Spellburn houserule idea

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Nevets
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Spellburn houserule idea

Post by Nevets »

Our group started playing DCC recently and we have come up with a house rule for spellburn that we like. I was hoping some of the more experienced players and judges here might critique it before we start using it.

I read the previous thread about spellburn and decided to make a new one as a fresh start instead of posting in that one. I'd like this to just be a discussion on spellburn houserules. If you have your own houserule please post it, or suggest changes to the one we came up with. If you use the rules as written please say so. As long as your group is having fun you aren't playing the game 'wrong', so please post about your own experience.

Core Idea: Make spellburn more unreliable

Implementation: Wizards can spellburn up to their CL in ability points like normal each time they cast a spell. Beyond that, they must roll dice to determine their additional spellburn.
Before rolling their spellcheck, the wizard must declare how much and from which ability scores they are burning points, up to their CL. Additionally, they may also assign any number of d4's to each physical ability score. Roll the d4's and add the results to any normal spellburn declared for each ability score*, then roll the spellcheck as normal.

*If the wizard burns one or more ability scores down to exactly 0 their spell still goes off (assuming the spellcheck succeeded) but they lose control of it as they pass out or fall limply to the ground. The judge determines what unfortunate consequence this has. Examples would include targeting the spell at the caster's feet, invoking a patron and granting it whatever it wants without asking anything in return, casting the reverse of the spell intended, or any appropriate result off the spell's misfire chart.

*If the wizard burns one or more ability scores down below 0 they are consumed by the overload of mystic power coursing through their battered shell of a body and reduced to ash. The judge may add in an explosion, beams of pure light, pit to the underworld, etc. for dramatic (or practical) effect.


Example: Elmin, a level 1 wizard, wishes to cast patron bond. He has 7 Str, 11 Agi, 9 Sta. He can burn 1 point 'safely' plus any number of 'risky' d4's, so he choose to burn 1d4+1 Str, 3d4 Agi, and 2d4 Sta. He has a 3 / 64 chance (4.7%) of rolling 11 for his Agi burn which will bring him to 0 and result in unforseen consequences, and 1 / 64 change (1.6%) of rolling 12 which will kill him. The other rolls pose no danger beyond the normal debilitating effects of having low ability scores. Elmin rolls 3+1, 9, and 3, burning a total of 16 points and leaving him with 3 Str, 2 Agi, and 6 Sta.

Intended Consequences: Cautious players will spellburn fewer points (on average) to avoid the possibility of overburning and killing themselves. For example a player may normally wish to burn 7 points from their 11 Strength, leaving them with 4. On average they would require 3d4 (average roll of 7.5) to get this result with dice, but now may choose to only roll 2d4 (average result of 5) to ensure they don't roll a total of 11 or 12. Risky players will occasionally overburn and lose characters.

As wizards level up they will be able to walk closer to the edge 'safely'. A 1st level wizard could burn 2d4+1 out of 10 without risk of failure or death, but a 5th level wizard could burn 1d4+5 instead which has higher minimum (6 vs. 3) and average (7.5 vs. 6) results. This is additionally important as a higher level wizards is likely to have permanently lost physical ability points due to natural 1 spell checks with spellburn or other injurys and bleedout during their career so burning more precisely is necessary.

Downtime spellcasting now poses a choice to players: A safe path that will allow them to cast spells with a lower average spellburn that is unlikely but still possible to max out the result of the spell check; or a dangerous path that is much more likely to hit the maximum but could result in the character's death.

Possible Tweaks: These are ideas that I think might work, but shift the odds quite a bit or add significant complexity to the house rule.
  • Wizards can burn 2x their CL normally: This would have little effect on low level characters, but higher level characters would be able to spellburn much more consistently and with less risk of overburning. Level 10 wizards would be able to burn like the vanilla rules.
  • Use a different die: Magic items, special circumstances, patron or divine intervention, etc. allow using a d3 (for boons) or a d5 (for penalties) instead of a d4.
  • Alignment based spellburn: Lawful wizards can spellburn an additional 3 points normally. Neutral wizards can re-roll any 1 spellburn d4. Chaotic wizards roll d6's instead of d4's, but on any rolls of 6 the wizard instead gains 1 point of spellburn without taking any ability damage and then re-rolls the d6.
  • Extra 'push' dice: After rolling for spellburn, a wizards can roll additional spellburn dice, one at a time. Each 'push' die rolled is +1d from the previous one, starting with a d5.
  • Lose control with 0, 1, or 2 points left: Instead of falling unconscious, etc. at 0 points of ability score remaining, any score reduced below 3 results in the wizard losing control. The judge may determine that some control is retained on a 1 or 2 and allow the player some influence on the final result.
  • Burning luck for rerolls: Wizards can burn a point of luck to re-roll one of the d4's. With this tweak wizards will rarely die from overburning, but will probably die to some other unpredictable event in due course.
  • No deadly overburn: Wizards who burn an ability score below 0 don't die, instead the spell fails and they lose 1 point of that ability score permanently. This also means the negative ability score is now 1 lower, and the wizard is incapacitated until the ability score is healed back above 0 which may take several days.
  • Shared spellburn: If any wizard overburns as part of a circle of mages attempting to cast a ritual spell, as long as they are not the primary caster the spell doesn't fail. Instead any ability damage that would reduce their score below 1 is instead passed to another wizard in the circle or otherwise shared among them (judge's discretion).
  • Spellcheck and spellburn rolls at the same time: Combined with one of tweaks above, this will let wizards decide to add spellburn dice or burn luck for re-rolls not only to avoid overburn but also to try and hit a certain spell check result. This tempts players to take some risk, but also allows a wizard with a poor spellcheck result to give up before he spellburns more points in vain.
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Raven_Crowking
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Re: Spellburn houserule idea

Post by Raven_Crowking »

Neat idea.
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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