limitless Casting

Hey all! In doing some tinkering with the math behind 5e and Odyssey last night, I came to a funny discovery.

Odyssey takes the math behind levels 1 to 6 in D&D and stretches it out across 12 levels. The first two levels are the apprentice levels you've seen in the classes, then the remaining levels run from 1st to 10th.

Here's a funny thing I noticed:

• A 3rd level fighter in 5e does this much damage per turn: 6.5 damage for a 1d12 weapon on average, roughly +1 damage for the great weapon fighting technique, +0.5 for the champion extra crits (roughly), +3 for Strength, adding up to roughly 11 damage each attack.

• The math comes out equivalent for a 1d8 weapon, assuming that the character takes the +2 damage fighting technique.

• A 1st level spell is worth roughly 2d10 damage, or 11 damage.

• For magic-users at least, that means they can cast 1st level spells at-will assuming that the spells are properly balanced. At least, that's what the monster math assumes.

However, I believe that if we look at the actual spells they do a lot more damage. Burning hands does 3d6 damage, where the spell guidelines suggest it should do 2d6. Thunderwave does 2d8 damage and pushes targets 10 feet. Of course, fireball infamously does too much damage, too.

All of that makes me consider swapping to a Shadowdark/Dungeon Crawl Classics casting mechanic for magic-users. It would work something like this:

• A magic-user makes a casting check to use a spell, a trained Int check

• 15+, cast the spell without paying any cost

• Otherwise, you have to pay for the spell out of your power pool

• If you cannot, the spell fizzles and you can't try to cast it again until you rest

• Concentration applies to almost all spells with a duration, to prevent stacking up effects endlessly

• Spell damage would be toned down a bit, but I'm already rewriting the 5e spells to make them easier to use.

• Other magic-user spells, like invisibility, remain the same and at the same level.

I haven't playtested this yet, but in running a lot of Shadowdark I liked the casting roll quite a bit.

I haven't tested this in Odyssey yet, but I'm curious to see what people think of this approach. Vote in the poll and sound off in the comments.