Old School D&D with Fifth Edition (Part 2)

Part 1

I thought some more about what I want a game of D&D to be like, particularly if I run a game in Calidar. Having four classes available to players feels like old school D&D games, that’s why I decided to use the fifth edition Basic Rules. Now I’m thinking of going a bit further with some additional rules tweaks.

Wizards

Wizards will be evokers if we use the basic rules. I wanted to have a system similar to Wonder & Wickedness. In my version, any spell that deals damage as part of its effect will not deal damage. That makes a lot of spells less useful, if not completely useless. Evokers will be able to use an action to convert a spell slot into raw magical damage. At character creation the player will decide what form this takes, in terms of the sensory effects, as well as the game mechanics of it. They might want their magic to affect an area, or a single target. It can deal damage of one type, like lightning, fire, or force. They can make an attack roll or give the target a saving throw. If there is a saving throw then the type is set at character creation also. This action requires verbal and somatic gestures, and an arcane focus. For now I think that this action will deal two dice of damage per spell level, and what kind of dice the wizard uses will depend on the choices he made for range and area of effect.

I’m thinking that instead of using the damage dealing cantrips from the rules, a wizard will always be able to deal one die of damage with their raw magic ability, without using a spell slot. In keeping with the style of fifth edition D&D I would let a player know if they have hit the target (or the target has failed their saving throw) before deciding to spend a spell slot.

Clerics

Clerics will have the life domain. Their spells will also deal no damage, but they will be able to augment their healing spells. Whenever a cleric casts a healing spell, they can spend another spell slot to increase the healing power of the cast spell by two dice per level of the augmenting slot.

Clerics will always be able to use their action to heal 1d6 hit points by touch, without using any spell slots.

Both types of spellcaster will be able to prepare spells that have useful effects, rather than a mix of damage and utility spells. Clerics will have their damage output lowered, but be able to heal in much bigger bursts per action. Hopefully these changes will give me the vibe I’m looking for. I’ll try to get this tested out on Roll20.net and see how it goes.