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Spell slots! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-07-30 17:09:15
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Poll

Spell slots!

  • Via a perk @ lvl 5 36
  • Via soul modification using self-made rituals 154
  • Not at all 20
  • Too soon, let’s wait a while for power creep to catch up with him. 38
  • 2022-07-30
  • 248 votes
{'title': 'Spell slots!', 'choices': [{'text': 'Via a perk @ lvl 5', 'votes': 36}, {'text': 'Via soul modification using self-made rituals', 'votes': 154}, {'text': 'Not at all', 'votes': 20}, {'text': 'Too soon, let’s wait a while for power creep to catch up with him.', 'votes': 38}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2022, 7, 30, 17, 5, 23, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 248}

Content

So I’ve been tinkering with the idea of giving Perry limited spell slots, a la D&D. How do you think they should come about and how do you feel about them?

Comments

Pastor Joubert

you could have the soul bound spells cost or require stability per spell on a semi-exponential cost curve.

Dark Mage

Spell cards via deckbuilding mechanics?

Pastor Joubert

it would make spell slots an emergent property of perrys tinkering with his soul, since his father didnt design a system for spells. also allows for advancement in technique that gives more “slots”

0xFFF1

I thought self-made rituals were supposed to be about Perry being able to source cheaper spell components due to being able to source it from Earth.

Dark Mage

So few litrpgs with deckbuilding. And the few I've found have been dropped at some point

Macronomicon

It’s mainly about stashing some emergency spells that people can’t take away if they remove his armor and war-paint

Carl Mason

I like the soul ritual option, it would likely limit him in the beginning but as he becomes stronger (body and soul), as well as more competent with the ritual, he could expand his slotting. Eventually he could simply have all spells he knows slotted at all times. I mean, maybe the first one is torture to make And use, a truly last option type thing, but he becomes used to it and it can be made and used more easily, then maybe a class perk that makes it easy but only the one and he has to literally fight for each new slot, start over on the process and his perk just recognizes effort expended and grants him a new slot. It would slow power creep while still enabling it, and he works for every ounce of ability he earns.

Carl Mason

The few I have found were truly awful, though there is so much potential.

Gaunt

I think you should looks less at spell slots and more at how warlocks casted out of d&d 3.5. I feel that would be a better flow for the story as a whole, having more limited ability but free reign for casting. It also is a bit to early to add yet another tool in the tool box.

Carl Mason

But is it too early to start building a new tool?

Crownfall

I think the main thing spell slots would add is a source of tension as he runs out of resources in fights but most of the fights in your stories are puzzle fights where the characters apply their powers in interesting ways to solve them. If you did add spell slots you could add a limit on how many attempts the mc gets to find the "solution" to win the fight but I feel like that would wear off for tension after a few fights. Since your characters are all about being prepared I wonder if there is a more interesting limitation like only being able to apply ritual spell slots of one type at a time so that he has to prepare. Ex only conjuration or only summoning and whatever else dnd classes there are. Another thing that makes those work as a game system are cantrips though

Thomas

It’s too early for spell slots. Perry can cast spells with a machine that creates a temporary inscription on his soul instead of his body. The spells on his soul could wear of based on his stability. Perry hasn’t gotten to the point of needing a power up that spell slots would be, yet.

Gerald Monroe

It could be both. He modifies his soul and his System offers the chance to "stabilize" the new slot and systematize it. And a quest of course. So the quest reward gives him 1 slot but but he can pay for perks to get more.

Macronomicon

Yeah, I'm thinking he starts now and takes baby steps for 30-50 chapters. Really earn that payoff.

Throngler In Chief

I'd say you could use the spell slots to resolve a few things. Make them a power sink for attunement's exponential stat point output to generate stability and create an interface between the mimic spirit and the system. Would stabilize the power gains into a steep but non-cataclysmic level of growth without sacrificing utility. Maybe have the first attempt at storing a ritual in his soul trigger an overload of XP due to the massive impact on his future and massive chance of failure (his soul is already kind of overstuffed and bruised, what with having a battle royale between tinker tech screwing with causality and the most powerful magical spirit known taking place in there). The massive influx of power could recalibrate the system to add the slots and integrate the mimic spirit. Could also maybe have a "class evolution" to eat the XP and reduce level gain to one or two levels. Maybe have his class change to "Magitech Tinker" or something similar ("Hippy Bullshit Tinker" is what I'd suggest as the initial name) that gives some new stuff but doesn't remove any of his current abilities or gains. Maybe one that lets him "build" spells with self-generated magical essences? But slowly and internally, like magical circuitry inside his soul. Most of the essence he personally generates with the mimic spirit would be tied to the spell structure and attunement bonuses. If he screws up, it's a painful discharge at best. Blend of wizard and sorcerer, but with both of their downsides (few slots, hard to swap spells, limited uses per day, preparation required, etc). If you go this route or something similar, it'd probably need to wait a bit due to power creep. Or have it accompanied by severe growing pains. Especially because Perry could game the system a bit by building the control interface for his magitech into an internal spell-circuit.

SunderGoldmane

A single spell slot sounds good as an opener. Can do a combination of tier of spell/number of charges. I like the idea of him also having to do some external hookup. In dnd lore for certain classes there is supposed to be a kind of rest period when a character changes there spells around and it’s implied that the character is doing some kind of manual memorization in the case of a wizard or shifting there soul around like naturey Druid casters or communing with their patron. I also like the idea of this being a limited growth thing. Like maybe at level 5 is when his soul is big enough (and durable enough) to actually write on. So he’s got enough room for a single charge of a tier 1 ritual. Level six let’s him at two tier one rituals or two charges of one, level 7 gets three separate tier 1s or 3 charges split between one or two tier 1s. I think a threefold progress for the spell space would be rational, need to hold three of the previous levels in order to bring in the next tier. Having the progression be locked in will prevent him from summoning god level shit with his single spell slot right away as well.

SunderGoldmane

An interface between the mimic spirit and the system sounds redundant. The system is already an interface between Perry and the mimic.

SunderGoldmane

Maybe treat the stability stat as a “solid” or “hardness” rating for the surface area of his soul. Ya know how some arpgs have you cap your mana to keep running passive spells in the background or like how in dnd you can prep and hold a spell before firing. While he’s got the spell on his soul it’s lowering the cap on his stability, it will heal after it’s used or “unloaded” from his soul but while it’s waiting there it’s taking up resources. This makes an ongoing cost benefit analysis on whether it’s worth having that particular spell on standby. Spell components can be dragged out of the mimic…? You could also make it cost a ratio of attunement cap as well, since stability is a comedy resource while attunement is actual progression resource, narratively speaking. He relies on attunement for all of his manufacturing and his other spell discs, having that as the counter cost to say, a simple one time use fireball puts the novelty of having a spell on standby into stark contrast.

Pastor Joubert

Agree’d, but stability isn’t a comedy stat. Its all fun and games until you start chasing phantoms, eating paste and turning civilians into paste. Its literally the framework holding him together as a person without it Perry is as crazy as the greed demon he summoned… or worse. Perry is catching a glimpse of the eldritch and hes loosing his grip on reality for it. Sure he could live, and maybe thrive with a collapsed soul, but he wont be human and he sure as heck wont be “Perry”.

0xFFF1

Unlike in other stories, I think it would be passable in Perry's case. Right now he can't do magic directly AT ALL. A normal mage does not have to deal with spell slot crap. If Perry is subjected to it, it's because the solution he came up with is the first working iteration of an extremely hacky bodge, Perry will only be able to cast something like a Magic Missile once per day, and the spell itself is extremely limited with its casting parameters, maybe only a couple of variables. As he polishes his bodge and as he gets more soul capacity to attach his 'Spell Slots' to from increasing his Stability, his spellcasting will become more and more powerful until finally he can get normal spellcasting working and he can drop the spell slot concept entirely.

Travis Watkins

It seems reasonable that any given neuron can only 'remember' a small set of processes before it starts confusing and combining them in the wrong way, as such, he can have spell cartridges, each one with the neuron and the mechanics needed to perform the ritual. As he needs to harvest neurons for each cartridge, and he can only fit so many into his suit at a time, he already has some fairly easy to control limits on how many spells he can have available at a time(each casting uses some raw materials, so a cartridge may need to be recharged after a certain number of uses) Not exactly spell-slots, but something that makes a lot more sense for this story.

ReaderRose

I like this, but also think it would be funny if something went wrong in the process and his grandmother stepped in to help stabilize things but add in a passive to increase his attractiveness or his own fertility so she can insure getting those great grandchildren 😆

c. beck harbinson

um what would happen if he upgrades his spell disk to contain symbiotic spirits meaning no more expensive materials for repeated casts and with enough of them he could cast quite a few spells like a mage and with a mental like aka a technophathy ritual allowing mind machine interface he could cast them just like a normal mage for the most part this would allow some pretty interesting builds and magical machines much more effectively then he has now

c. beck harbinson

another idea is a something of a spatial storage object(you cant deny that a magical world is bound to have a few of these) that he can carry around with him permanently bound to his soul or body with a ritual think pocket dimension or demiplane and maybe some souls augmentation to make the link immaterial this could allow him to store quite a lot of tech and equipment with him and maybe even allow him to have a large set of object that can let him cast spells that cant be taken away from him after all you would have to mess with space to get access to them of which only he would have access to it so pretty safe for him this would also mean it would grow with his own status and capabilities

reji

The whole story thing was about casting through bribed by fish octopus's sub-brain cells. MC can not have his own spells, not at all. One exception - through some convoluted matter with high attunement with the Tide(thanks for Diplomacy.exe), but even then it's eh